FRAMINGHAM - A little-known group of security researchers will kick off a month of bug disclosures starting tomorrow that target unpatched vulnerabilities in software from Abode, Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple and others.

But the researcher who launched the month-long bug festival practice four years ago isn’t optimistic that reviving the practice would have an impact.

The “Month Of Abysssec Undisclosed Bugs” (MOAUB) will feature flaws in Microsoft’s Excel and Internet Explorer, the Linux-based cPanel Web hosting control panel, and other software, said Abysssec Security Research in a post to the firm’s blog earlier this month.

“They’re threatening — at least, the companies affected will see it as a threat — to release vulnerabilities on all kinds of software, from desktop applications to browsers,” said Jamz Yaneza, threat research manager at Trend Micro, today.

Microsoft , which figured prominently in the MOAUB announcement, said it’s aware of the group’s plan. “As always, if and when a vulnerability is publicly disclosed, Microsoft will take immediate action to determine the appropriate response for our customers,” said Jerry Bryant, group manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).

Yaneza said he had not heard of Abysssec before this.

According to the group’s Web site, it is made up of four researchers — none of whom were identified by a full name — that specialize in penetration testing, exploit development and application security review. Abysssec’s Web site was registered in 2008, but the WHOIS record is hidden behind a privacy wall.

However, LinkedIn listed Shahin Ramezany, of Albany, N.Y, as a researcher with Abysssec. The group did not reply to an e-mailed request for an interview.

“Starting on the 1st of September, we will release a collection of [zero-days], Web application vulnerabilities, and detailed binary analysis (and [proof-of-concepts]) for recently released advisories by vendors such as Microsoft, Mozilla, Sun, Apple, Adobe, HP [and] Novel [sic],” the foursome said.

Yaneza said users should pay attention to the MOAUB disclosures, but he didn’t seem worried about the threat.

“It’s all going to be low-hanging fruit,” he said, referring to the term that describes easily-found vulnerabilities. “We’ve seen vulnerabilities on these [programs]. I’m not too much concerned. If users patch as usual and keep their automatic patching turned on, they should be fine.”

Bug-of-the-month collections were popular several years ago, but the practice has been little used since 2007. In July 2006, HD Moore, now the chief security officer of Rapid7, used a “Month of Browser Bugs” event to showcase vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), Firefox, Safari and Opera.

Moore’s month-long bug event was quickly followed by others, including “Month of Kernel Bugs” in November 2006, and a “Month of Apple Bugs” in January 2007.

Yaneza called Abysssec’s upcoming bug month a “publicity stunt” designed to attract attention to the group.

Moore agreed.

“Sure, they are publicity stunts, but that’s not the point,” he said today. “Projects like Month of Brower Bugs, and the kernel and Apple ones, they get vendors to patch lots of vulnerabilities, dozens and dozens, and focus security research on a necessary area.”

But he wasn’t sure MOAUB would do that. “Other projects focused on one general area, like browsers or Apple,” Moore said. “But this seems like it’s just a bunch of vulnerabilities. I don’t know if this will have the same impact.”

Microsoft’s Bryant also took Abysssec to task. “Disclosing vulnerabilities publicly only puts customers at risk,” he said in an e-mail, repeating a long-time stance by the company.

Abysssec will post its findings on the Exploit Database Web site throughout September.

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By Michael Ansaldo
PC World (US)
August 31, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - The bidding war for 3Par ramped up this week when HP raised its offer to $30 per share, a $3 increase over Dell’s bid, bringing the bidding to $2 billion. Dell had launched the opening salvo in mid-August when it had offered just over $1 billion to buy 3Par. As of this writing, 3Par had deemed HP’s bid “superior” and Dell was mulling over its response.

The unlikely battle of these PC behemoths over a small Fremont, CA data-storage company emphasizes the storage market’s continuing shift toward enterprise cloud computing. Thanks to the recession, more corporate clients are embracing the kind of affordable virtualized storage that companies like 3Par provide.

The fight for 3Par is undoubtedly fueled by the fact that Both Dell and HP have seen their “beige box” business falter as personal computing evolves toward handheld devices. At the same time, however, both companies have lead the growth in the server market. As that business migrates toward the promise of cloud computing, it’s not hard to see why the two companies are vying for a seat at the table.

Cloud computing offers several indisputable advantages for small businesses. It reduces upfront costs, as the initial infrastructure is paid for by the cloud storage provider - no small break for small business owners, who constantly struggle to keep costs down. As it negates the need for vast on-site data centers, it also reduces the need to employ a large in-house IT staff. And because multiple customers share resources in the cloud model, it further lowers ongoing costs.

Whichever company ultimately comes out on top in the bidding war will undoubtedly incorporate 3Par’s virtual storage solutions into its already robust storage portfolio. The acquisition will position either HP or Dell as a one-stop storage solution with greater production and cost efficiencies, which should make it pretty attractive for cash-strapped customers looking to pare down the number of physical servers and decentralize their data in the cloud.

It’s still not clear which PC giant will end up owning 3Par. Dell has three business days beginning Monday to announce whether it will counter HP’s $2 billion bid or concede. Regardless of which company triumphs, ultimately, small businesses may come out the winner.

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By Tony Bradley
PC World (US)
August 27, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Dell has reportedly emerged victorious in the battle with HP for virtualized storage provider 3PAR. After raising its bid to trump HP, Dell announced that 3PAR has accepted its offer. So, what does 3PAR bring to the table, and why was it such a hot commodity for the two tech giants to fight over?
There are two key strategic values to acquiring 3PAR. Virtualized storage enables Dell to expand its services offering and provide a source of revenue beyond server and desktop hardware sales. It also gives Dell a boost in the competitive cloud market.

Greg Richardson, an analyst with Technology Business Research, had this to say about Dell’s aggressive pursuit of 3PAR. “Dell is buying its way into the solutions game,” adding that Dell’s “acquisition of enterprise storage vendor 3PAR marks the next rung in its ladder to becoming an enterprise solutions vendor.”
Dell has been on a buying spree–mimicking its rival HP. In the past couple years, Dell has acquired Perot Systems, EqualLogic, and now 3PAR. The moves let Dell expand its portfolio beyond high-volume PC and server manufacturing to provide services, and other solutions for customers.

Richardson explains “The reshaping better positions Dell against competitors IBM and HP, who can address large-scale build-outs of integrated hardware and software with their services and software portfolios. By offering hardware and software that enabled the development of virtualized environments, as well as design, implementation, and support services, Dell further positions itself as a solutions provider.”

While Dell claims that 3PAR has accepted its revised offer, 3PAR also accepted Dell’s initial offer–before HP came along and stirred things up. Tom Buiocchi, CEO of Data Robotics, points out “some very smart people have said in the past ‘it ain’t over till it’s over’, and we’ve all seen unpredictable things happen in this industry.” HP could still counter.

Amish Jani, managing director of FirstMark Capital, provides some additional insight into why Dell and HP are so anxious to get 3PAR. “3Par is the only high end virtualized storage provider that is independent. Put through either one of their channels, they could double, triple or even quadruple sales. That’s why these companies can afford the premium.”

Jani further clarifies the desire for 3PAR in a blog post “If you believe you need to own storage and server, both to fulfill the vision above and to avoid partnering with a competitor, then 3Par is the only place to get this type of deep high end storage technology.”

Data Robotics’ Buiocchi believes that 3PAR is a great addition for either Dell or HP. “There is a continued, huge challenge of managing large amounts of data and huge data growth within large enterprises, and 3PAR has the goods here.

Dell must feel 3PAR is critical to its growth in order to warrant a 50 percent increase in its bid–a value of about half a billion dollars. Buiocchi may have hit the nail on the head in describing the real value of 3PAR, though. “When one of them gets 3PAR, the other doesn’t - and that could provide a competitive advantage in a big market.”

Based on current reports, though, it appears that Dell has emerged victorious in this battle.

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by John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
August 25, 2010

Hewlett-Packard’s recent line of large-format printers are now more aware of its effects on the environment, as showcased by the first-ever “green” print service provider in the country, company executives announced recently.

11 FTC Enterprises, a local print service provider (PSP), is the first of its kind in the country to utilize these green printers from HP, which fall on the vendor’s HP SCITEX line.

WIth the help of HP’s Latex Printing Technology, and water-based HP Latex and UV Inks, the company was able to push for more environmentally sound digital print options, and shift away from solvent inks, the vendor’s press statement said.

Pankaj Goswami, category manager for HP SCITEX, Asia Pacific and Japan, said recent trends point towards a more eco-friendly approach to large-format printing, especially that there is a demand to move away from harmful materials used in printing.

“Current technologies are affecting our environment, so brand owners are starting to set policies on the way they buy media,” Goswami explained. “Going green is a way for PSPs to try to differentiate themselves in the market.”

Because inks used in HP’s SCITEX offering are water-based and odorless, they do not produce ozone emissions during printing.

“Our vision of green printing is a big reason why we developed a strong and strategic partnership with HP,” remarked John Gilbert Madarang, general manager of 11 FTC Enterprises, Inc. “This shows through the relationships that we forge with our clients, our partners, and with our people. This is also true with the relationships that we forge with our environment and our society.”

Using the HP SCITEX offering any company can deliver products across all different media platforms using only one machine, the vendor added.

“Our use of HP’s large-format printers is a testament that we are leading the industry towards a solvent-free future. HP digital printers also allow us to enable our clients to go green and help build a sustainable plannet,” Madarang added.

Along with their eco-friendly printers, 11 FTC Enterprises also reinforced its environmental initiative by designing original media that is 100% recyclable for eco-conscious clients.

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By Lucas Mearian
Computerworld (US)
August 25, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Hewlett-Packard’s $1.6 billion offer today to purchase grid-storage vendor 3Par came as a surprise to many tech industry watchers, but it’s a smart move, both offensively and defensively.

