Novell and Tencent on Thursday announced the establishment of a research laboratory in Shenzhen, China to jointly develop an Internet Data Center (IDC) cloud computing platform. Tencent, China's largest Internet service portal with more than 480 million active users, is adopting SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server and PlateSpin Orchestrate as its auto-deployment system. As part of the agreement, Tencent will also utilize intelligent workload management solutions from Novell, including PlateSpin Workload Management, to create a flexible and easy-to-expand IDC cloud platform that will allow users to build, purchase and run business applications in a faster and more convenient way. "Tencent has recognized the value of our solutions to its business," said Dr. Sen Ming Chang, managing director of Novell East Asia. "This cloud computing laboratory will create a powerful IDC cloud platform that will not only promote IDC industry development but also help companies improve productivity and reduce costs. Our collaboration with Tencent further proves Novell's leadership in cloud computing and the intelligent workload management market. We spare no effort to provide customers with excellent solutions and services, and hope more companies like Tencent will adopt our virtual solutions."

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linux.sys-con.com | 7/23/10 10:15 AM

Novell and Tencent on Thursday announced the establishment of a research laboratory in Shenzhen, China to jointly develop an Internet Data Center (IDC) cloud computing platform. Tencent, China's largest Internet service portal with more than 480 million active users, is adopting SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server and PlateSpin Orchestrate as its auto-deployment system. As part of the agreement, Tencent will also utilize intelligent workload management solutions from Novell, including PlateSpin Workload Management, to create a flexible and easy-to-expand IDC cloud platform that will allow users to build, purchase and run business applications in a faster and more convenient way. "Tencent has recognized the value of our solutions to its business," said Dr. Sen Ming Chang, managing director of Novell East Asia. "This cloud computing laboratory will create a powerful IDC cloud platform that will not only promote IDC industry development but also help companies improve productivity and reduce costs. Our collaboration with Tencent further proves Novell's leadership in cloud computing and the intelligent workload management market. We spare no effort to provide customers with excellent solutions and services, and hope more companies like Tencent will adopt our virtual solutions."

read more

linux.sys-con.com | 7/23/10 10:15 AM

Many critical business applications now execute in an environment separate from that of the enterprise database server. The database administrator often finds monitoring and performance tuning of these "distributed" applications to be especially difficult. This article looks at common performance issues of distributed applications and presents advice to assist the IBM DB2 database administrator in mitigating performance problems. redir.internet.com | 7/20/10 12:22 AM

Can Competition Between IT Companies Stop Climate Change?

Competition in the tech industry is notoriously intense. It’s what has driven unparalleled iteration and innovation, spectacular feats of design and function, and the transformation of seemingly far-fetched concepts into now indispensable tools for running our lives and businesses. So what if IT companies, like Google, Microsoft, IBM, and HP, were to apply the same competitive tenacity to solving the climate crisis?

Policies and incentives are desperately needed to usher in an era of rigorous efficiency, renewable energy, and massive emissions reductions. If we hope to put the right conditions in place for a clean energy transformation to occur, bold policies will require strong advocates.

The following comparison is the first in a series of posts that size up tech competitors — not for their market share or latest product designs — but for their responsibility and leadership in applying their considerable influence toward the fight against climate change.

Google Versus Microsoft

Google: Search Giant

Google is one of the world’s largest cloud-based IT companies. Its model is to organize the world’s information online, moving personal and enterprise data to virtual servers that form the “cloud”. Google’s forays into consumer and business applications has hastened the entire industry’s move, including Microsoft, from desktop software to cloud-based web services.

Google’s exponential growth and and self-decreed motto, “Don’t Be Evil”, have earned the company media attention and public scrutiny.  While Google’s rapid growth and increasingly voracious demand for electricity to power its cloud offerings is a serious concern due to its associated growth in demand for coal, Google displays few signs of “evil” in relation to its policy advocacy leadership on climate change.  Thus far, Google has been ahead of the class when it comes to advocating for critical government policy changes in the U.S that would drive clean energy and IT solutions, although we have yet to see similar advocacy in other countries that Google operates in.  

