More than nine months later, Oracle finalizes its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Next, Oracle wants to be like IBM—the IBM of the 1960s.
A series of Oracle executives took turns outlining the company's plans for integrating Sun Microsystems' hardware and software with Oracle's own products. And several pointed to IBM circa 1965, which provided customers with tightly integrated hardware-software systems, as the model Oracle plans to follow as it combines Oracle and Sun technologies into similar offerings following the completion of Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun.
"We want to recreate that IBM of the 1960s, but on an open standards platform," said Charles Phillips, President, Oracle. "The bottom line is, we want to change and improve the way people buy [IT] systems, the way they run them and the way they manage them. Complete systems, not just a series of components."
Executive after executive referred to slides showing a complete technology "stack" with servers, storage, operating system, virtualization, database, middleware and application software products with Sun hardware and software largely making up the lower layers and Oracle software the upper layers.
"We've had a lot of time to plan, we have a lot of detail," Phillips said, noting that more than nine months had passed between April 2009 when Oracle announced the Sun deal and today. "We're not just hitting the ground running, we've been running for quite a while."
Phillips said Oracle would retain the Sun brand on that company's products. "We're not only going to keep the Sun brand name, we're going to re-invigorate it," he said.
To ward off speculation that Oracle might discontinue some Sun products, Oracle has repeatedly said it intends to invest heavily in continued development of Sun's Sparc microprocessors, Java development technology and Solaris operating system, among others. Phillips said Oracle would spend $4.3 billion on research and development in fiscal 2011 (which begins June 1, 2010), a big increase from the $2.8 billion in spent in fiscal 2009.
The majority of the presentations at Wednesday's event offered details about how Sun hardware will be integrated with Oracle products and how the two vendors' software lines will be consolidated.
According to Phillips, Oracle plans to invest heavily in Sun's server, storage, and processor products with more of a focus on accelerating Oracle's software stack and less on general purpose business. The vendor's strategy, now that it has both its legacy application business and Sun's hardware and operating system business, is to build integrated systems similar to the mainframe of the 1960s, but on open systems.
Thomas Kurian, Senior Vice President of Oracle server technologies development, outlined Oracle's roadmap for ongoing development of Sun's software products and plans to integrate them with Oracle software.
In a number of cases Oracle will continue to enhance and support Sun software, as it has with products from earlier acquisitions, but will designate Oracle's software as the company's "strategic product."
Oracle's WebLogic application server, for example, will remain the company's flagship application server. But Kurian said Oracle would continue to support Sun's GlassFish application server and even share technology between the two products. The Oracle SOA Suite will likewise be the company's lead product while support for Sun's Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS) will continue. And the Oracle WebCenter Suite portal platform will take the lead over Sun's GlassFish Web Space Server.
In some cases the Sun technology wins out. While the Oracle Identity Management Suite will become the company's lead product, with continued support for the Sun Identity Manager, Kurian said Sun's Role Manager software would become Oracle's key technology for identity analytics.
Oracle will develop interoperability links between the Oracle Enterprise Manager systems management suite and the Sun Ops Center, with the two eventually merging into a single product, Kurian said.
Calling Sun's Java development technology one of the crown jewels of the acquisition, Kurian said Oracle would continue to extend and enhance the Java programming model, including simplifying Java runtime platforms for a variety of deployment environments.
Kurian also vowed to continue development of Sun's Solaris Unix-based operating system along with Oracle's version of Linux.
Oracle's JDeveloper will remain the vendor's key Java development platform with Sun's NetBeans taking the role of a lightweight Java development environment, according to Kurian.
Oracle executives also provided a peek at development plans for MySQL, the open-source database that led the European Commission to hold up the Sun acquisition for months for fear that owning it would make Oracle too powerful in the database market. Edward Screven, chief corporate architect, said Oracle would improve MySQL by developing links to Enterprise Manager and Audit Vault, among other steps.
Aside from technology blueprints, Oracle execs also outlined plans to consolidate supply chains from Oracle and Sun suppliers and make the combined company more cost efficient.
Less clear was just how many jobs at Sun will be lost while the company's operations are consolidated. Ellison criticized press and analyst reports suggesting that as much as 50 percent of the Sun workforce would be laid off. "That's a very irresponsible thing to make up and print," he said.
While a spokesperson said Oracle has released no details about potential job cuts, Ellison said Oracle plans to hire about 2,000 new employees to bolster Sun's operations, which he said was "about twice as many" as are likely to be laid off.
Showing posts with label It Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label It Management. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
L&T Infotech To Implement E-governance Project For AICTE
L&T Infotech has won an e-governance implementation project from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), an institution affiliated to the Union Ministry of HRD, Government of India.
Under this project, L&T Infotech will implement Siebel CRM (Customer Relationship Management) modules and will also supply and execute a comprehensive System Integration (SI) network, including supply of the requisite hardware for PCs and networking equipment, for their office in Delhi and 15 regional offices across the country. L&T Infotech will be integrating payment gateways and biometric features in the e-governance solution. It will also provide a 4-year support for applications and hardware.
According to Dr SS Mantha, Acting Chairman, AICTE, the project will provide instantaneous information and status to all stakeholders on the criteria for accreditation of an Institution. It will also facilitate the process of making an online application for various approvals easier and thus will be more user-friendly.
This e-governance project is expected to open doors for several critical projects in the education space as AICTE has 20,000 institutions under its banner.Dell Appoints Neoteric As ND
As a part of the strategy to strengthen its SMB business, Dell India has roped in Neoteric Infomatique as its second national distributor. The company already has Iris Computers as a national distributor.
