page 6-14

News

What’s within

PAGE 08: EMC’s Strategy Goes Deep in the Cloud PAGE 08: IBM Teams up with Juniper for Mobile Security PAGE 10: Has HP Done Enough to Rival iPad? PAGE 12: Google CEO A Switch Risky Move?

PAGE 14: Partnership: Easier Said than Done

I l l u s t r a t i o n s by U N N I K R I S H N A N AV

f i n d m o r e a r t i c l e s at Channelworld.in

Software

Microsoft Must Get ISVs to ARM

W

hen Microsoft

announced plans to release a version of Windows for ARM processors, it created a lot of work not only for itself, but for all the independent software vendors who sell Windows software as well.

Microsoft will need the support of these ISVs to make the ARM version of Windows a success, warned Dan Olds, principal analyst of the Gabriel Consulting Group. “It’s not just Microsoft moving to ARM, but Microsoft also must get all 6

the other ISVs [to follow suit] in order to have the ecosystem it wants,” Olds said. “It has to have apps from everyone else.”

Recently, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that the next, as-yet unnamed, version of Windows will be available for the ARM chip architecture.

Thanks to its low power consumption, the ARM architecture is widely used for battery-driven portable devices. The market for such tablet devices has been exploding, driven by sales of Apple’s iPad. Other

manufacturers are finalizing or have just released tablets running on Google’s Android OS. Research firm Gartner has estimated that 54.8 million tablets will be purchased in 2011.

Yet Microsoft has been noticeably absent from this market. The next version of Windows, due in 2012, will attempt to rectify this.

Microsoft engineers have a lot of work ahead of them, Olds predicts. The ARM instruction set is very different from the x86 instruction set that Windows now runs on. And because ARM processors are not as powerful as x86 ones, the engineers will have to be more careful as to how the operating system consumes resources.

But crafting a version of Windows for ARM is only the first challenge facing Microsoft. Another one is getting ISVs to rewrite their Windows applications to run on ARM. “For ISVs, it will not be trivial to port applications to a new platform,” Olds said.

Yet ISV support will be essential for Microsoft’s success. The success of any operating system depends on the number of applications that have been written for it.

The applications were what made Windows a success in the first place, Olds said.

— Joab Jackson IDG News Service

Software

Bing More Accurate Microsoft’s search engine Bing, and even Yahoo, are providing users with more accurate searches than their rival Google, according to a report out this week.

Bing and Yahoo, which is now using Microsoft’s Bing search technology, had the highest search success rates last month, reported Experian Hitwise , an Internet monitoring firm. More than 81 percent of searches

on their sites led users to visit a website.

However, Google, the dominant player in the search market, wasn’t as successful with its January searches., recording a 65 percent success rate.

Even if Google’s results haven’t been as accurate, it’s still the highly dominant search engine in the market.

— Sharon Gaudin Computerworld

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n news digest Cloud Computing

EMC’s Strategy Goes Deep in the Cloud

A

t EMC’s first stra-

tegic forum in two years, company execs offered financial analysts and investors a view into the company’s plans, with VMWare figuring prominently in the message EMC CEO Joe Tucci hammered home: The future is the cloud.

And the cloud, whether private, public or a hybrid, is there to support IT as a service for businesses, Tucci said, noting that in 2009, for the first time, more applications were deployed on virtual servers than physical.

“We believe the platform for change is here,” he said.

“We’re going to be the undisputed leader in enabling hybrid cloud computing through infrastructure and application transformation.”

Scattered throughout keynote speeches by EMC executives in Boston were bits of news about upcoming functionality. Among the main themes was that

EMC wants to continue to more tightly integrate its various hardware and software so the products can work better in a virtualized, cloud environment.

Pat Gelsinger, President of EMC’s Information Infrastructure Products, said the company already has “the most integrated portfolio” of products from among its competitors, including HP and NetApp. Market research firm Enterprise Strategy Group is expected to come out with a report this quarter confirming that, he said.