Google has shown vision and leadership by articulating a transformative clean energy pathway, actively pushing for policies such as renewable energy and energy efficiency standards, greater government R&D investment in clean energy technologies, and a national cap on carbon.  However, Google has not always remained a visible player in key debates, and much of Google’s best advocacy, particularly at the CEO level, is well over a year old. To maintain its leadership position in policy advocacy, Google must step up its involvement, both in the U.S. and internationally, and significantly within the energy policy arenas of the countries in which it operates.

Microsoft: Software Giant

Microsoft invested more than any other IT company to build its political lobbying clout in Washington DC and Brussels. In the U.S., Microsoft has become one of the largest contributors to political campaigns over the last ten years, and averaged nearly US$9 million in lobbying expenses each year from 2003-2008.  Despite its significant political influence and access, Microsoft has not demonstrated consistent leadership in calling for policy changes necessary to reduce emissions and drive deployment of renewable energy solutions or energy efficiency technologies.

Although former CEO and Microsoft Board Chair, Bill Gates, recently made news with an appeal to increase government R&D spending on clean energy innovation, current CEO, Steve Ballmer, has thus far failed to effectively articulate the importance of climate protection or the need for strong government policy to drive an energy revolution. The strongest example of Steve Ballmer’s interest in the climate is an internal email to Microsoft's employees, which detailed how Microsoft is working to reduce its environmental footprint and that of its customers.

Other Microsoft representatives, such as Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer, and Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist, have spoken publicly about the role of IT technologies in making a shift to zero carbon energy sources. However, Microsoft’s policy advocacy and the priorities of its lobbying team do not demonstrate significant leadership in the driving of policy changes needed to address climate change and unlock the clean energy business opportunities that Microsoft and other IT companies could deliver.

Microsoft did take a small step forward in advance of the UN Climate negotiations in Copenhagen last year, supporting a call to President Obama to reach a deal in Copenhagen that would have resulted in a legally binding agreement. The letter urges, “We must put the United States on the path to significant emissions reductions, a stronger economy and a new position of leadership to stabilize our climate. The costs of inaction far outweigh the costs of action."  

Microsoft’s statement sounds pretty good until you compare it to the rhetoric of some of the biggest and dirtiest coal-burning utilities and discover that there’s little distinction.  If Microsoft wants to differentiate itself as a leader in the climate debate, it must clearly articulate and push for specific climate and energy policy goals to back up its general declaration of support.

How Microsoft and Google Can Drive the Clean Energy Economy:

Greenpeace’s Energy [R]evolution, a blueprint for global energy transformation, highlights policy positions that require immediate support from industry giants like Microsoft and Google in order for swift change to occur. Here is how the political advocacy efforts of competitors Google and Microsoft compare on these critical climate measures:

Government needs to put its money where its mouth is.

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, has publicly articulated a compelling business and environmental case for the transition away from fossil fuels and toward a clean energy economy on multiple occasions, drawing from his company’s Clean Energy 2030 Proposal. Schmidt tackled power generation and transportation in a speech at the Corporate EcoForum in September of 2008, calling for 100 percent of energy to come from renewable sources by 2030 and to replace half of the national vehicle fleet with plug-in hybrid electrics.

Schmidt has been critical of governmental climate leadership, and once went as far as to decry, “We have a total failure of political leadership, at least in the U.S., and perhaps the world.” In a 2009 Wall Street Journal interview Schmidt pointed to the relative cost of wind power versus coal, matching a critical Energy [R]evolution principle with his assertion that government must shift subsidies away from fossil fuels in order to prioritize rapid and widespread clean energy deployment.

Make the grid smarter and cleaner.

In order to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy without an increase in nuclear power, we will need to improve power distribution networks and provide better consumer access to information about energy consumption. In California, a state which has been at the forefront of smart grid development, Google has more than once intervened in the Public Utility Commission’s rulemaking on smart grid technologies. The company also sent a letter to President Obama in April, 2010, calling for incentives for technologies that give households and businesses feedback on their electricity use.

Google’s own Powermeter technology stands to benefit from policies that bolster advanced grid metering infrastructure. Microsoft, despite having its own product offering, Hohm, which measures home energy use and efficiency, has not meaningfully stepped into the policy debate around access to smart meter data.

Increase Clean Energy R&D.

In January, 2010, Google provided testimony to the U.S. Senate finance committee and signed onto a letter to President Obama in support of the inclusion of a “green bank” in the federal jobs bill. Its request for the creation of a Clean Energy Deployment Administration to finance emerging clean energy technologies is aimed at spurring employment in the emerging clean energy sector.