HP does not have its own enterprise-class storage array; instead — like Oracle/Sun — it resells Hitachi Data Systems’ Universal Storage Platform (USP). And it sees Dell — which offered $1.15 billion for 3Par a week ago — as a threat in the enterprise data center marketplace. 3Par’s cloud-based storage architecture would give it a significant leg up into that space.

HP’s chief strategy and technology officer, Shane Robison, argued that HP would be a better fit for Fremont, Calif.-based 3Par than Dell, since both HP and 3Par are Silicon Valley companies.

HP had been eying 3Par for some time and had made an earlier offer for the grid-storage vendor, HP executives said, though they did not provide further details.

3Par declined comment on HP’s bid. So did a Dell spokesman.

“Clearly, when you go in with a bid that’s a 33.3% premium [over a rival's bid] it’s a competitive bid and not based on what the company is worth,” said Mark Peters, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass. “So it’s going to end up with who blinks first. Which company wants to lose this bidding war less?”

3Par’s technologies will help HP expand its offerings for building public and private cloud services, according to Dave Donatelli, HP’s executive vice president and general manager of enterprise servers, storage and networking.

In addition, HP has “a unique ability” to bring 3Par’s products to market. “Our reach is something other [companies] simply can’t match,” he said during a morning conference call.

A gut punch to EMC

Donatelli once ran EMC’s Storage Division. He left EMC and moved to HP in April 2009.

In more ways than one, HP’s move reflects a worst-case scenario for EMC, which last year was able to obtain a court order blocking Donatelli from openly working in HP’s storage division for one year under the terms of a noncompete agreement he signed with EMC. Now, however, Donatelli and HP have an opportunity to make a land-grab for technology that competes directly against EMC’s high-end Symmetrix array.

“No question in my mind that Donatelli is a technology-hungry guy. Probably from the day he walked into HP, he made it known he was not crazy about reselling arrays from HDS,” said Arun Taneja, lead consultant at Taneja Group in Hopkinton, Mass.

The HP-Dell bidding war is reminiscent of EMC’s 2009 battle with rival NetApp for leading data de-duplication vendor Data Domain. NetApp bid first, but EMC eventually won the war in July 2009 by offering $2.1 billion in cash for a company that generated $274 million in revenue in 2008.

While Data Domain’s board of directors urged the company to reject EMC’s bid, ultimately they accepted the bigger offer.

3Par reported $194.3 million in revenue for the fiscal year that ended March 31. So HP’s bid already represents a valuation that’s more than eight times the revenue 3Par generates. Even so, analysts don’t think the bidding war will end quickly; they expect a counter offer by Dell.

Both HP and Dell have deep pockets. Dell reported earnings of $52 billion in its last fiscal year. HP earned $114 billion.

“It would be very odd for someone to back down soon,” Peters said.

What’s in it for Dell?

Dell has been acquiring companies in the storage arena for the past two years. It bought out iSCSI storage company EqualLogic in 2008, network-attached storage provider Exanet in February and data compression vendor Ocarina Networks last month as part of a strategy to gather best-in-class storage products.

3Par sells storage arrays that can be clustered together to provide petabytes of capacity that can be served up to business units like a utility. The technology is especially well suited for supporting virtualized server setups and private and public cloud computing infrastructures because it can be centrally managed and scales, like building blocks, in capacity and performance.

So if Dell purchases 3Par, it gets a strong foundation on which it can build a cloud computing offering.

“Dell’s bid was always and still remains about more than just storage,” Peters said. “Dell wants to be more of an enterprise player in the data center, and this is part of a jigsaw piece in that puzzle.”

Taneja said that while HP may appear to be the better suitor for 3Par because of its longer history with storage in the enterprise data center, Dell has proven it knows how to handle storage acquisitions. For example, since Dell’s acquisition of EqualLogic, the iSCSI storage company has seen a 63% year-over-year increase in revenue, according to Taneja.

“At the time Dell was purchasing EqualLogic, everyone was saying, ‘What does Dell think it’s doing?’ All of EqualLogic’s resellers will disappear,” Taneja said. “Man, how wrong was that?”

What about EMC, IBM - even Oracle?

Industry analysts agreed that other data center and storage players, such as IBM, EMC and even Oracle, won’t likely enter the fray between Dell and HP. For one, IBM and EMC already have their own enterprise-class storage arrays, so purchasing another array company would practically be an admission that their existing technology is lacking.

Oracle is still busy digesting its purchase of Sun Microsystems, which currently resells HDS’ high-end arrays and offers entry-level systems from LSI Logic midrange systems of its own. So it’s also not a likely suitor, both Taneja and Peters said.

“Oracle would be a horrible place for 3Par,” Taneja said. “Look at what they’re doing with Sun. They’re quashing all the openness. Customers were already leaving Sun. In the hands of Oracle, that has accelerated.”

Peters agreed: “I think the others will stand on the side and say, ‘Let them fight it out.’”

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By Paul Krill
InfoWorld (US)
August 23, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - In the future, business meetings might seem like a scene out of the movie, “Star Wars,” if technology envisioned at HP comes to fruition.

Stars Wars-like 3D projection technology is on the drawing board at the company, with the potential to project business persons at many locations into virtual reality-like meetings without them having to hop on airplanes and spend significant time away from home.

[ For a humorous take on the tech industry's shenanigans, subscribe to Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Underground newsletter. |  HP recently confirmed plans to make tablets for both Windows 7 and WebOS. ]

“The whole concept behind how do you project somebody into the room is really, you have people who are scattered around the country but how do you recreate them so that they feel like they’re part of the room,” said Phil McKinney, CTO for the Personal Systems Group at HP, at the Emerging Display Technologies Conference on Thursday in San Jose, Calif. This capability can be done in a low-resolution format today but HP is pondering next-generation scenarios.

When the movie “Star Wars” came out in 1977, a critical scene had R2D2, one of hero Luke Skywalker’s robot helpers, project a holographic image of heroine Princess Leia putting out a distress call. 3D projections like what is eyed by HP would be made possible by advancements in RGB (red green blue) lasers, McKinney said.

This sort of display technology is “still years out,” he said. But as a forerunner, HP with its HP Halo rooms already is able to conduct meetings featuring high-definition video collaboration capabilities, McKinney said. HP Halo technology features “telepresence” and video conferencing.

Step one in HP’s vision would be an in-room experience. Subsequently, participants would be able to move out of the room, McKinney said.

Also, McKinney noted HP’s work in developing flexible displays, which are made out of mylar film. Users eventually could fashion a display out of an entire wall or desk surfaces, McKinney said. Full color and multi-touch capabilities are part of the effort, he said. Full video would be offered as well. Commercial products based on the technology are anticipated in two to three years.

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By Fred O’Connor
IDG News Service (Boston Bureau)
August 17, 2010

BOSTON - The reign of Hewlett-Packard’s former CEO Mark Hurd was bookended by scandal — only where the first one, in which the HP board was caught spying on journalists and others, allowed Hurd to consolidate power and nab the chairman’s job, the second has sent him packing. Meanwhile, Oracle has sued Google, claiming that the Android mobile OS infringes on patents it acquired from Sun Microsystems.

1. Actress in HP scandal sorry Hurd lost his job: The actress who brought sexual harassment charges against former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd said she was surprised that the allegations cost him his job. Jodie Fisher, an actress and reality television contestant, released a statement on Sunday in which she came out as the person who brought the claims against Hurd. Fisher worked for HP as a contractor and attended executive summits and major client meetings. Late last Friday HP announced that Hurd had resigned from the company, saying that he did not violate HP’s sexual harassment policy but did violate its standards of business conduct. Hurd filed inaccurate expense reports to conceal his personal, nonsexual relationship with Fisher and paid her for work she did not perform, according to statements from HP.

2. Google, Verizon make net neutrality proposal: Last week’s rumors of network neutrality talks between Google and Verizon turned out to be true. But contrary to media reports, neither company wants to create a business arrangement. Instead, Google and Verizon on Monday released a proposal that would allow the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to enforce some network neutrality rules. The proposal would bar ISPs (Internet service providers) from blocking or slowing Internet traffic and allow the FCC to fine offenders up to US$2 million. Network neutrality fans knocked the proposal, saying the measure does nothing to keep the Web open and is ineffective since it does not cover wireless broadband.

3. Oracle sues Google over Java use in Android: Google’s Android mobile-phone OS infringes on Oracle’s Java software patents, according to a lawsuit that Oracle filed against the search company. Oracle’s lawsuit claims that Google knowingly infringed its Java technology, which Oracle acquired when it bought Sun. An analyst said that Google developed Android without using Sun technology and that the success of Android phones served as a catalyst for the lawsuit.

4. Microsoft’s 30-day forecast: Stormy exploits expected: IT administrators may want to rethink summer holiday plans after Microsoft issued its monthly security update on Tuesday. Of the 32 flaws that Microsoft rated on how likely they are to be exploited, 18 of them were labeled as very likely to be exploited. Popular Microsoft products like Office 2007, Internet Explorer, Silverlight and Windows all received patches.

5. Skype files IPO registration with SEC: Internet telephony company Skype looks to raise $100 million through an initial public offering, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, formerly part of online retailer eBay after an acquisition, will use the funds for “general business purposes” and to grow its user base.

6. New Android malware texts premium-rate numbers: Kaspersky Lab researchers discovered the first malware program that targets the Android mobile OS. The application presents itself as a media player but sends text messages to the number of the hacker who created the software. However, Android phone owners outside of Russia don’t need to fret over their phones’ security just yet. The application isn’t available in the Android Market, and so far the program has only appeared on phones sold in Russia and on mobile networks in that country.

7. Dell’s Streak tablet to go on sale Aug. 12: Dell’s Streak, a device that the company describes as a tablet PC but has smartphone features, will be available to U.S. consumers on Friday. The device is already available in the U.K. Dell says the device’s 5-inch screen will offer better multimedia experiences than smartphones with smaller screens.

