The IT Beacon

TescO2 – Every little (megabyte) helps

Retail giant Tesco looks set to strengthen its hi-tech footprint by selling Apple iPhones. Tesco-Mobile, a joint venture with UK operator O2, hopes to start selling the must have wireless fashion accessory by Christmas.  Given the amount of money I get charged by O2 every time I go abroad, I suspect that this will be a lucrative channel for Tesco. It will be interesting to see how this shapes the iPhone’s future. From a cachet perspective, this is a retrograde step. But a major result from a product proliferation perspective. So is Apple abandoning its loyal aesthete following? Or can we expect a new range of exclusive beautiful overpriced gadgets to keep the tribe happy?

Tech Sector Review: Oracle-Sun TKO

We should have a clearer view of the likelihood of Oracle acquiring Sun when the former meets the European Competition Commission in December. There’s quite a bit at stake. The ECC needs to let outsiders know that it is really quite powerful. Telling Oracle that it has a "profound misunderstanding of the database market” sounds more like the pre-fight interview in a mixed martial arts competition. This looks like macho posturing and will certainly make the EU look foolish on the world stage. Oracle on the other hand wants to be IBM and that requires having ‘tin’ in the portfolio.  Given the motivations, positioning and credibility of the ‘contenders, I think Oracle will prevail with what might be called a ‘technical’ knock out.

Tech Sector Review: Super computers

A recent survey of the most powerful computers in the world reveals that the US based Jaguar takes the top slot with a speed of 1.8 petaflops (a lot). It is based in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and is not used for distilling Jack Daniels. The US has 277 of the top 500. Europe has 153 and the UK has 44 of them. China had a fifth placed ranking with the Tianhe-1 at about 0.6 petaflops (still quite a lot). Who said the mainframe was dead?

Tech Sector Review: $$atyam fraud deepens

Hyderabad based IT services firm Satyam, famous for its $1bn accounting fraud, is back in the news again. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has recently discovered that the fraud is much deeper ($2.6bn). This caused an 11% share price fall. The company’s former chairman and nine others have had charges filed against them.  Apparently over one thousand properties had been illegally purchased by the company. That’s a fair few holiday homes.

Tech Sector Review: H3PCom

Sounds like a Star Wars character. But the acquisition ($2.7bn) of network component player 3Com by IT giant HP will have an impact on the rapidly consolidating data centre market. Possibly this is a response to Cisco’s tie up with EMC, which some say could well be a first step towards full blown marriage? Possibly this is a response to Cisco snubbing its channel partner by entering the server market? So despite industry initiatives to be greener, it would appear that things are ‘hotting up’ in the data centre.

Tech Sector Review: Buyback, Juniper, EU Disappointed

I’m Bullish about the Market
IBM must be pretty confident in the IT industry’s future. It has added another $5bn to its share buy-back plan. This is added to the $4.2bn left in the pot from the last wave of buy-backs. A more cautious view on market conditions caused the IT giant to come off the gas in terms of buy backs earlier this year. Other major players including Cisco and Microsoft are similarly in buy-back mode. Possibly they all recognize that even if the poor economic conditions continue, businesses will eventually wake up to the fact that an increase in IT spend that will enable them to get their costs in line with their decreasing revenues.

Data centre war heats up
PC maker and data center aspirant Dell has signed a deal with Juniper Networks to provide network products such as routers and switches. This looks to be part of a power struggle for data centre dominance. Cisco has recently put noses out of joint by entering the server market, albeit in a niche capacity. Dell may be redressing this by going with Cisco’s rival. In any case, in the corporate IT market, the battle for dominance is being played out in the data centre. And Dell like the others knows that it has to be there.

Oracle disappoints EU
Software giant Oracle’s attempts to acquire Sun Microsystems took a blow when the European Commission expressed disappointment with the lack of evidence provided to demonstrate that the deal would not be anti-competitive. The US Department of Justice has already given the takeover the green light. Concerns are focused on the future of MySQL, a database solution acquired by Sun for $1bn not so long ago. It would be very tempting to think that Oracle may not have the MySQL user community’s best interests at heart, given that it is a competitor to Oracle’s own database offering. Given that Sun is apparently leaking $100m per month, it would be helpful if the EC could conclude on this at the earliest opportunity in order for Sun to revert to Plan C (Plan A – The IBM acquisition didn’t work out).