In June, 2010, Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, released “A Business Plan for America’s Energy Future”, a report that calls for government investment in energy innovation to triple. Gates contrasts his proposal to status quo energy policies favoring fossil fuels, “Most of the technologies that underlie the current energy system were invented decades ago and are increasingly costly, brittle, and incompatible with a clean future.” Gates, a strong supporter of nuclear energy, disappointingly includes nuclear in his definition of “renewable” rather than calling exclusively for truly renewable sources, such as wind and solar.

Establish Bold and Binding Energy & Climate Policy.

Energy Efficiency: In a letter to Congress dated April 23, 2009, Google’s Climate Change and Energy Initiatives Director detailed the company’s support for an energy efficiency resource standard. Microsoft signed onto a letter to the U.S. Senate in September 2009 in support of energy efficiency provisions in two pending energy bills.

Renewable Energy: Google supports a national renewable energy standard, following the lead of states that have adopted a requirement of 25% of energy sold to be supplied by renewable by 2025. Google’s “Clean Energy 2030” prescribes a slightly more aggressive target: two-thirds of U.S. electricity generation to come from renewables by 2030.

A Cap on Carbon: Google has been supportive of putting a legally binding cap on carbon pollution, as demonstrated by its backing of the primary climate bills debated in the U.S. House and Senate in 2009.  On the other hand, Google needs to put forward a vision that links its transformational Clean Energy 2030 vision to international climate policy and apply its ideas in the international arena. Microsoft has been largely silent on U.S. domestic cap and trade climate legislation, though the company did sign onto a letter in December, 2009, urging President Obama to reach an international agreement on emissions reductions at the Copenhagen climate negotiations.

Cool IT Leaderboard: Advocacy Score Comparison

Google: 25/35 points

Microsoft: 12/35 points

Check out Google and Microsoft’s complete scores, and see how they compare to other IT companies on the Cool IT Leaderboard.

feedproxy.google.com | 7/15/10 11:15 PM

Comprehensive, trusted and detailed database of UK care home

Mubaloo, a company who creates and develops business applications  for smartphones, has introduced a new iPhone application for those are seeking a care home.

www.macworld.co.uk | 7/15/10 11:05 AM

Keep track of all the business news, from mergers to markets, with any one of a variety of free business applications for smartphones, the iPod Touch or the iPad.

www.nytimes.com | 7/14/10 11:25 PM

Through a For IT, By IT editorial filter, Network Computing connects the dots between architectural approach and how technology impacts the business, applications, and network.

www.topix.net | 7/11/10 10:48 PM

Large enterprises are spending "mucho dinero" when it comes to key business applications for their employees.

www.topix.net | 7/9/10 12:10 AM

Through a For IT, By IT editorial filter, Network Computing connects the dots between architectural approach and how technology impacts the business, applications, and network.

www.topix.net | 7/2/10 9:12 PM

Apple's selling of 3 million iPads in 80 days opens the door for business users, and one VAR shows what the creative use of iPad business applications can mean for customers.

www.crn.com | 6/22/10 8:22 PM

Intuit, which has more than 300,000 customers using its online network of small business applications, has restored services that were down for almost two days.

www.topix.net | 6/18/10 8:14 PM

On Thursday, Microsoft unveiled plans to launch a mobile software platform called Windows Embedded Handheld. The new platform would become the third mobile operating system in the Microsoft portfolio.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the Windows Embedded Handheld platform focuses on "extending Windows and the benefits of cloud computing to the world of specialized devices." He outlined Microsoft's commitment to the future of enterprise handheld devices at the New York launch event for the Motorola ES400, an enterprise digital assistant.

"These releases will provide proven management and security functionality, while giving customers confidence that investments in handheld enterprise devices and line-of-business applications will be protected over time by an extended support life cycle," Ballmer said.

An Endless Enterprise Future

Microsoft pointed to an endless future for enterprise handheld devices. VDC Research estimates there were 2.3 million device shipments in 2009 and predicts this number to exceed 4.3 million by 2014. The existing Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile platforms accounted for 87 percent of these 2009 shipments.

Windows Embedded Handheld will focus on line-of-business (LOB) scenarios and work to boost productivity of the mobile enterprise workforce by making way for users to capture, access and act on business-critical information where and when they need it. But Michael Disabato, managing vice president for the network and telecom group at Gartner, is skeptical.