Gelsinger pointed to the recent release of the VNX line of midrange storage arrays, which combine EMC’s Clariion SANs with its Celerra NAS file head.

Gelsinger also announced EMC it will be plugging a technology gap that has left it behind its chief competitor, NetApp, in the ability to deduplicate block-level data.

To that end, EMC plans to release an upgraded version

of its Data Domain deduplication product in the second half of this year.

EMC’s VMware subsidiary has and will continue to play a large role in the underlying infrastructure of private, public and hybrid clouds, Tucci said.

EMC’s customers today are well into deploying tiertwo and -three applications on the cloud. EMC plans to focus on supporting a growing trend: customers are placing tier-one applications, or mission critical databases, onto virtualized infrastructures.

VMware CEO Paul Maritz said his company’s products will focus on not only hardware but application virtualization where software resides across commodity servers.

Three VMware products in particular will be key to advancing VMware’s use in a hybrid clouds -- vSphere as the platform to aggregate compute resources; vShield, an application that is used to deploy security to virtual networks; and vCloud Director, which delivers virtualized infrastructure as a catalog-based service.

— Lucas Mearian Computerworld

security

IBM Teams With Juniper in Mobile Security Drive IBM unwrapped a variety of mobile security initiatives. IBM Security Services said it would team with Juniper Networks to offer managed services for Apple iOS, Android, Symbian, Blackberry OS and Windows through the Juniper Networks Junos Pulse Mobile Security Suite. The service, IBM says integrates policy-based 8

enforcement that prevents smartphones from accessing key corporate resources unless required security policies and applications are in place.

The service is designed to use IBM’s managed security services coupled with Juniper’s mobile security management technology to help enterprise users maintain compliance and

Team Work: Securing mobile devices in the workplace

secure information assets from Internet attacks.

IBM also announced Tivoli Endpoint Manager, which brings the features of BigFix, which was aimed at data center operations,

Short Takes  Red Hat announced

the appointment of Anuj Kumar as Country General Manager and Jagjit Singh Arora as Director, Enterprise Sales. Red Hat claims to reaffirm its commitment to deliver innovation to enable businesses by these appointments.  Brocade announced

that it has introduced several significant enhancements to the Brocade Alliance Partner Network program and Global Education offerings to help channel partners capitalize on Ethernet fabric-based technology opportunities.  Juniper Networks an-

nounced a new training and education program built to enhance the expertise of Juniper partners in cloud networking, security, switching, routing and mobility. As a new offering in the Juniper Learning Academy curriculum, the continuing education program empowers sales and system engineers with valuable knowledge and skills.

includes a range of modules for handling patch management, security configurations and power management.

At the time of the purchase IBM said BigFix would keep it a step ahead of other big players in data center automation -- HP, BMC and CA Technologies.

Meanwhile IBM said it is researching technologies to manage security and compliance challenges involving mobile smart phones.

— Michael Cooney, Network World

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n news digest Personal Computing

Has HP Done Enough to Rival the iPad?

H

ewlett-Packard launched a slick-

looking tablet computer based on a new release of its webOS, but the question many are now asking is, has HP done enough to steal some business from Apple’s trailblazing iPad? HP also unveiled two smartphones based on the same software — the Veer, a mini-smartphone about the height of a credit card, and the Pre3, a full-fledged smartphone aimed at business users.

Physically, the 10-inch TouchPad certainly looks like the iPad, though it’s hard to imagine a completely original design for a touchscreen tablet. But what HP hopes will set it apart is the software, in particular the tight integration it says it can offer among devices running webOS. “Synergy is our central idea,” said Jon Rubinstein, the former Palm CEO who joined HP when it bought Palm last year. “Because when we bring different things together — whether it’s different applications, software, devices, even different companies — and get them to work in sync, we achieve a powerful result that’s much greater than the sum of its parts.”