8. Twitter launches the Tweet Button: Twitter launched the Tweet Button, which aims to ease the process of posting Web links to the social media site. By installing the button on their sites, Web publishers will allow users to share URLs without leaving the page or switching browser tabs. Clicking the Tweet Button launches a pop-up window that allows users to access their Twitter accounts, presents a shortened URL and permits people to post the information to their accounts.

9. AT&T, Verizon cashing in outside of phones: Data services are contributing more to the bottom line of U.S. mobile carriers thanks to the rash of e-readers, tablet PCs and other consumer electronics devices on the market. In the second quarter U.S. mobile penetration exceeded 100 percent, according to an industry consultant. The increase of iPads, Kindles and other non-phone devices connecting to data networks helped U.S. mobile operators earn 31 percent of their second-quarter revenue from mobile data services.

10. Oracle provides Sparc road map, but questions remain: Oracle this week also discussed plans for another piece of technology it acquired from Sun. Oracle described the five-year plan for updating the processors in its Sparc-based server line. Oracle offered details on the servers to counter customer concerns that it was abandoning their development. Oracle also has plans for Sun’s Solaris OS and will ship Solaris 11, the software’s next major update, in 2011. However, questions remain over the fate of both lines of Sparc processors since only plans for the overall chip family were discussed.

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By Matt Hamblen
Computerworld (US)
August 16, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Hewlett Packard Co. definitely plans to be in the tablet business, but questions remain about whether it will create different hardware for each of three expected tablet operating systems — Android , Windows 7 and WebOS.

HP on Thursday officially said in a statement that it’s “very excited about the slate [tablet] category” and “plans to use the WebOS from its Palm acquisition as well as Windows 7 from Microsoft for this category.”

There was no mention, however, of an HP slate running Android, as widely reported, although a spokesman indicated more information would be avilable “at the appropriate time.”

WebOS will run in HP smartphones , slates, netbooks and printers, with Windows 7 running in a slate targeted for select enterprise markets, the company said.

HP did not discuss timing in its statement.

The fact that HP didn’t mention Android is interesting, given the number of reports — especially on Engadget — saying Federal Communications Commission documents show that HP will produce an Android-based Zeen tablet that’s geared toward e-reading.

Zeen is a play on the last syllable of the word “magazine.” Reportedly, the device would connect directly to an HP printer, making it a portable way to quickly produce any magazine on printer paper from the Web.

Engadget has also reported that the Windows 7 tablet will appear in the fall, with the WebOS tablet expected in the first quarter of 2011 . Those dates are not official.

Assuming all three OSes are used by HP, it isn’t clear how they will be branded, or even whether they will have three different hardware builds. “I’m skeptical HP will do all three OSes as different products,” said Carl Howe, an analyst at Yankee Group. He said it is more likely HP will manufacture a common tablet hardware platform tailored for different operating systems and the apps used by each.

Of those three, however, Howe said the Android version would be the winner because of the ability to adapt apps already on the Android Market built for smartphones. He said Windows 7 is “hamstrung” with a non-tablet app legacy and that the WebOS developer community is small.

Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, said HP has been showing analysts a version of the Windows 7 tablet, but it has been criticized for sluggish performance.

Gold urged HP to put its efforts, instead, into a WebOS or Android tablet. There will be many Android-based tablets from other manufacturers released before the end of the year, he added.

If HP builds an Android tablet, Gold said it might be branded under the Compaq name that HP controls, and marketed for use by the consumer and education markets.

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By Patrick Thibodeau
Computerworld (US)
August 13, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Analysts are developing a short list of possible candidates to replace former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd, who resigned Friday. But it’s worth noting that Hurd’s name didn’t come up often, if at all, as a contender in 2005, when he was tapped for the HP job.

At the time, he was a veteran of NCR Corp., where he had served as its CEO and president.

During that search, The Wall Street Journal said executive recruiters envisioned the ideal successor to be “a star CEO at a company with at least $40 billion in annual sales.” NCR had revenue totaling just over $6 billon, making Hurd something of a surprise choice.

With Hurd now out — he resigned after HP’s board found fault with his relationship with a contractor and related expense reports filings , the succession guessing game is in full swing. Analysts are brushing off their 2005 lists and some familiar names are emerging as hot prospects.

Among those mentioned, once again, is Michael Capellas, the former CEO of Compaq, and Joseph Tucci, the CEO of EMC . The names of executives at IBM , Microsoft and Oracle are also being bandied about.
HP executives who were likely considered in 2005 and are seen as contenders now include Ann Livermore, the executive vice president of the company’s enterprise business and Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP’s imaging and printing group. New to the list is Todd Bradley, a former Palm CEO and president who is now executive vice president of HP’s personal systems group.

An easier task, perhaps, than trying to guess names is to determine what type of management style HP’s board will want in its next CEO.

Chuck House, an HP veteran who now heads Stanford University’s Media X , was especially critical of Hurd’s management style in his blog . He outlined in an e-mail what he hopes the board will look for in Hurd’s replacement. (Media X is affiliated with the H-STAR Institute (Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute) at Stanford, and works with industry and academics to study the impact of information and technology on society.)

House hopes the new CEO is someone who is “innovation appreciative” and is willing to spend research and development dollars, a leader who employs “management by walking around…, which implies caring and compassion and regard with dignity for employees.”

House also believes that HP needs to change its employee reward system by “getting rid of huge bonuses for the few, and restoration of profit sharing and much smaller, but meaningful, stock options for the many,” he said. “This is an easy signal to implement, and relatively cheap to do in actuality,” he said.

House, co-author of The HP Phenomenon: Innovation and Business Transformation, added that HP needs a listener and a supporter of “collective intelligence” rather than “father-knows-best” management style, he said.

Rob Enderle, an independent analyst in San Jose, Calif., said any internal candidates at HP could have an edge.

“This time around they have internal candidates that could do the job, though external candidates with the needed breadth will be rare,” said Enderle. He noted the emergence of board director Mark Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape who has launched other companies and is a venture capitalist, “as a power player” at HP.

Andreessen “may want to put someone vastly younger and more dynamic in the role than any of the traditional internal or external candidates,” Enderle said. “I think the odds favor either an internal candidate or an unanticipated candidate at the moment, depending on how quickly they need to fill the job and how much influence Andreessen actually does have.”

Another important area for the next CEO will be ethics. Hurd wasn’t directly involved in the company’s pretexting scandal in 2006, when HP acquired phone records under false pretenses to learn the identity of a leaker. That incident prompted HP to emphasize its business conduct rules — rules that eventually led to Hurd’s ouster.

“I would expect the company to say publicly that it is strongly committed to ethics and internal compliance, and I imagine that whoever becomes CEO will also say publicly that she/he is strongly committed to ethics and internal compliance and quickly moving beyond this episode,” said Miriam Baer, assistant professor of law at Brooklyn Law School.

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By Jaikumar Vijayan
Computerworld (US)
August 13, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - The Open Compliance Program announced by the Linux Foundation on Tuesday is a response to the surging growth in the use of open source technologies within enterprises, and by makers of consumer electronic and mobile devices, analysts say.

Much of the program appears to be directed at addressing what many analysts said is a continuing confusion among makers of embedded devices about open source licensing requirements. But enterprises can benefit from the program as well, they added.

The Linux Foundation, a non-profit group that is focused on fostering Linux growth, announced a set of open source tools, training materials and a self-assessment checklist , designed to help companies comply with open source license requirements.

The program is supported by several large vendors, including Google , Novell, IBM , HP and Intel . Also supporting the effort are organizations such as the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), which provides free legal representation for developers of open source software, and gpl-violations.org which is focused on raising awareness of open source license violations.

The impetus for the initiative comes from the skyrocketing use of Linux as an embedded operating system in mobile, consumer electronic and numerous other products, said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the foundation.

The goal is to help companies fulfill their license obligations in as straightforward and low-cost a manner as possible, Zemlin said in a conversation with Computerworld today.

“Market adoption of open source software has reached a scale that is unprecedented,” Zemlin said. Companies ranging from embedded systems manufactures, to those with large super-computer clusters are all using open source software these days because of the cost and technology benefits, Zemlin said.

Many though appear not to understand or be fully-informed about their obligations to share their source code with the broad community as they are required to, he said.

“The Linux kernel alone has a $10 billion value, and that value comes from the fact that people are sharing it,” he said. The compliance program will ensure that all of the technical and cost benefits that companies are deriving from open source software “is matched by their ability to comply with the legal requirements of open source licenses,” Zemlin said.

Eben Moglen, founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and a law professor at Columbia Law School said the new effort is being driven largely by what’s happening in the embedded world.

Most of the violations that the SFLC has observed and pursued have occurred among manufactures of embedded devices, Moglen said. In most cases, the violations stemmed from a lack of experience in open source use. Enterprise use of open source software for the most part appears to be more mature and in line with open source license practices, he said.

What the Linux Foundation is doing is “to provide operations advice that should make it easier for device manufactures and distributors to comply with Free and Open Source Software license at minimum cost,” Moglen said.

But enterprises that are using open source technologies will also benefit from the Linux Foundation’s newly released tools for identifying and reporting source code components, and for ensuring that the code is safe and ready for public consumption.

“Companies wanting to use or contribute to the open source world are complex mixes of developers, business management, and operational management such as the internal legal team,” said Stephen Walli, technical director of CodePlex Foundation, a non-profit that facilitates exchange of code among software companies and open source communities.

The Open Compliance Program will increase corporate contribution and participation in the open source world, and alleviate some of the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) that surrounds open source licensing, he said.

“I think the Open Compliance Program is an important next step in the industry as more and more companies use and contribute to the open source software ecosystem,” Walli said.

“There’s a growing maturity and understanding in the software industry around intellectual property practices over the past two decades, but that understanding isn’t uniformly present across all participants,” he said. “The OCP fills that gap providing tools and education for all to use.”

The Open Compliance Program comes at a time when there are indications that adoption of open source software may have reached a turning point. A survey by Accenture of 300 IT managers in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland showed 69% expected investments in open source tools to increase this year, while about 40% said they planned on migrating mission-critical software to open source in a year.