"Any operating system that claims to make businesses more productive will get me to fall on the floor laughing. Operating systems don't make businesses productive, people do," Disabato said. "I've been on the toys-to-tools kick since the mid-90s. When you look at the iPad, you can make a tool out of it. You can also make a tool out of the iPhone and probably a RIM device. You can do that with Microsoft, too, except that Microsoft is so far behind everyone else."

Is Microsoft...

www.cio-today.com | 6/18/10 5:14 PM

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., June 15, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Verizon Business announced on Tuesday that SAP AG has certified the company's cloud-based on-demand Computing as a Service, or CaaS, platform for the delivery of SAP business applications.

www.topix.net | 6/15/10 5:33 PM

Jive Software has launched tools designed to bring social networking capabilities further into the enterprise, along with strategic partnerships with both Google and Twitter. Jive What Matters is a tool that aggregates relevant information from social business applications, existing enterprise tools and the external social Web into a single page designed to enable faster action by decision makers. www.ecommercetimes.com | 6/14/10 8:09 PM

An expected 30 million Americans will join Medicaid and private insurance plans as a result of health-care reform signed into law by President Obama on Mar. 23. When they do, they will have to register through "health information exchanges" that the federal government requires states to set up by 2014.

Dell, the world's third-largest computer maker, has assembled a team of consultants to help U.S. states meet those mandates. On June 9, the Round Rock [Tex.) company said it has formed a state health services group to provide consulting to states as they work to comply with the legislation.

"There is not a lot of time to get these exchanges built," says Melissa Boudreault, director of state health services at Dell, who is heading the initiative. "You're going from zero to 100 in a relatively short amount of time."

Federal Money to Build Exchanges

The company is angling for a slice of the $386 million awarded by the government to help 40 states build the exchanges, which will include Web sites, computer systems, and telephone support for citizens enrolling in insurance plans. In all, the government has set aside almost $1 billion for advancing the use of information technology in health care, including use of electronic medical records and worker training.

Joshua Greenbaum, principal of research firm Enterprise Applications Consulting, based in Berkeley, Calif., says there's "an enormous opportunity" to connect citizens to government services by using customer management software and business applications to power agencies' Web sites. "The software for government relating to its constituents is some of the most abysmal stuff you've ever seen," he says.

Dell's effort is the fruit of its $3.6 billion acquisition of Perot Systems in November 2009, a transaction designed to help it expand in technology services and better compete with Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Perot's strengths include health care...

www.cio-today.com | 6/14/10 1:40 PM

Cisco Systems is targeting the small-business market -- specifically companies with fewer than 100 employees -- with its latest storage product. The Cisco Small Business NSS 300 Series Smart Storage aims to help small businesses deal with rapidly growing electronic information.

The NSS 300 Series is a desktop network storage solution that integrates business apps. Cisco's goal is to give small businesses a secure way to store and share critical business data.

But do small businesses really need a Cisco storage product? Ray Boggs, vice president of SMB research at IDC, thinks so. "Over half of small businesses expect their storage needs to increase in the next 12 months, and about a third of those expecting growth identify expanding storage capacity or improving storage management as one their top IT priorities," he said.

A One-Stop Storage Shop

Cisco's NSS 300 Series offers two-bay, four-bay, and six-bay desktop network storage units. According to Cisco, the devices can provide up to 12 terabytes of capacity with two-terabyte drives.

Cisco is billing it as a single storage solution with integrated business applications, sort of a one-stop shop for storage and related apps where small-business customers can protect and share information more efficiently. Built-in applications include a user-configurable web server with an integrated WordPress publishing platform. Built-in servers work to streamline user authentication and management of the network.

On the security front, Cisco promises secure remote access while guarding against unauthorized access. Cisco accomplishes this through on-disk data encryption. That means even if the hard drives are stolen, critical data is protected. Most small-business storage solutions don't offer this feature.

The network attached storage devices also make way for small businesses to schedule power on/off according to working hours. It also conserves power with an Energy Star V-rated power adapter and hard drives that spin down on inactivity.