HP claims to have a good integration story of its own.

For a start, it says it will build a wider universe of webOS devices. In addition to the tablet and smartphones, webOS will provide the technology for its webconnected printers, and as 10

Todd Bradley, head of HP’s Personal Systems Group, revealed it will find its way eventually into HP PCs, though details won’t come until later in the year.

“WebOS shows you your activities in the form of cards, not a sea of application icons on numerous home screens,” HP said in a statement, an apparent swipe at both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android OS. But good technology is only part of the battle. Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, noted that HP is taking on a lot for a company that is relatively new to the consumer electronics business. He said, “This is an entirely new

Around

TheWorld Cisco Buys Inlet

Cisco announced its intent to acquire privately held Inlet Technologies, a provider of adaptive bit rate (ABR) digital media processing platforms, for $95 million in cash and retention-based incentives.

Inlet will augment Cisco’s new Videoscape TV platform by adapting the quality of the video stream based on real-time network conditions, Cisco says.

Cisco expects to close the acquisition in the first half of this year. Inlet employees will be added to Cisco’s Service Provider Video Technology Group.

- Network World

business,” he said. “There are a lot of challenges.”

Besides, HP must still attract an army of software developers to build applications, Roger Kay, industry analyst with EndPoint Technologies said.

But HP insisted webOS will be an attractive target for developers. The com-

Astaro Acquires CoSoSys & InspektOnline Astaro announced two technology acquisitions — Romania-based CoSoSys, which offers mobile data protection solutions for both PC and Mac, and Denmark-based InspektOnline, which simplifies log management with its hosted service.

The technologies from both companies will play an important role in Astaro’s product strategy in 2011, as Astaro will integrate these two solutions in its security suite, increasing its customers’ level of security with quality and ease of use.

— ChannelWorld Bureau

pany claims to sell, on average, 120 printers and 120 PCs every minute. “You do the math on two PCs a second and two printers a second,” Bradley said.

“You easily exceed 100 million Web-connected devices annually.”

— James Niccolai IDG News Service

NetApp To Acquire Akorri Networks NetApp has entered into an agreement to acquire privately held Akorri Networks, which specializes in optimizing server, storage and application performance, the company said.

Akorri’s products will extend the functionality in NetApp’s OnCommand management software portfolio. It’s BalancePoint platform allows IT administrators to optimize service levels across physical and virtual environments.

— IDG News Service

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n News Analysis

Google CEO Switch A Risky Move?

Google is injecting younger blood into its top leadership but it’s unclear if Page is ready

By Juan Carlo s Perez

12

G

oogle’s decision

to change CEOs, announced on the same day it reported yet another blockbuster quarter, begs the question of whether the company is trying to fix something that isn’t broken.

Google announced that Eric Schmidt, who was recruited as CEO in 2001, will hand over that role to co-founder Larry Page in early April.

In addition to running day-to-day operations, Page will continue to lead Google’s product development. Schmidt, as executive chairman, will focus on external initiatives such as visiting customers, meeting with government regulators and negotiating with

partners. Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, will focus on “strategic projects,” and especially new products.

The goal is to streamline decision-making, the trio said during a conference call. They stressed that Page is ready to be CEO and that they are happy with their roles in the reorganization, which they said will improve Google’s already solid financial performance, technical innovation and business growth.

They had better be right, or the move could go down as a management blunder of historic proportions.

When Schmidt took over as CEO almost a decade ago, Google was a promising but small, privately held

company focused exclusively on web search and without much of a business model to speak of. It was led by Page and Brin, two brilliant Stanford computer-science graduate students with little executive management experience.

Over the years Schmidt has helped turn Google, which was founded in 1998, into one of the largest, most successful and influential publicly traded companies in the world. His role has often been described as providing “adult supervision” at a company whose young co-founders like to do things in unconventional ways.