More than 75% of the survey respondents cited quality as a primary driver of open source adoption.

The Linux Foundation’s move highlights problems being raised by the continued broadening of Linux and open source use, said Jay Lyman, an analyst with The 451 Group.

While it has extended to new markets and devices, open source software and its licensing model … are still very new to many organizations and verticals, so this type of compliance and facilitation,” is needed for continued growth, Lyman said.

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By Robert X. Cringely
InfoWorld (US)
August 13, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - It seems Microsoft didn’t get pummeled enough in the “I’m a Mac, you’re a PC” ad campaign, so it’s coming back for more. This time the marketing marvels at Microsoft have cooked up a new web site detailing the various ways in which the Mac is inferior to a Windows 7 machine. Like, for example, “Macs don’t work as well at work or at school” or “Macs can take time to learn” or “Macs don’t like to share.”

It’s kind of pathetic, really. Most of these arguments are premised on the notion that if you’ve already wasted most of your adult life using Windows, you’ll be more familiar with it than the Mac, so you might as well waste the rest of your adult life. Which is really the only reason why Microsoft continues to dominate desktop market share: It’s harder to switch than to stick with what you got, even if what you got sucks eggs.

[ Want to cash in on your IT experiences? InfoWorld is looking for stories of an amazing or amusing IT adventure, lesson learned, or war tale from the trenches. Send your story to offtherecord@infoworld.com. If we publish it, we'll keep you anonymous and send you a $50 American Express gift cheque. ]

Still, is that the best MSFT can do with its billions in profits? Seriously?

It’s like Redmond has fallen so far behind in the mobile/tablet space that it’s clinging to an era in which the battle for control of the desktop still mattered. (”Remember the good old days when we were kicking the Macintosh’s behind?”) I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but I’m starting to feel sorry for them.

Meanwhile, of course, there’s that new corporate motto Microsoft is allegedly going to reveal: “Be What’s Next.” So far that tagline has yet to be spotted in the wild, only at an internal Microsoft trade show. But it does reveal the huge gulf between how Microsoft perceives itself and how the rest of the non-Microsoft fanboy world perceives it.

Pop quiz: If you were looking for what’s coming next to the world of technology, is Redmond the first place you’d look? How about the 20th place? Is it even in the top 100?

In a blog post late last month (”Can Microsoft imitate Apple one more time?”), I asked Cringesters what they would suggest for a new Microsoft slogan.

Commenter “engpjp” suggests Microsoft take a page from the pre-second-coming of Steve Jobs era: “Microsoft: Be What’s NeXT.” I think they’d probably get sued for that one.

But the residents of Cringeville came up with some pretty good ones, too. Here are the best, followed by the author’s initials.

* “If you’ve got the solutions, we’ve got the problems” (D. W.).
* “The 500 pound gorilla doesn’t play with toys. Microsoft: We get the Jobs done.” (S. E.)
* Here’s one from the Caesarean section: “We came, we saw, we copied” (C. D.).
* The practical: “Reboot your life (and while you’re at it, your PC)” (R. L.).
* The acquisitive: “If you can’t beat em, buy em” (J. P.).
* The scatological: “Microsoft: We love downloading lots of s**** to your PC” (M. S.).

Here’s one proclaiming hey, at least our CEO didn’t have to resign because of a sex scandal: “We’re not HP” (B. C.).

And this one would sound right at home on that new Windows-vs.-Mac site Microsoft just created: “Lots of people use our software because they have to” (M. B.).

Personally, I like eSarcasm’s somewhat NSFW take on the new Microsoft slogan, especially this one: “Microsoft: Re-imagining the future by clinging blindly to the past.”

Maybe Microsoft should fire all of its marketers and hire the residents of Cringeville instead. We certainly couldn’t do much worse.

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By Robert X. Cringely
InfoWorld (US)
August 11, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - It’s usually other industries that get all the sex scandals. Politics, sports, entertainment — hardly a week goes by without someone getting their dangle in a mangle. But high tech? Not so much.

Finally, our long, painful drought is over.

[ InfoWorld's Bill Snyder explains what Hurd's sudden departure means for HP and its customers. | Keep up with the key news and insights on business tech with the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ]

By now, you’ve probably heard about Mark Hurd and HP. No matter what you think about him, you have to admire his chutzpah. It isn’t everybody who gets to run the world’s largest PC maker for five years, wine and dine a private contractor for two of them on his company’s dime, resign in disgrace, and walk away with $12 million and health benefits.

Is this a great country or what?

As I write this, blogfiends are surely on the hunt for the name (and more important, pictures) of the marketing temptress that brought Hurd down. Because otherwise, all they have to report is what everyone else has reported, to wit:

Hurd did not get shown the door for hot-docking with an outside contractor for two years. Nor was he found guilty of sexual harassment, or of trying to bed every Hooters waitress within a 5,000-mile radius, or of hiring “contractors” from Craigslist’s Adult Services section. No, Hurd got the boot because he played “defrag my hard drive” with some saucy lass and tried to cover it up by filing bogus expense reports.

Per liveblog of the HP media call:

HP is saying that Mark Hurd had a close personal relationship with a contractor who was hired by the office of the CEO, and there were numerous instances of reimbursement where there was not a legitimate business interest for HP. Mark also submitted inaccurate expense reports to conceal his relationship with the contractor, and that violated HP’s standards of business conduct.

So, to recap: Diddling a private contractor isn’t ideal, but still within the realm of marginally acceptable behavior. Fudging your expense reports? That’s not the HP way. Yer outta here.

(For the record, the attorney for the marketing temptress maintains that Hurd did not have sexual relations with her client. No word yet whether there’s a blue dress with Hurd’s DNA on it hanging in her closet.)

HP did its best to bury this story using the time-honored tradition of releasing it at the very end of the day on a Friday when half the world is drunk or on vacation. And if HP could have held out til the Labor Day weekend, I’m sure it would have.

But this is not the traditional media world any more, this is the 24/7 blogging world. So the blogosphere gets to spend all weekend retelling the Hurd story instead of making up rumors about Apple.

It’s too bad about Hurd. It seemed like HP had regained its mojo after the Carly Fiorina follies. Now it’s in the market for a new CEO. I don’t know what high-level headhunters it’s been using, but after the Fiorina fiasco and the Hurd hottie meltdown, I think maybe they ought to consider a switch.

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By Computerworld staff
Computerworld (US)
August 11, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - In evaluating Hewlett-Packard Co. under former CEO Mark Hurd, one place to start may be from the offices of users such as Bill Schrier, the CTO of Seattle.

Schrier supports 10,000 HP desktop and laptops, its standard deployment, and uses HP and IBM servers in its data center.

Schrier said HP products are good, but the customer service is “continually challenged by communications,” if backorder deliveries are involved.

“A new CEO might want to refocus on the customer service and ordering part of it,” Schrier said.

Improving customer service might be a longer term goal. HP’s more immediate problem is the reaction to Hurd’s forced resignation .

Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle Corp., on Monday called the action by HP’s board “cowardly corporate political correctness,” according to an Associated Press report.

Hurd’s resignation on Friday will have no impact on Schrier’s business relationship with HP, although he said he is personally unhappy over Hurd’s expense reports and the severance payment, which may be in excess of $30 million once all the stock benefits are counted.

Schrier said HP has turned into a full service company and potential provider of cloud services for the city, although he added that local companies Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. will be looked at as well as cloud providers.

Regarding the change in leadership, Les McCarter, director of IT infrastructure and operations at Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc., said, “I do not believe this will affect their ability to deliver their ongoing services and core competencies in our strong partner relationship.”

An example was a hardware failure on Sunday at the utility. An HP tech was onsite and resolved the matter. “Boring but core IT services delivered,” McCarter said.

Hawaiian Electric is a big HP shop, from desktop to Windows, Unix servers and SAN.

Regarding the leadership change, McCarter said: “Our main message would be to stay focused on delivering solutions, technology, service and value to HP’s existing customer,” he said. “Future growth is important to large tech companies, but ongoing, long term continued revenue comes from existing customers. Don’t lose sight of us.”

Wall Street may be telling the board not to “lose sight of us” as well.

Hurd did well with the financial community for a number of reasons, including its server market share.

In 2006, HP had $14.3 billion in worldwide server revenue and 27.2% of the market. Last year, HP had $12.9 billion in worldwide sales but the recession sent the entire server market down by double digits. HP nonetheless increased its market share to 29.9%, according to market research firm IDC.

The server share growth reflects “the strength of their x86 server line,” said Jean Bozman, an analyst at IDC.

During Hurd’s tenure, HP also became the largest tech company, reporting $114.6 billion in revenue last year to IBM’s $95.8 billion.

Despite the strong financial performance, the HP board faulted Hurd for expense reimbursements that were not for a legitimate business purpose. The expense reports involved a contractor, Jodie Foster, who had alleged sexual harassment. The board found that Hurd filed inaccurate expense reports to hide his personal relationship with the contractor. The board cited Hurd for breaches of its business conduct policy, but not sexual harassment.

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By Matt Hamblen
Computerworld (US)
August 11, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - With Mark Hurd’s sudden resignation, Hewlett-Packard Co. has a golden opportunity to hire a CEO with business savvy in mobile, wireless and smartphone areas, helping give the mature technology behemoth a needed and vital strategic direction.

Hurd oversaw the purchase of Palm Inc. and its WebOS for $1.2 billion in April, so clearly HP sees the value of smartphones and tablets in its future plans.