Is the...

www.cio-today.com | 6/11/10 7:52 PM

South Africa Tracker 2010 is already a Top 10 free download in 26 countries

Mubaloo, a company who creates and develops business applications  for smartphones, has introduced South Africa Tracker 2010 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

www.macworld.co.uk | 6/11/10 2:50 PM

More new releases this week that will help SMBs do business and cut costs, not least of which is the launch of Google Caffeine that will see SMB websites updated quicker. A new release from Cisco offers affordable storage solutions with integrated business applications.

Read full story... www.cmswire.com | 6/10/10 3:42 PM

June 1, 2010 - MIPS Technologies, Inc. , a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications and business applications, and SySDSoft Inc., a leading supplier of Mobile WiMAX and LTE embedded software solutions for 4G, today announced the industry's first LTE ...

www.topix.net | 6/2/10 12:54 PM

Filed under: Car Buying, Technology, Mercedes-Benz

The resounding successes of the iPhone and iPad have Apple shareholders dancing in the streets, but one area in which Apple hasn't been as successful, however, has been business applications. In fact, until recently, Apple retail stores used Windows-based devices to ring up orders. Now, Mercedes-Benz aims to be among the first companies to change that paradigm by bringing the popular iPad tablet into its showrooms.

The program, called Mercedes-Benz Advantage, puts the iPad into the hands of the automaker's sales force. With the iPad and Mercedes' new sales tool app, associates will have lightning-fast access to the latest deals, while also providing a quicker turnaround time for customer credit application processes. Benz also says the iPad will help speed up the time it takes to turn-in a leased vehicle. Andreas Hinrichs, Vice President of Marketing for Mercedes-Benz Financial, contends the Apple tablet will "provide a competitive advantage to our dealers by increasing their service levels through a more flexible financing process."

We dig that Mercedes is thinking outside the box to deliver an expedited shopping experience, but even better, we love the fact that the Apple iPad might help customers avoid the dreaded trip to dealership's finance room. Hit the jump to read over the press release.

[Source: Mercedes-Benz]

Continue reading Apple iPad to be used as sales tool by Mercedes-Benz dealers

Apple iPad to be used as sales tool by Mercedes-Benz dealers originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 29 May 2010 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink  | Email this  | Comments www.autoblog.com | 5/29/10 11:32 PM

Search for the very best accommodation, things to do and places to eat in the UK

Mubaloo, a company who creates and develops business applications  for smartphones, has introduced Britain's Finest for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The app promises to help search for the very best accommodation, things to do and places to eat in the UK.

www.macworld.co.uk | 5/26/10 6:00 PM

As Sage's annual Insights partner conference comes to a close, the consensus among solution providers that work with the business applications vendor is that the company is moving in the right direction. And that Sage executives, particularly the new channel management regime, are hearing partners' concerns.

"I feel a lot better about who's in charge," said Wendy Gorrie, general manager with Plus Computer Solutions, a Vancouver, B.C.-based solution provider that resells Sage Accpac ERP, SageCRM and other Sage products. "They're good at listening to what the partners need."

By all accounts, the past couple of years haven't been easy for the company or for many solution providers in its Sage Partner Advantage program. Sage North America, which accounts for about 40 percent of parent company U.K.-based The Sage Group Plc's sales, reported a 10 percent revenue decline in fiscal 2009. And hundreds of employees at both Sage North America and Sage Group lost their jobs in layoffs in December 2008 and May 2009.

"I don't know about you, but I'm pretty happy to see the economy improving," said Sage North America CEO Sue Swenson in a keynote speech at Insights in Denver Monday. "Choppy, bumpy, but choppy, bumpy on the way up."

www.crn.com | 5/21/10 8:41 PM

PC Magazine - The iPad is undoubtedly a good machine to consume content on, but how good it is for business applications? I've spent a good deal of time trying this out lately, and found a lot of limitations, but also a lot to like. us.rd.yahoo.com | 5/21/10 6:50 PM

Samsung Stride clamshell design handset : The attractive flip-style form factor makes the Samsung Stride (Model : Samsung SCH-r330) ideal for consumers looking for a quick and simple way to stay connected. Equipped with Bluetooth Wireless capabilities, the Samsung Stride mobile phone is perfect for quickly pairing other Bluetooth-enabled devices while on-the-go for a seamless hands-free experience. Samsung Stride users can personalize the Stride by using its EasyEdge services to download their favourite ringtones, wallpapers, mobile games and business applications. Users can also capture photos with the Samsung Stride’s 1.3 megapixel built-in digital camera. www.letsgodigital.org | 5/19/10 4:18 PM