“Schmidt has a great track record and has really steered Google to great success,” said Gartner analyst Ray Valdes.

Schmidt, who previously had been Novell CEO and Sun CTO, has been the public face of Google with his calm, relaxed demeanor, while running the company as a “triumvirate” with Page and Brin.

“Having Eric as the front of Google has been tremendous for Google, and there is no doubt that bringing his perspective has been critical for good decisionmaking at the company,” IDC analyst Al Hilwa said.

Some wondered if Page is up to the mammoth task of running such a large, powerful and increasingly diverse company.

“I guess the question is whether being Google CEO is the place to start your executive training. I can say with some assurance that if [Page] went to apply for the CEO job somewhere he wouldn’t get it,” said Allen Weiner, another Gartner analyst.

Gartner’s Valdes won-

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dered if the behind-thescenes scenario involves Schmidt stepping down voluntarily as a result of fatigue after an intense decade at the helm, and Page taking over on an interim basis until a new, more permanent leader is found.

Analyst and publisher Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand.com had a similar thought. “The two cofounders are notoriously difficult to pin down for any event, such as doing major press interviews or conference appearances.

Part of Schmidt’s role has been to be the ‘dependable face’ of Google for such things. But being that face can take a toll,” he wrote.

But Google was also overdue for a management change, Sullivan wrote, noting that a decade “may as well be 100 years of Internet time.”

Steve Arnold, an analyst who heads the firm ArnoldIT, faulted Schmidt for leaving Google too dependent on search advertising. “It has not diversified its revenue streams in a meaningful way,” Arnold said. The financial success that Google has enjoyed has been largely due to ad sales, and was probably little influenced by Schmidt, he said.

Arnold also finds fault with Schmidt’s public comments, which have sometimes fuelled existing controversies. And he notes that Google has had problems retaining talented employees, who sometimes leave to go to Facebook and more promising startups.

Consumer Watchdog, an organization that has been critical of Google’s privacy policies and missteps, said it welcomes the CEO change.

Will Page Back Google’s Enterprise Unit?

A

fter Google’s groundshaking decision to change CEOs, the company should explain soon to customers and partners how its plans for the enterprise will evolve after Larry Page takes over in April from Eric Schmidt.

Google’s enterprise unit caters to an audience of CIOs, IT directors, business managers, resellers and consultants, all of whom demand clarity, consistency and long-term product road maps from their vendors and partners.

While shifts in the top management at any tech firm can be a worry for enterprise customers, the issue could be seen as a bigger one at Google, whose enterprise business contributes a tiny piece of its overall revenue.

In addition, this year Google’s Google Apps suite, will face much tougher competition from various players, including Microsoft with its upcoming release of Office 365.

The enterprise unit may well rank below other priorities for Page, such as boosting Google’s shaky social-networking position, pushing ahead with Android in the cutthroat mobile market, “Eric Schmidt has put his foot in his mouth so far on key issues like privacy that he’s kicked himself out of the CEO’s office,” said John M Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Inside Google Project, in a statement.

But while Google continues to generate most of its revenue from ads on its search result pages and partner websites, the company has spread its wings during Schmidt’s tenure.

It started by complementing its search service with other consumer online

doubling-down on the upcoming Chrome OS and growing display ad revenue, not to mention retaining Google’s dominance in search advertising.

“If push comes to shove and management decides to jettison less-strategic initiatives, Google Apps could be in trouble,” Gartner analyst Tom Austin said.

It doesn’t help that Schmidt, a former CEO at Novell and CTO at Sun Microsystems, has much more experience and, arguably, knowledge of enterprise software than Page. Schmidt once described the enterprise unit as Google’s backup plan if the bottom ever fell out of the online ad market.

“Page has less enterprise business experience. Schmidt has deeper enterprise roots.

Does that mean they will back off on their enterprise investment on Google Apps? ” Austin said.