Tech Sector Review: 7, Cloudy and the Roman Empire

Touch me - Windows 7
Microsoft’s ‘save the IT industry’ operating system Windows 7 has set sail. The timing is good as it should give the PC market a Christmas boost. After the ‘Vista mistake’, Microsoft’s reputation hinges on the robustness and usability of the new desktop operating system. By all accounts it is making a positive impression. Quick boot up time and low memory requirements make it ideal for low spec user devices, young and old. People will now be able to squeeze more life out of their decommissioned desktops and laptops. Its capacity to drive touch-sensitive devices will expand its reach beyond the office environment.

Outlook for Los Angeles – Cloudy
The Los Angeles City Council has opted to embrace the Cloud computing model by choosing Google over Microsoft.  Google has an ever expanding portfolio of applications that address the needs of corporations. By delivering the service via the Cloud (the web), it saves the users from having to invest in technology infrastructure. It’s a compelling picture. However Google doesn’t have a 100 per cent record when it comes to availability. This should have been a cause for concern for the second biggest city in the US.  Using the Los Angeles Police Department as a ‘test’ environment strikes me as somewhat reckless.

Internet expands beyond Roman Empire
The Internet regulator ICANN announced that it will shortly enable the use of non-Latin based character sets.  This will allow countries like Japan, India and Russia to use their own characters in their web addresses. Amazingly, perhaps, more than half the Internet users worldwide use non-Latin character sets. This feels like a slight power shift eastwards given the Internet’s US-centricity.

Tech Sector Review: Chrome, Worms and Word

Internet Explorer available in Chrome?
Google is on the verge of making its Wave emailing platform available publicly in preview form. From what I have seen it is highly impressive. Coupled with that, Google has developed an Internet Explorer plug-in that turn’s Microsoft’s browser into Google’s Chrome browser. How clever is that? Probably more to the point, Google recognizes that IE dominates and for Google Wave to work it needs a browser that is more technically advanced than IE. Hence the helping hand from Google.

Twitter can give you worms
Hackers are using Twitter to harvest user login details, knowing that people often use the same login details for different accounts, including their online banks. This is impressive given there are only 140 characters to play with. Basically the user receives a message from a compromised account that directs them to a video clip, which in turn encourages the victim to submit their account details into a Twitter-like login page.

Word Up
The jury is in as Microsoft defends its Word processor against a claim that it infringes a patent, (relating to document formatting technology) belonging to Toronto based i4i (ominous!). The legalities commenced in 2007. In August a US judge banned Microsoft from selling Word in the US. In early September Microsoft was granted a stay of execution. Microsoft is facing a $290m fine and a possible reengineering of Word.  The court case has deeper implications on the future of open document standards. This is important to both Microsoft and the market, but for differing reasons.

Tech Sector Review: Twitter and Malvertising

Micro-blogging Macro-funding
Despite the fact that Twitter has yet to earn any significant revenues it is likely to secure a $1bn valuation as a result of the $100m it recently raised in new funding. This is impressive even by dotcom madness standards. The real-time nature of it certainly has appeal. And no doubt hearing what celebrities and wannabe celebrities have for breakfast is an emerging trend. My concern for the high-kill low interpersonal skill video game generation is that having 140 characters in which to express themselves may in fact be too overwhelming.

Beware of malvertisments
Microsoft has taken steps to address the growing trend of malvertising, whereby individuals use pay per click adverts to distribute malware. Microsoft has filed five suits against individuals who are alleged to have used its advertising service to post malicious software or redirect curious clickers through to rogue website. Addressing this is critical for Microsoft as it tries to position its Bing search engine/advertising platform as a serious alternative to Google’s more established offering.

Tech Sector Review: Dell and Oracle

Dell Services
PC maker Dell has made a bid for IT services firm Perot Systems valuing it at almost $4bn. This seems a natural part of the IT industry end game; manufacturers buying their entry tickets into the service industry. Perot Systems was founded by Ross Perot founder of the mighty EDS. Perot Systems never quite made it into the EDS league. However it gives Dell a leg up into the healthcare industry. Some of Dell’s PC customer may struggle to make the link between Dell and service.

Oracle keen to close
Software giant Oracle is keen to close the deal on acquiring Sun Microsystems. Founder Larry Ellison is growing impatient with the European Competition Commission claiming they are dragging their heels in reaching a conclusion. His argument is that the US authorities have already waved this through. Add to that the fact that Sun’s revenues dropped by a third in the most recent quarter. Plus the owner of the MySQL database is allegedly hemorrhaging $100m per month. Thus it would appear Mr. Ellison has a point. That said there is a genuine concern around what Oracle will do with MySQL, which is a rival product to its flagship database. Possibly the ECC will bless the deal on the proviso that Oracle sells Sun’s open source database business.