Our platform readily supports the iPad with our corporate mission; "Access Anywhere, Anyhow, Anytime" to just about every possible business application." story.venezuelastar.com | 5/16/10 8:51 AM

SAP's $5.8-billion acquisition of Sybase is designed primarily to enable the former to offer its business applications for people on the move. timesofindia.indiatimes.com | 5/13/10 7:45 PM

In the largest technology industry acquisition of the year, SAP announced plans to buy Sybase for about $5.8 billion. SAP said the merged company will focus on serving "unwired enterprises."

There are clear synergies between SAP and Sybase across both product lines and markets. SAP expects the merger to help the company hasten its reach across mobile platforms and drive adoption of its in-memory computing vision, which in turn is expected to spur greater adoption of SAP software. Sybase's mobile platform will also connect and enable SAP apps and data on mobile devices.

Meanwhile, the companies expect SAP's in-memory technology to give Sybase the opportunity to improve the performance of its analytics offering and extend the reach of its event-processing and analytics solutions to new industries. SAP's tech should also beef up Sybase's core database business, the companies said.

The Mobile Enterprise

Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEO of SAP, noted that mobile devices are becoming the preferred interaction point with business applications. He then pointed to how this plays out in the merger.

"The combination of SAP and Sybase will give users the option of running their operations from leading mobile devices and will unleash the full power of mobility, including messaging interoperability, content delivery, and mobile commerce services, across all companies and roles and in any location," Snabe said.

Warren Wilson, an analyst at Ovum, agreed that the merger will strengthen SAP's hand in mobile applications. But, he added, the acquisition may also signal a shift in the company's long-standing strategy of growth through internal development and acquisition.

A Shifting Growth Strategy

Indeed, Sybase is SAP's second major acquisition. The company snapped up BusinessObjects, a business intelligence and analytics vendor, for $6.8 billion in 2007. If SAP hadn't moved on that deal, the company would have sorely lagged behind Oracle and IBM in what now is a...

www.cio-today.com | 5/13/10 4:36 PM

SAP plans to use its acquisition of Sybase as a way to bring both its own and its customers' business applications to a potential of 4 billion mobile devices using Sybase's technology.

www.crn.com | 5/12/10 11:40 PM

Most small-business owners don't realize this yet, but a mother lode of technology that can free precious cash and manpower is available to them as in no other time in history.

Small firms typically buy basic clerical and accounting software in shrink-wrap boxes and run them on a company computer. The owner, or a harried employee, invariably gets pressed into service as resident tech expert.

But today, they can tap into a swelling portfolio of business applications residing in far-off computer servers. These programs come down from the Internet cloud, sent by a growing army of software companies eager to deliver powerful tools to Web browsers in laptops, netbooks and smartphones. Users pay as they use.

So-called software-as-a-service, or SaaS, has long been available to big companies. Now that computing power has become dirt cheap and Internet usage ubiquitous, software developers are racing to put cutting-edge business apps into the hands of small firms in ways that could give a lift to the economic recovery.

"We're entering an entirely new paradigm," says Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, a San Francisco-based supplier of programs that manage customer relations. "It's fantastic for small business, because software-as-a-service gives them a whole new level of capabilities."

Services such as Speakeasy, Concur Breeze and Avalara have cropped up to manage Internet phone systems, do expense and travel accounting, and handle complex sales-tax payments for small firms. For modest fees, these suppliers assume the burden of keeping programs updated, secure and readily accessible. "This technology allows you to do more with less," says Bruce Chatterley, CEO of Speakeasy, a Seattle-based supplier of Internet phone systems. "Small business can now go toe-to-toe with big business."