But some analysts have openly questioned whether the Palm purchase is enough to give HP the leg up it needs for a coming group of handheld and wireless products that are expected to gradually replace desktop and laptop computers for many uses.
It isn’t clear how high a priority smartphones and tablets are at HP, given the company’s enormous product portfolio, which includes an enterprise servers and storage division that was worth $15 billion in 2009 revenues. Smartphones are a small part of a group, Personal Systems, that overall hit $35 billion in 2009 revenues, although that group also includes consumer electronics, desktops and laptops. Printers are in a group all their own, reaching $24 billion in 2009 revenues, while consulting services were $35 billion and software hit $4 billion.
Several analysts said that while a CEO with a clear focus on smartphones and tablets sounds like a smart strategic direction for HP over the long haul, it could undercut HP’s broad base of products and services in its current and near-term operations.

“HP’s board needs to focus on getting a CEO that can run the entire company, not just focus on mobile,” said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. “HP is very diverse, and I think they would be best served with a general manager who could get all the various divisions running smoothly.”

Focusing on mobile products would be “way too far down the stack,” added Gartner Inc. analyst Ken Dulaney. “A networking CEO would be better. Their big battles are with Cisco going forward.”
HP acquired networking products maker 3Com in late 2009 for $2.7 billion in HP’s quest to be a full-fledged networking products company that would be number two to networking king Cisco Systems Inc.
Ramon Llamas, an analyst at research firm IDC, said he doesn’t see HP hiring a “mobile wiz” as its next CEO, partly because of HP’s product diversity and the nascent nature of smartphones and tablets both at HP and elsewhere. “As a mobile analyst, I’d like to see HP go whole hog in mobile, but they need to look at their entire business, too.”

Llamas noted that the role of the Palm WebOS is still not set at HP, and it is so far unclear in which products it might appear. The products could range from smartphones to printers.

Even though it might not make sense to focus on a mobile expert as the next CEO, at least two names keep surfacing that would give HP gravitas in the mobile space.

Todd Bradley, head of the Personal Systems division at HP, is said to be a top candidate for the vacated CEO spot, along with several others. He came from Palm and would be capable of setting a mobile and wireless strategy, if the HP search committee wants to go in that direction, several analysts said. On the other hand, Gold said it might make sense to keep Bradley in his current role, just to keep the proper focus on mobile.

Another name from the wireless world has been thrown out by recruiters as a possible CEO is that of Michael Capellas, former CEO of Compaq Computer Corp.,which HP bought in 2002. Capella is also the former CEO of telecom provider MCI Inc.

HP already has prominence in the technology world, not just for its products, but also for acting as an influential force in markets with its suppliers and customers, as well as in political circles, regarding matters such as technology standards and Internet policy.

With the right CEO, HP could avoid the kind of criticism that another mature company, Microsoft Corp., received last year because of problems with its Windows Mobile OS . Microsoft is set to launch a revision of its mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 , inside new smartphones that should appear before the holiday selling season this fall. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has linked the coming smartphones to his company’s broader cloud computing strategy as well.
Without a clear long-term focus on mobile technologies, maybe HP will be fine as it continues to manage its diverse porfolio, but the lesson from Microsoft might be worth holding close: Does HP plan for one year or two? Or would it be valuable to think in terms of five years or 10 years as mobile devices become more vital and function as the client endpoint to a cloud-oriented world built on millions of servers and switches?

Without a clear long-term focus on mobile technologies, maybe HP will be fine as it continues to manage its diverse porfolio, but the lesson from Microsoft might be worth holding close. In searching for a CEO, should HP plan for one or two years and hire an executive with a broad view of all the company’s products and services? Or would it be more valuable to look five or 10 years ahead as mobile devices become more vital and function as the client endpoint to a cloud-oriented world built on millions of servers and switches?

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By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
July 8, 2010

IT solutions vendor Hewlett Packard’s acquisition of networking equipment vendor 3Com late last year completes its lineup of networking solutions for the data center, further heating up the battle with industry leader Cisco on the networking front.

Among other segments of networking, 3Com brings to HP’s table a whole suite of solutions targeted at the core networking space, particularly in core routing, aggregation, campus core, and enterprise core solutions.

Core networking products used to be HP’s blind spot, as the IT giant did not have any sort of offering particularly targeted at the space, making fierce competitor Cisco inch ahead of the pack.

But with 3Com adding to the whole networking portfolio of HP, the vendor’s network portfolio has been ramped up to include a whole line of core networking equipment, solutions for the data center, as well as security and management tools.

HP said its upgraded network offering will surely give Cisco a run for their money, especially because their offerings operate on the principles of open systems and interoperability.

HP likewise announced during the launch the release of their new generation ProLiant industry-grade servers, which can deliver 23:1 server consolidation ratio in one box.

The IT giant’s announcement comes at the peak of its “Converged Infrastructure” campaign, an initiative focusing on melding resources into virtual pools so that they are fully utilized, saving firms costs and delivering added efficiencies.

Anthony Agustin, HP’s enterprise server and storage group manager, said most companies today funnel 70% of their IT funds toward keeping the lights on, with very little left for innovation.

“Most firms are suffering from innovation gridlock,” he said. “A lot of companies are managing silos of equipment that are old and very expensive to maintain.

Agustin said HP’s converged infrastructure strategy works because it allows for different systems to be managed under a single management pane across the board. “The data center of the future will surely be built on a converged infrastructure,” he claimed.

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By Tony Bradley
PC World (US)
July 5, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - HP has officially completed the acquisition of Palm, making it the proud owner of Palm’s coveted intellectual property including WebOS. It is hardly a surprise that before the ink was even dry on finalizing the purchase, HP announced its intent to build an array of mobile devices around the WebOS platform–including the predicted WebOS tablet.

Following a grandiose unveiling of the Windows 7-based Slate by Microsoft and HP at CES earlier this year, HP continued to hype the advantages of the tablet over the impending Apple iPad. However, some poor initial reviews of the Slate prototype, and the flawed logic of trying to compete with the iPad by cramming a desktop into a tablet form factor led HP to pull the plug.

HP instead acquired the flailing Palm, and with it the very capable WebOS mobile platform. Rumors immediately began to circulate that the Slate would be reborn as a WebOS tablet. Now, those predictions are coming true as HP plans to revive WebOS from the ashes and use it as the foundation for tablets, smartphones, and other mobile computing devices.

From an enterprise perspective, the HP tablet may make more sense than the Apple iPad. Like its Windows 7-based predecessor, the HP WebOS tablet is expected to have most of the features and functionality missing from the iPad. A tablet built on a mobile OS, but including USB or SD memory card ports, front and/or rear facing cameras, and compatibility with Adobe Flash content offers business professionals a number of compelling reasons to shun the iPad.

While it is not Windows, HP’s close relationship with Microsoft may lead it to integrate WebOS more tightly with Microsoft server and desktop applications and services. With HP’s backing, WebOS could emerge as the mobile OS that Windows Mobile–or now Windows Phone 7–should be.

Arguably, Microsoft missed a prime opportunity in not purchasing Palm itself. While Microsoft enjoys a comfortable dominance in many markets, its efforts to capture the mobile market have floundered. While its not a business device, the very quick and abrupt failure of the Kin, followed by Microsoft pulling the plug on the Sidekick, illustrate the steep hill Microsoft has yet to climb.

Windows Phone 7 seems to hold some promise, but the repeated delays and launching in the wake of iPhone 4 and a whole slew of exceptionally capable Android-based smartphones like the Droid X put Windows Phone 7 behind the proverbial 8-ball before it even hits the streets.

Although Palm was in free fall, its WebOS platform is very capable and has been praised by both industry experts and users. With Microsoft’s marketing muscle and distribution channels, it could have taken WebOS and built a mobile empire on it.

Instead, Microsoft continues to struggle to adapt to the evolving mobile computing market, and now it has a new competitor to deal with in HP and WebOS.

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By Preston Gralla
Computerworld (US)
June 22, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - The latest news from HP should be chilling to IT employees: The company is eliminating 9,000 IT positions. James Staten, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., told Computerworld that it’s probable that IT operations jobs such as systems administrators will bear the brunt of the layoffs .
For anyone who’s been paying attention to the news lately or the arc of technology, this should come as no surprise. Cloud computing has already passed from the realm of hype to having a significant impact on businesses. And outsourcing infrastructure and IT has become a way of life at many enterprises.
Does that mean that it’s time for Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to update their old hit and sing instead, “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be IT staff”? Is IT in the enterprise dying? It’s not as far-fetched as you might think. Imagine, for a moment, that a company is starting a business today. It has a choice about how to handle its computer infrastructure. It can build a network, install countless servers and many applications, pay a big staff to maintain and update all of them, and be responsible for uptime 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Or it can instead outsource much of its network and applications — or perhaps have them live in the cloud — and have some other company take care of its data center, applications — and headaches.

For a small company, the choice is an easy one: Pay for virtual IT, not on-site staff. Increasingly, small companies are turning to cloud computing and similar services rather than deploying their own infrastructure with an IT staff. Of course, large enterprises don’t start from scratch, and they can’t outsource that easily. But they are outsourcing more and more. And as for those start-ups, some eventually grow into large companies. If they’re hooked on virtual IT from the beginning, they’re not likely to need a sizable IT staff once they grow.

There are other reasons that IT in enterprises is in trouble. Even companies that don’t move toward the cloud need less infrastructure these days than they did in the past. Virtualization and blade servers allow companies to consolidate data centers, requiring fewer IT staff to provide the same amount of services as previously — or even provide more services than previously. In addition, automated management tools increase IT productivity, allowing companies to do more with less as well.

All this sounds very bleak. The truth is, though, that IT isn’t going away any time soon, or possibly ever. But IT does need to recognize that its job is changing very quickly — and for IT staff members, it’s either change or die.

What is IT’s new job? Providing services to make the business run more effectively, rather than maintaining hardware and software. That means that IT staff may no longer be in charge of an enterprise’s plumbing. But it will be in charge of something far more important — matching a company’s business needs to its technology needs, and finding and implementing the right solution, even if someone else does the implementing. Business smarts may ultimately become as important as tech smarts.