Google declined to comment about Page’s plans for the enterprise unit. However, a source said Page has always been a strong advocate for the business and expects it to remain a focus for the company and a continued area of investment. services, often rocking established markets, as it did with webmail when it launched Gmail in 2004.

It has also become a key mobile player with its Android platform and with mobile versions of its various services and applications. The company has entered the enterprise software market with Google Apps, and its Chrome browser and operating system could leave it poised to become a provider of a new personal computing platform.

But Schmidt was also

at the helm for some controversies Google found itself in over the past decade, including a number of privacy-related fiascos and thorny copyrightingringement lawsuits from book publishers, media conglomerates and major companies.

A big challenge for Page will be tackling the influence of social media and social-networking sites, namely Facebook and Twitter, which have encroached on Google’s territory both in advertising and distributing online content.

“One of the things missing from Google’s strategy has been the social component,” Gartner’s Weiner said. “I think the ability to move on a major social-networking strategy may come more easily from a younger CEO.” In fact, Google’s struggles with the social web may have played a part in the CEO switch, he said.

Google also faces tests internationally, especially in high-growth areas like China, India and Russia, where the company’s track record has been mixed, Valdes said.

“Google’s challenges are visible on the horizon and it’s likely that new blood, a new perspective, is needed,” he said.

Whatever happens, IDC’s Hilwa said he hopes Schmidt will continue to participate in major decisions at the company.

“Eric, Larry and Sergey have always effectively acted as co-CEOs,” he said.

“Being able to put their heads together on important decisions has served them well in the past. One would hope that they keep this consultative management style.”  — IDG News Service

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n News Analysis

Partnership: Easier Said Than Done Collaboration between channels is the way forward, says the software partner community. By Yogesh Gupta

C

ollaboration between partners

to address a larger project and harness each others technical strength has been a much discussed topic in partner circle. However, when 70 odd VARs and SIs (mainly software partners) from India converged at the ISODA Tech Summit in Bangkok recently, it got a much needed boost. In fact, ISODA members are seriously devising a blueprint to put this idea into practice in the Indian market.

With fierce competition 14

and big system integrators addressing the mid market space aggressively, it has become imperative for tier II partners to ride the collaboration bandwagon.

Mikroz InfoSecurity, a Delhi-based solution provider looks at collaboration as a significant force for organizations for their business model. Capt. Ashok B. Shiroor the firm’s Managing Director, said, “We have been collaborating in the areas of information security.

We plan to add the other areas like storage, as we progress with the formaliza-

tion of the code discussed during the conference.”

“In the future, I would like to offer solutions in the area of data centres and would look at collaborating with other channel partners for the same,” said Nityanand Shetty, MD, Essen Vision Software, a specialized solution provider of network security & backup solutions.

More Advantages According to partners what is pushing the collaboration agenda is the fact that it takes years to specialize in a particular

domain, gain clients trust, and build a loyal clientele.

At the same time, it might not be feasible to specialize in or build expertise in all technologies. In such a scenario, collaboration is the way forward. It is beneficial to collaborate with partners to provide multiple solutions and pitch for bigger projects. Collaboration would also benefit the clients as they can avail of a plethora of services from the same organization they have developed a level of understanding and trust with over years.

According to K Gunasegharan, Director of Chennai-based eCaps Computers India, the obvious advantage of collaboration is the financial profitability for both the partners. Besides, geographical advantages like a partner in the north can be supported by partner in south or vice versa.

Teething Troubles However, several teething problems could arise in collaboration between two partners. “Although collaboration is sealed at a top-management level, it is essential to ensure that the importance of the collaboration is filtered down to the bottom-level and that people ensure that the synergies of both organizations are well synchronized,” says Shetty.

“If handled correctly and when guided by a formal code of conduct, I see no disadvantages,” says Shiroor. Besides, partners feel that there is a need to device best practices for collaboration and preferably an arbitration committee should be set up to resolve issues, though they agree that the latter is easier said than done. 

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