The trend has grabbed the attention of the tech giants. Microsoft and IBM have begun hustling to prepare a new generation of hosted services, tuned for small businesses...

www.cio-today.com | 5/12/10 3:28 PM

If you're nervous about running your business applications on a public cloud , many experts recommend that you take a spin around a private cloud first.

www.topix.net | 5/11/10 7:43 AM

According to Gartner, “By 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets.” While the need for hardware will not disappear completely, hardware ownership is going through a transition: Virtualization, total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits, an openness to allow users run their personal machines on corporate networks, and the advent of cloud computing are all driving the movement to reduce hardware assets. Cloud computing offers the ability to deliver critical business applications, systems, and services around the world with a high degree of availability, which enables a more productive workforce. No matter which cloud service — IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS (or combination thereof) — a customer or service provider chooses, the availability of that service to users is paramount, especially if service level agreements (SLAs) are part of the contract. Even with a huge cost savings, there is no benefit for either the user or business if an application or infrastructure component is unavailable or slow.

read more

dotnet.sys-con.com | 5/10/10 10:30 AM

According to Gartner, “By 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets.” While the need for hardware will not disappear completely, hardware ownership is going through a transition: Virtualization, total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits, an openness to allow users run their personal machines on corporate networks, and the advent of cloud computing are all driving the movement to reduce hardware assets. Cloud computing offers the ability to deliver critical business applications, systems, and services around the world with a high degree of availability, which enables a more productive workforce. No matter which cloud service — IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS (or combination thereof) — a customer or service provider chooses, the availability of that service to users is paramount, especially if service level agreements (SLAs) are part of the contract. Even with a huge cost savings, there is no benefit for either the user or business if an application or infrastructure component is unavailable or slow.

read more

dotnet.sys-con.com | 5/10/10 10:30 AM

Historically, the back office business applications that support companies have been distinct from the category of business intelligence (BI). Certainly, applications have had certain ways of extracting analytics, but the interfaces were often complex, unique, and infrequently used. By using SaaS applications and rich Internet technologies that create different interface capabilities -- as well as a wellspring of integration and governance on the back-end of these business applications (built on a common architecture) -- more actionable data gets to those who can use it best. They get to use it on their terms, as our case today will show, for HCM or human resources managers in large enterprises.

read more

web2.sys-con.com | 5/9/10 11:30 AM

Historically, the back office business applications that support companies have been distinct from the category of business intelligence (BI). Certainly, applications have had certain ways of extracting analytics, but the interfaces were often complex, unique, and infrequently used. By using SaaS applications and rich Internet technologies that create different interface capabilities -- as well as a wellspring of integration and governance on the back-end of these business applications (built on a common architecture) -- more actionable data gets to those who can use it best. They get to use it on their terms, as our case today will show, for HCM or human resources managers in large enterprises.

read more

web2.sys-con.com | 5/9/10 11:30 AM

MIPS Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications and business applications, announced today that Mobileye, the global pioneer and leader in vision-based collision prevention systems, licensed its multi-threaded multiprocessing MIPS32 ...

www.topix.net | 5/3/10 5:36 PM

IBM has acquired cloud computing startup Cast Iron Systems to "broaden the delivery of cloud computing services for clients." Cast Iron Systems provides a SaaS cloud integration software. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cast Iron Systems' software-as-a-service provides cloud computing integration appliances for large and midsize companies, including Allianz, NEC, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Dow Jones, Schumacher Group, ShoreTel, Sports Authority, Time Warner, Westmont University and others. The startup has capitalized on the growing trend of companies running key business applications through software as a service models and cloud deployments. techcrunch.com | 5/3/10 4:26 PM

WebSphere eXtreme Scale v7.1 sets the standard as the industry's premier Elastic Data Grid product, setting standards with new levels of performance and reliability. WebSphere eXtreme Scale provides the technology to enhance business applications, including web commerce, supply chain, financial, trading and on-line gaming, to form new, innovative classes of business applications by extending the data-caching concept with advanced features.

feedproxy.google.com | 4/29/10 12:04 AM

PocketCloud remote system access iPad application : Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing and client virtualization, announced that Wyse PocketCloud has been enhanced with more than 20 new features and improvements for existing iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users, including VMware View 4 support, enhanced user experience via the new Wyse Touch Pointer and new audio features. Wyse PocketCloud for the iPad is currently one of the Top 20 Paid Business Applications and also one of the Top 100 grossing applications. PocketCloud blends the enterprise popularity of Windows with the rich capabilities of the new Apple mobile devices. Wyse PocketCloud is compatible with iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch and now with the iPad. www.letsgodigital.org | 4/28/10 10:00 AM