Manesh Patel, CEO of San Jose-based electronics manufacturer Sanmina-SCI, put it succinctly to Computerworld when he explained , “IT is becoming more of a service-oriented organization, providing more value-added services, with less emphasis on [maintaining in-house] systems, networks and architectures.”
And what’s happening at HP is a perfect example as well. Although the company is laying off 9,000 IT staff, it will also be hiring 6,000 new employees. HP is looking for people who can sell and deliver IT services.

What does this mean to you? If you’re in IT, it’s time to learn new skills — less about the network and applications, and more about how they can be used to run a business more effectively.

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By Patrick Thibodeau
Computerworld (US)
June 18, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - WASHINGTON — Despite the flood of existing social networking tools, Hewlett-Packard Co. will soon introduce its own social network, albeit specifically aimed at IT professionals.

It’s called 48Upper and it comes with its own “manifesto,” which says this about IT pros: “We have lived with the stereotype of being introverted, pessimistic loners for too long.”

There’s also video on that shows IT workers laughing, smiling and working in cubicles with stuffed animals.

This anti-Dilbert version of IT aside, 48Upper (which gets its name from a building an HP building in Cupertino, Calif.), incorporates familiar social networking tools, collaborative, friend-based, knowledge sharing, but is clearly aimed at users of HP system management tools.

The product is being readied for beta testing, and HP officials discussed some aspects of it at its software conference here.

There are a number of elements that make 48Upper different from the mainstream social networks.

Ever since e-mail, IT pros have networked with people outside their companies and institutions for help. The designers of 48Upper still expect users to seek out help from external IT folk, but this tool will have a few steps to help them filter out information that might reveal what a company might otherwise want to keep quiet.

Deliver as software-as-a-service (SaaS), 48Upper will be using the queries to build up technology libraries. The subscriber will be able control how the technical information is shared. If the information is tagged ‘public,” it will be available to other subscribers of service, otherwise it is kept for internal use.

“A lot of what we do in IT is not state secrets,” said Matthew Schvimmer, senior director of HP Business Technology Operations products.

The technology information in 48Upper’s database won’t be limited to HP products, and Schvimmer said he expects 48Upper’s library to have information on any technology used by an IT shop. The social network will also be able to take advantage of HP’s business management systems and be used, for instance, to transmit alerts.

One HP management systems user, Henry Yam, vice president of enterprise management at asset management firm Neuberger Berman LLC, was unfamiliar with the service but saw potential in the concept, saying, “It would greatly help.”

“Right now it’s a hodgepodge world out there,” said Yam, adding that IT workers may be running from vendor forum to another in search for an answer.

Schvimmer said the collaborative tools are particularly needed because IT pros today are handed responsibilities that may require some expertise across multiple disciplines, making the need for networking important.

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By Paul Krill
InfoWorld (US)
June 17, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - HP on Tuesday will introduce application testing software based on the company’s database archiving technology that enables the use of production data for testing while also protecting that data.

HP Test Data Management automates the process of obtaining test data from live applications, HP said. By masking sensitive data, the product keeps data secure, the company said.

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“Rough and tumble, about half the challenge of creating tests for new software systems is coming up with the right data to run though the tests,” said Mark Sarbiewski, senior director of product marketing for HP software.

Using actual data gives developers the best perspective on how the application is working, he said. But sensitive data must be protected, such as health records or Social Security numbers, Sarbiewski said. HP Test Data Management extracts and masks data so developers do not need database administrators to give them a replica of production data, he said.

HP developed HP Test Data Management based on its own database archiving software. HP Test Data Management is available on June 30, with prices beginning at several thousand dollars.

In addition, HP on Wednesday will introduce integrations between HP Quality Center, for managing software quality processes and automating testing, and CollabNet TeamForge, which provides application lifecycle management (ALM) for distributed teams.

“This basically gives you this very seamless flow of information among the development teams,” Sarbiewski said.

Users can download software that integrates the two products.

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By Patrick Thibodeau
Computerworld (US)
June 17, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - WASHINGTON - As Hewlett-Packard expands its galaxy of devices, from handhelds to large servers and new networking products from its recent acquisition of 3Com, it’s increasing the automation and management capabilities of its systems tools at a similar pace.

HP officials say its release of HP Business Service Management 9, announced at its Software Universe conference here, represents a rebuilding of this system from its foundation. It can now automate more processes as well as support services running externally in outsourced and cloud environments, such as Amazon’s EC2, HP said.

HP officials believe that automation is the true path to cost savings, and this latest release of BSM includes some new approaches. It collects system information in real time using alerts instead of scanning, and has combined the services into one transaction database, according to Robin Purohit, vice president and general manager of HP’s software products.

BSM couples this data gathering with tools for determining the root causes of a problem and automated remediation capability, which HP said it has expanded in this release.

Although automated remediation capability has improved, Purohit said many users will intervene at that last step and make their own decision on the system’s remediation recommendation. That may change in time as their comfort level increases, although in some industries, service providers in particular, there’s more of a readiness to rely on an automated response.

Service providers “are highly incented to drive cost out,” Purohit said.

HP has been building in support for external cloud providers for over a year, but this latest release of BSM sews those improvements into the broader framework, he said.

Because there is no agreed upon API among cloud providers for interfacing with their systems, HP is building in provider-specific support, although users will also have the tools available to build their connections to a cloud provider. An ideal remedy would be an agreed-upon standard among providers, but “there is not enough interest yet in people for fighting for a public standard because everybody is fighting for land,” said Purohit, referring to the market share rush among cloud providers.

Among those speaking at the conference was Theresa Wise, senior vice president and CIO of Delta Airlines Inc. Over the last 18 months, since the completion of its merger with Northwest Airlines, she has been working on combining the systems run by both companies.

Wise is using HP’s service management tools to build its merged operation, and said “it has given us, as we have gone through this process, a common language as we work through the integration.”

Wise said IT is particularly focused on providing a seamless customer experience that extends out to handhelds. Judging from the number of people in the audience who were checking their handhelds during various presentations, it’s a necessary strategy.

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By Lucas Mearian
Computerworld (US)
June 11, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Cisco Systems today announced the launch of Cisco Smart Storage , its first line of networked-attached desktop storage devices aimed at businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

Ray Boggs, an analyst with market research firm IDC, said Cisco’s entry into the storage device market is part of a larger industry trend of networking or data center companies attempting to be all things to their customers.

Cisco’s NSS 300 Series of networked storage devices

“Netgear has gone down that road already, as has HP , where you have a network communications company getting involved in storage,” he said. “It speaks to the blurring of a lot of this technology where storage is associated with security, which is associated with the Internet, which then gets you into networking.”

Boggs said Cisco may see larger storage systems as “an interesting prospect,” but he doubted the company would make a move into the SMB or enterprise business space, as that market would bring it into direct competition with business partners and industry stalwarts such as EMC , NetApp, Hewlett-Packard and Dell .

Cisco’s new Small Business NSS 300 Series Smart Storage series consist of two-bay, four-bay and six-bay desktop network storage boxes with up to 12TB of capacity based on 2TB SATA drives.

The arrays, which can be configured as network-attached storage (NAS) or as iSCSI target devices, have retail prices ranging from $913 to $5,625 depending on the capacity and functionality. Cisco also announced an accompanying service plan, the Cisco Small Business Pro Service , which sells for $149 for most NSS 300 Series configurations. The service comes with three years of technical support that includes software updates, 24-hour online chat support, next business-day hardware replacement as necessary, and call support during local business hours.

“The addition of these new devices further emphasizes Cisco’s commitment to providing small businesses with affordable, easy-to-use technology they require to optimize productivity and drive growth,” Ian Pennell, co-chairman of Cisco’s Small Business Council, said in a statement.

The NSS 300 Series Smart Storage supports file sharing and backup for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms and can be set up in a variety of RAID configurations including RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6 (dual-disk drive failure resiliency). Drives in the storage arrays are also hot-swappable, meaning they can be changed out without disruption.

The hard drives for the NSS 300 Series also come with native encryption capability, and data on the drives can be accessed by a secure remote Web interface. The NSS 300 devices can also be set up by policy to shutdown based on scheduled working hours to save on power. Individual hard disk drives can also be set to spin down during periods of inactivity, Cisco said.

The NSS 300 Series devices include several business applications including a user-configurable Web server with an integrated WordPress publishing platform and built-in servers to simplify user authentication and management of the network.

Cisco claims that its new Smart Storage devices can be set up in minutes and are easy to configure and manage with a straightforward browser -based interface.

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For many students heading back to school, it’s important to come prepared not only with big-ticket devices like laptops and desktop computers, but also with printing devices that will make it easy for them to keep up with schoolwork. And for those on a student’s budget, making a smart purchase means picking out a printer that’s light on the pocket but can get the work done, from printing class schedules to churning out class papers.

HP answers this need with performance-focused back-to-school printers that let students save more, with the ultra-low cost HP DeskJet Ink Advantage All-in-One Printer K209a (P6,999.00) and the HP DeskJet Ink Advantage Printer K109a (P4,999.00). Offering the DeskJet Ink Advantage, these groundbreaking solutions cut printing costs in half with the use of high-capacity HP 703 Black or Tri-color DeskJet Ink Cartridges that deliver up to 600 pages in black and 250 pages in color.

The HP DeskJet Ink Advantage K209a is a stylish printer that uses two ink cartridges, making it the reliable choice in cutting printing costs by half as compared to other inkjets. This translates to page yields of up to three times more for black prints versus regular priced ink cartridges. Using an intuitive control panel that makes printing, scanning, and copying a lot easier, the Ink Advantage is effective in delivering top-notch print outs at an affordable price.

Its sturdy and compact framework is ideal for any home, off-campus apartment, or dormitory, and it features a no-fuss design that makes it easier for users to load or unload printable media. This All-in-One tool also makes its ink cartridges easily accessible to make replacements easier. It also uses a standard SDRAM 16 MB, 4 MB for Flash and 4 KB for NVRAM memory.

The HP DeskJet Ink Advantage Printer K109a boosts efficiency by producing crisp black text documents and vibrant color images at speeds of up to 28 pages per minute (ppm) in black and 21 ppm in color. Decorative in-mold designs give the product a sleek look, making it a cool device for any household or student dorm room.

In addition to providing outstanding value, the HP DeskJet Ink Advantage Printer K109a also has practical features that help reduce environmental impact as part of the HP Eco Solutions program. With HP’s dual-drop volume technology for finely detailed graphics and high-quality output, the HP DeskJet Ink Advantage Printer K109a offers an affordable and superb printing option for today’s students.

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By Peter Sayer and Chris Kanaracus
IDG News Service (Paris Bureau)
June 2, 2010

PARIS - Hewlett-Packard has announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs as it restructures its enterprise services business and automates the services it offers enterprise customers.

The company has spent the last 20 months integrating EDS, the consultancy and services business it acquired in 2008.

As part of the restructuring, HP will consolidate the data centers and management platforms it uses to deliver enterprise services, taking the opportunity to automate many aspects of its work. That automation and consolidation will allow it to eliminate around 9,000 jobs, it said Tuesday.

The job cuts will come over a number of years, and will force HP to take a charge of around US$1 billion against revenue over the same period. HP expects the changes to result in savings of between $500 million and $700 million after reinvestment.

The first wave of the EDS integration focused on rationalizing legal entities and eliminating redundancies, Cathie Lesjack, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said during a conference call Tuesday. As HP learned more about the business, it has discovered new ways to gain efficiencies, Lesjack said.

After closing on the EDS deal, HP announced plans to lay off about 24,600 workers over three years. HP said at the time it would replace about half of those positions. The cuts announced Tuesday are not part of those reductions, according to a spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, HP believes that over the next five to 10 years, the services industry will be defined by automation, which helps from both a cost and quality perspective, executives said.

“The real value to the client comes through automation,” said Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP’s Enterprise Business division.

The expected savings will help HP expand its push into areas like private cloud infrastructure services and desktop-as-a-service, according to a statement.

The planned job cuts aren’t as severe as they may look, according to Livermore.

Livermore noted that they will occur over multiple years, and that average attrition rates for services businesses is “usually in the high single digits.” HP also plans to hire 6,000 workers as part of the new services initiative.

HP’s move is a natural one given the market forces in play, according to one industry observer.

“This is part of a larger transition at work, with larger vendors establishing cloud-like automated data centers to serve as targets for application off-loading,” said Redmonk analyst Stephen O’Grady.

HP made a big step in that direction in 2007, when it purchased data center automation vendor Opsware for $1.6 billion. The company feels good about its management software portfolio, but plans to make further acquisitions, particularly of the “tuck-in” variety, Livermore said.

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By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines Staff
May 22, 2010 

SINGAPORE – Hewlett Packard Co. (HP) announced Friday it is determined to change the global IT market landscape with its new networking portfolio which is a cornerstone of the HP Converged Infrastructure strategy.

Jay Mellman, senior director for HP networking division, told the press during the NetEvents forum in Singapore that HP’s goal is to help companies achieve a converged infrastructure model which promises to change server-based data centers to be managed fully remotely.

“The HP Networking is built on open standards that can work with other technologies or run well in a heterogeneous IT environment,” Mellman said, adding the converged infrastructure model is an expansion of the HP ProCurve solutions and 3Com Corporation’s network switching, routing and security solutions.

Mellman said there is still no exact market value for HP’s converged infrastructure model but described it as a giant move by HP, stressing that it crosses the multi-billion-dollar market for servers, networking, storage and other IT solutions.

“All of HP’s engineering teams, other technical people, sales teams, our channel partners are being trained on how to leverage on HP in the direction of the enterprise infrastructure,” Mellman said. “This is the breadth and depth to this move.”

The new portfolio consists of four product families that address specific client requirements from the branch to data center. “The solutions are supported by HP Services and sold through HP and the 40,000 specialized channel partners,” added Mellman.

He also said the target market for the new networking portfolio includes not only large companies but also small firms but only in a different form.

Amol Mitra, director for marketing, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, said the real value on networking is to address the issues on what should be virtualized in a company and for the creation of greener IT such as cooling concerns and other critical issues.

Having worked with IDC, HP reported about 65% of the budget of businesses are stuck in maintenance and the IT vendor’s goal now is to convert that spending and effort into innovation savings.

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By Marc Ferranti
IDG News Service (New York Bureau)
May 21, 2010

NEW YORK - Though economic concerns continue to roil the markets, major technology vendors such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell are reporting strong quarterly sales gains while market researchers forecast a strong year for IT overall.

Gartner, for example, Tuesday forecast global enterprise IT spending across all industry markets to exceed US$2.4 trillion in 2010, a 4.1 percent increase from 2009. Last year, IT spending across all markets declined 5.6 percent from 2008.

“2010 will see IT spending in all major industries returning to growth,” said Kenneth Brant, research director at Gartner, in a report. Government spending was singled out as one of the key contributors to this year’s growth.

In a separate report, Gartner said that worldwide mobile-phone sales to end users totalled 314.7 million units in the first quarter of 2010, a 17 percent increase from the same period in 2009. Smartphone sales jumped by 48.7 percent to 54.3 million units.

“In the first quarter of 2010, smartphone sales to end users saw their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner, in the report.

Meanwhile, IDC stoked hopes for the media tablet market, forecasting shipments of the devices to grow from 7.6 million units in 2010 to more than 46 million units in 2014 — a compound annual growth rate of 57.4 percent. The launch of Apple’s iPad has fueled intense interest in tablets, but there are other factors in play as well, IDC said.

“IDC expects consumer demand for media tablets to be strongly driven by the number and variety of compatible third-party apps for content and services,” noted Susan Kevorkian, a program director for the company, in the company’s tablet report.

IT sales have for the most part confirmed that there is cause for optimism this year. On Thursday, Dell said that revenue for the quarter ending April 30 was $14.9 billion, up 21 percent from the year-earlier period, while earnings rose 52 percent to $441 million.

“This quarter was highlighted by good execution in an improving economic environment,” said Brian Gladden, chief financial officer, in Dell’s financial statement. “We feel good about the growth across our commercial business as it approaches nearly $50 billion in revenues. We will continue to make investments in our enterprise solutions throughout the year.”

HP, the biggest IT vendor in the world, said Tuesday that revenue for the quarter ended April 30 rose 13 percent from the year-earlier period to $30.8 billion. Sales figures are often considered more important than profit numbers as a measure of recovery. While profit can be affected by factors such as layoffs, acquisitions and tax issues, sales are a more direct measure of end-user demand.

Nevertheless, HP’s net earnings exceeded expectations, increasing 28 percent from a year earlier to $2.2 billion.

Despite all the good news from tech, vendor shares have been hit by a lack of confidence in the economy. The tech-oriented Nasdaq declined by 94 points Thursday to close at 2204, well off of its 52-week high of 2535, set April 26.

There appeared to be no single reason for the latest round of market jitters. In the past few weeks, however, investors have shown signs that they are worried that economic problems, including Europe’s debt crisis, might affect the pace of global recovery. In the U.S., the recovery in the job market has not been as rapid as had been hoped for. Weekly job figures have not yet hit a level that is generally considered to indicate a stable, sustainable recovery. Even HP, the IT star of the week, closed Thursday at $45.95, down by $1.05.

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By Jim Duffy
Network World (US)
May 21, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Juniper Networks’ announcement this week of switches and routers designed to flatten and simplify legacy networks is the latest sign that this company has no intention of backing off in the face of ever stiffer data center competition from Cisco, HP and others.

Juniper’s rollout takes aim at Cisco’s Nexus switches and other data center network wares, while setting the stage for Juniper’s Project Stratus, a converged data center fabric unveiled in early 2009 but still another eight to 12 months away from delivery.

Juniper is trying to set itself apart by optimizing its product line around increasing use of virtualization technologies within the most compute- and networking-intensive sites.

“Virtualization levels the network playing field,” says Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala. “The vendor that solves that problem first has a huge upside.”

The challenge for Juniper is that Cisco’s been targeting virtualization from the networking side for several years, while server titans such as HP and IBM — a Juniper partner in Stratus — have been tackling it from the compute side even longer.Meanwhile, Brocade points out that it has been building data center fabrics with partners for years and that Juniper remains vague about how it will support legacy storage networks.

So Juniper needs to deliver sooner rather than later on the bold pronouncements it made this week, last fall at customer site New York Stock Exchange and over a year ago at the Stratus launch.

Early signs are promising. One example: Juniper beat Cisco in landing the NYSE account, a demanding environment in which latency cannot be tolerated when billions of stock market trades are executed daily.

Juniper, well known as the No. 2 vendor behind Cisco of routers to service providers, has been gaining steam in enterprise routers and switches as well. In enterprise routers, Juniper is No. 2 to Cisco, albeit a distant second, with 5% share of the $790 million worldwide market in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to Cisco’s 83%, according to Dell’Oro Group. HP/3Com was third at 3%.

In Ethernet switches, Juniper has steadily been building market share since entering the business in early 2008. Its share climbed from 0.3% in 2008 to 1.2% in 2009, according to Dell’Oro, allowing Juniper to surpass longtime player Enterasys and Blade Network Technologies, while catching up to Extreme Networks and Huawei. Cisco still has a hold on market leadership though, with about 70% share.

Juniper seeks to make more headway by addressing what it sees as a need for a new network architecture optimized for virtualized data centers — an architecture that increases performance while reducing costs, and facilitates more server-to-server — rather than switch-to-switch — interaction. At the heart of this architecture is a reduction in the layers of networking in the data center, from three layers — access, aggregation and core — to two and then eventually to one, and that’s exactly where Juniper is headed with its Project Stratus. Juniper says that $1 billion of the $4.8 billion spent on data center switching is for aggregation — the layer Juniper seeks to extract.

“The legacy approach can no longer scale to support virtualization,” Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson said during this week’s Webcast announcement. “Fifty percent of the ports are talking to other network ports” vs. enabling server-to-server interaction, he said. “It’s slow.”