Java developers may have good news to celebrate today. Salesforce.com and virtualization giant VMware are partnering to launch VMforce, a enterprise Java Cloud platform to enable Java developers to build apps off of Force.com. Salesforce is leveraging the Java development framework which was acquired by VMware when the company bought SpringSource for $420 million. SpringSource provides a development platform for engineers to build enterprise Java apps. The launch of VMforce is significant because it brings a mission critical deployment environment for enterprise Java apps in the cloud. Previously, Java developers had limited environments to deploy applications in the cloud. VMforce aims to provide a cloud-based application platform to the 6 million enterprise Java developers, including the 2 million members of Spring community. The offering allows Java developers to tap into Salesforce's Force.com application, which provides a cloud-based platform to run and operate business applications. Developers can access the Force.com database, workflow, analytics, search, and Chatter profiles and feeds techcrunch.com | 4/27/10 12:56 PM

Sybase has announced the availability of Sybase PowerBuilder 12. This latest generation of Sybase's award-winning rapid application development tool empowers developers with the easiest, fastest and most cost-effective path to create or migrate their business applications on the Microsoft .NET Framework, for thoroughly modern and visually appealing application user experiences. "For years, Sybase PowerBuilder has remained a bastion of application development productivity for a wide class of enterprise applications that combine heavy database orientation with a highly productive graphical user interface (GUI)," said Al Hilwa, program director for IDC's Application Development Software research. "The direction that PowerBuilder has taken to become a seamless Windows .NET environment with the Visual Studio shell incorporated into its infrastructure means that the product can now be considered equally for evolving existing systems and for developing new ones for traditional Windows 32 environments and for .NET." ¹

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pbdj.sys-con.com | 4/23/10 3:30 PM

As part of its program to develop a completely integrated and open software stack, Oracle (news, site)  has just announced the release of new Virtual Machine (VM) templates for three of it s principal business applications.

Read full story... www.cmswire.com | 4/23/10 2:03 PM

At the top of the list for a half-dozen CIOs sharing one table at MES was the question of how the Apple iPad will fit into their mobile business application plans. The question was not whether they would see iPads in the hands of employees, but how their key business applications will work on the device.

www.crn.com | 4/19/10 5:28 PM

Microsoft's crown jewel is moving into release. Late last week, the Office 2010 suite of business applications was released to manufacturing (RTM) along with SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010.

As noted by Microsoft corporate Vice President Takeshi Numoto on the Office 2010 engineering blog, "RTM is the final engineering milestone of a product release." The suite was first released as a public beta last November, and Microsoft said more than 7.5 million people -- three times the number for Office 2007 -- have downloaded the beta version.

Official Launch on May 12

Volume-license customers with active Software Assurance (SA) for these products will be able to download them through the Volume Licensing Service Center, beginning April 27. May 1 is the date that customers without SA can begin purchasing through volume licensing from Microsoft's partners.

The official launch is scheduled for May 12, when there will be product demos, testimonials and interviews with members of the project team. In June, the apps will become available in retail stores in the U.S., although pre-ordering can be done now.

In the feedback received from the millions of beta users, Microsoft said 90 percent found the new suite to be an improvement over the current version.

Among other well-received new features and enhancements, Numoto noted that users felt the Backstage view makes the suite a "better overall experience." Backstage allows a user to organize all the features and capabilities for a given document for easy access to sharing, printing, permission management, and other functions.

'Compelling' Interoperability Features

Another feature popular among beta users is Conversation View, which lets the Outlook in-box and other mail folders be organized by date and conversation. Messages with the same subject, for instance, can appear as expanded or collapsed threads of a conversation.

In Excel, a new graphical representation of data that fits in...

www.cio-today.com | 4/19/10 4:08 PM

NetSuite SuiteCloud 2010 -- NetSuite Inc. , a leading vendor of cloud computing business management software suites, today announced the immediate availability of SuiteCloud 2.0, the newest version of the world's leading cloud development platform for building and deploying powerful cloud business applications.

www.topix.net | 4/18/10 8:33 PM

Here's our take on what we see as some of the leading business applications for midmarket businesses and the solution providers who serve them.

www.crn.com | 4/15/10 9:25 PM

PC World - IBM is integrating its LotusLive SaaS (software as a service) collaboration suite with a range of other business applications and services, including Salesforce.com, UPS shipping, Skype and the Silanis e-signature service. us.rd.yahoo.com | 4/13/10 6:10 PM