“It’s clear to the industry that, because of server virtualization, a new network needs to emerge,” says Cindy Borovick, a data center analyst at IDC. “[Juniper's announcement] is a reaffirmation of that, with proof points.”

Specifically, Juniper this week announced products that can deliver a two-tier data center architecture this year: a 48-port 10G Ethernet top-of-rack switch, a 40-port 10G Ethernet module for the chassis-based EX 8200 core switch and an Ethernet router for interconnecting data centers with ASICs tuned for high-performance support of virtualization, server/storage/network convergence and lossless Ethernet.

ASICs and Junos software in all of the new products are designed to support FibreChannel-over-Ethernet (CoE) for storage/network convergence. Junos will have FCoE-specific hooks in it in the second half of this year, Juniper says.

Juniper says the top-of-rack EX 4500 has one-fifth of the latency and 22% lower cost than Cisco’s Nexus 5000. The EX 4500 is also Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) and Data Center Bridging (DCB) “capable,” and 44% more power efficient than Cisco’s Nexus 5000, Juniper says.

CEE and DCB are emerging technologies and standards for making Ethernet a lossless fabric for the data center, capable of supporting storage traffic — such as FibreChannel — for converged storage and server access.

Juniper also unveiled a 40-port 10G Ethernet line card for its EX 8200 core switch. This will position the 8200 as an end-of-row switch for aggregating multiple 10G links from servers and server switches.

The new router is the MX 80 3D Ethernet edge services router. It incorporates the Trio chipset Juniper unveiled last fall that’s designed to dynamically and simultaneously support more subscribers, services and bandwidth.

The MX 3D is designed for virtual machine mobility between data centers interconnected by Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS). VPLS provides a single Layer 2 domain between these data centers, in effect providing the stitching in a cloud infrastructure.

This will compete with Cisco Overlay Transport Virtualization data center interconnect technology. Juniper also says the new MX 80 3D Ethernet router takes up half the power and space of Cisco’s ASR 1004, while providing an eightfold improvement in performance.

Cisco declined to comment on the Juniper announcement.

But key to flattening the network architecture is Juniper’s Virtual Chassis technology. Currently, Virtual Chassis allows as many as 10 of Juniper’s fixed configuration EX switches to be connected into a virtual switch that supports hundreds of Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Ostensibly, this will alleviate the three-tier architecture requirement for an aggregation layer made up of several modular switches collecting links from switches in the server racks so that fatter and fewer pipes can run north and south into and out of the data center core. Virtual Chassis will be added to the EX 8200 line in the first half of 2011. It is also expected to be available on the EX 4500 in early 2011 and on the MX 80 3D in the second half of 2011.

Coincidentally, the first deliverable from Stratus will be in the first half of 2011. As Virtual Chassis spreads out across more of Juniper’s product line, expect to see more tangible Stratus products and deliverables emerge. Stratus will essentially be a scaled-out Virtual Chassis architecture capable of supporting thousands of servers and flattening the EX and MX architecture to look like a single Ethernet routing switch.

But analysts expect Cisco to counter.

“Our checks suggest Cisco is working on its own Virtual Chassis technology to address Juniper’s marketing edge,” states Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ittai Kidron in a bulletin on Juniper’s announcement.

On the software and services side, Juniper unveiled four Junos Space applications. They are Virtual Control, Ethernet Design, Security Design and Services Insight.

Virtual Control includes integration with VMware to manage physical and virtual systems from a common orchestration platform; Ethernet Design and Security Design are intended to enable rapid configuration and deployment of data center networks and security policies; and Service Insight is designed to enable proactive detection, diagnosis and resolution of network issues.

Juniper says the new software and Trio ASICs are also designed to support FCoE, a storage encapsulation technology for converging storage-area network and LAN traffic on a single Ethernet infrastructure. Juniper says it will unveil a version of its Junos operating system software for FCoE in the second half of this year.

Juniper also rolled out software for its SRX Series Services Gateways that gives IT managers application and user visibility into traffic behaviors and changing data flows driven by virtualization, Web 2.0 and cloud services deployment. This new AppTrack software will be available later this quarter.

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By James Niccolai
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
May 19, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Hewlett-Packard has already said it will use Palm’s webOS in smartphones and slate computers, but on Tuesday it revealed it has another category of products in mind: printers.

HP is buying Palm because it wants the company’s operating system to use in Web-connected printers, Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd said during HP’s quarterly earnings call. The printers let people print maps, theater tickets and other content straight from the Internet, without needing to start a PC.

“You’ve now got a whole series of Web-connected printers that, as they connect to the Web, need an OS. We prefer that OS to be our [intellectual property], where we can control the customer experience,” Hurd said when asked about HP’s motives for the US$1.2 billion deal to buy Palm.

“You can certainly make the same case for smaller form-factor products in the mobile world, like a slate,” he added.

HP does want to grow Palm’s smartphone business, Hurd said, but that’s not its only motivation for buying the company, and possibly not even the biggest.

“It isn’t precisely a smartphone play as I’ve seen some people write,” Hurd said. The deal is “strategically broader” for HP. “It really has more to do with the IP,” he said, meaning the intellectual property, or Palm’s webOS.

Microsoft is still an important partner, Hurd was quick to add, but HP wants its own OS for certain devices.

“Microsoft is probably one of the best relationships we’ve got in our company, and they’re still extremely important to us,” he said. “There are a couple of form factors, though, that are very attractive for us, and these small form factors is where we think the IP can be very additive.”

HP announced its plans to acquire Palm last month. The company’s webOS has won some praise, but Palm has still struggled to compete against Apple’s iPhone, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, and a new wave of handsets based on Google’s Android OS. HP hopes to close the deal in the third quarter, subject to approval from Palm’s stockholders.

HP unveiled its most advanced Web-connected printer last June, the Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web. It has a 4.3-inch touchscreen that lets users view, format and print content from Web sites that HP has partnerships with, such as Google Maps, the USA Today newspaper, Coupons.com and the Fandango ticket service.

It also hooks up to an HP store where customers can download applications for other Web sites. Hurd also suggested that HP plans to use Palm’s app store for its printers and other devices.

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HP has appointed Armando Pascual as general manager of the Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) in the Philippines effective May 3, 2010.

In his position, Pascual is responsible for IPG sales, marketing, consumer support and category management activities in the Philippines.

Prior to this appointment, Pascual was the Director for Distribution (North ASEAN) for Nortel Networks Inc., managing its Enterprise business operations in the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Pascual brings with him 22 years of experience in the information technology and telecommunications industries in the Philippines and ASEAN. He has extensive experience in managing the channels business, building strong relationships with channel partners and their own customers, which will be an asset to HP IPG’s business in the Philippines.

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By Matt Hamblen and Nancy Gohring
Computerworld (US)
May 11, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Analysts say it’s no sure bet that Hewlett-Packard Co. ’s planned $1.2 billion purchase of Palm Inc. will prove successful.

In fact, an IDC research note gives it only a one in four chance of working out. At the close of the deal, expected by July 31, HP will gain a struggling smartphone business and the means to create a tablet to take on Apple Inc.’s iPad , though such a project would take at least a year.

“HP needs a strong presence in mobile, but Palm doesn’t deliver that,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. Golvin said HP would have been better off — and spent a lot less — by simply trying to hire away Palm’s top engineers. By acquiring the company, HP gets the Palm brand and its intellectual property, neither of which it needs, he said.

And, Golvin added, Palm’s WebOS mobile operating system is probably not “viable in the long term in the face of competition.”

Analysts also cited the smartphone makers’s lack of success in Europe, and the dearth of WebOS applications — fewer than 4,000 apps have been developed for Palm’s operating system, while 150,000-plus iPhone apps are now available through Apple’s App Store.

Gartner Inc. estimates Palm’s share of the U.S. smartphone market to be 4.3% and its European share a barely visible 0.2%. Nonetheless, the combined company will have to quickly find ways to better compete worldwide against handhelds running Google Inc. ’s increasingly popular Android mobile operating system, market leader Nokia Corp.’s top-selling Symbian-based devices and the iPhone.

After announcing late last month that the deal had been struck, HP executives said the company will quickly increase Palm’s $190 million research and development budget while funding new sales and marketing activities.

“We intend to invest heavily in product development and go-to-market capabilities to drive this market,” said Todd Bradley, vice president of HP’s personal systems group and a former Palm CEO.

Steve Hilton, an analyst at Analysys Mason, suggested that HP should build WebOS-based smartphones for corporate users. HP could “dislodge RIM and Nokia” by taking advantage of its powerful corporate sales and marketing organization, he said.

Bradley noted that HP is also looking to use Palm’s technology in its effort to make inroads in the fledgling tablet computer market. WebOS currently runs only on mobile phones. “We see opportunities beyond smartphones,” said Bradley. IDC estimates that about 7.6 million tablets will be sold this year and that sales will reach 50 million by 2014.

Analyst Jack Gold at J.Gold Associates LLC said a strong tablet offering could significantly boost HP’s revenue. “Since tablets are primarily front ends to the Internet, it allows HP to deploy many cloud-based services from which it can generate revenue,” he said.

Like other HP acquisitions overseen by CEO Mark Hurd, the integration of Palm will likely involve a lot of operational oversight, said Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Research. People in Palm’s marketing and sales groups will probably lose their jobs, but the engineering talent will likely be highly valued, he said.

Judging from the way HP handled its acquisitions of Electronic Data Systems and 3Com, King said, “I believe they will keep the folks on board who understand the product, and they’ll maintain the brand.”

Palm is best known for creating the PDA market with the iconic PalmPilot, which came out in 1996. The company lost its footing when the PDA business stalled and it was slow to move to smartphones. Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein, best known for his role in developing Apple’s iPod, will stay with the company.

Gohring is a reporter for the IDG News Service. Agam Shah and James Niccolai of the IDG News Service contributed to this story.

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