“We have had Iris as our national distributor for some time to fulfill back-to-back orders. Neoteric will play a similar role,” said Neeraj Singh, Head, Commercial Channel Operations, Dell India. “Having a second distributor allows us to target a larger base of partners, many of them exclusive to both.”
When asked if Dell is planning to adopt a stock-and-sell model with the appointment of Neoteric, Singh said, “Our focus so far has really been on the mid-market where the back-to-back model serves us well. From a partner perspective, those that merely resell will obviously not benefit from this model. However, value-added resellers and solution providers have obviously welcomed it because they no longer have to store inventory or be constantly reminded by our sales team about how much stock they have to pick up from us. They can focus solely on generating leads and business development, and that prospect is appealing for most of them.”
However, he also added that the company will continue to evaluate options that will allow them to grow their SMB business profitably. “Whichever model we adopt in future, we will adhere to our tenets of limited distribution, limited number of partners and a deeper and more fulfilling relationship with each of these partners,” added Singh.
“We have had Iris as our national distributor for some time to fulfill back-to-back orders. Neoteric will play a similar role,” said Neeraj Singh, Head, Commercial Channel Operations, Dell India. “Having a second distributor allows us to target a larger base of partners, many of them exclusive to both.”
When asked if Dell is planning to adopt a stock-and-sell model with the appointment of Neoteric, Singh said, “Our focus so far has really been on the mid-market where the back-to-back model serves us well. From a partner perspective, those that merely resell will obviously not benefit from this model. However, value-added resellers and solution providers have obviously welcomed it because they no longer have to store inventory or be constantly reminded by our sales team about how much stock they have to pick up from us. They can focus solely on generating leads and business development, and that prospect is appealing for most of them.”
However, he also added that the company will continue to evaluate options that will allow them to grow their SMB business profitably. “Whichever model we adopt in future, we will adhere to our tenets of limited distribution, limited number of partners and a deeper and more fulfilling relationship with each of these partners,” added Singh.
Windows 7 Drives Record Profit For Microsoft
Better-than-expected growth in Microsoft's consumer business, and strong Windows 7 demand, helped the software giant break a string of disappointing quarterly results.
For Microsoft's fiscal second quarter ended December 31, revenue jumped 14 percent to just over $19 billion and profit rose 60 percent to $6.6 billion. Earnings per share leapt 57 percent to 74 cents, far outpacing Wall Street analysts' expectation of 59 cents per share.
In Microsoft's earnings call, newly anointed CFO Peter Klein, who took over last month for the departed Chris Liddell, said Microsoft sold roughly 60 million Windows 7 licenses during the first half of its fiscal 2010 year. Consumer SKUs such as Windows 7 Home Premium helped drive a 35 percent year-on-year increase in Windows licensing revenue during Q2, according to Klein.
"It was an exceptional quarter for the Windows division," Klein said in the call.
Netbooks, which have been the bane of Microsoft's existence because of their propensity to eat away at Microsoft's Windows Client division revenue, are starting to look like less of a threat. Klein estimated that netbooks currently account for about 11 percent of the PC market, a number that is roughly flat year on year.
Microsoft is trying to become more consumer oriented and the Q2 results suggest it has made some progress in this area. But Microsoft, of course, has traditionally made most of its money from business customers, and its outlook in this regard is decidedly less rosy. Klein admitted that enterprise spending still hasn't seen any kind of meaningful uptick that would indicate a recovery is imminent.
The server hardware market was stronger than expected during the quarter, and customer adoption of Windows Server 2008 R2, as well as Microsoft's virtualization and management offerings, continued to grow during the quarter, Klein said. But the Microsoft Business Division saw revenue drop 3 percent due to the weak IT spending environment. And annuity licensing revenue, which Microsoft derives from volume licensing agreements, was also flat year-on-year.
Klein said Enterprise Agreement sales cycles are starting to lengthen and that overall, Microsoft's unearned revenue, much of which comes from volume licensing, was down slightly for the year, he said.
This is important because annuity licensing has acted as a cushion for Microsoft's revenue in the past. Last July, Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft's Server and Tools division, acknowledged this in a meeting with financial analysts.
"What you have in essence is a shock absorber to the business," Muglia told financial analysts last July.
Elsewhere, Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division saw revenue fall 11 percent, and Online Services division revenue dropped 5 percent, including a 2 percent drop in online advertising. Microsoft was quick to point out that Bing has gained market share in each of the 7 months since its launch, but has been impacted by declining display advertising rates in international markets.
While it's no doubt encouraging to Microsoft executives to see the Windows cash cow back on its feet, the questions about its enterprise business have probably stifled any champagne cork popping in Redmond. With Microsoft set to launch Windows Azure as a paid service next week, all eyes will be on the Server and Tools division in next quarter's earnings call.
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For Microsoft's fiscal second quarter ended December 31, revenue jumped 14 percent to just over $19 billion and profit rose 60 percent to $6.6 billion. Earnings per share leapt 57 percent to 74 cents, far outpacing Wall Street analysts' expectation of 59 cents per share.
In Microsoft's earnings call, newly anointed CFO Peter Klein, who took over last month for the departed Chris Liddell, said Microsoft sold roughly 60 million Windows 7 licenses during the first half of its fiscal 2010 year. Consumer SKUs such as Windows 7 Home Premium helped drive a 35 percent year-on-year increase in Windows licensing revenue during Q2, according to Klein.
"It was an exceptional quarter for the Windows division," Klein said in the call.
Netbooks, which have been the bane of Microsoft's existence because of their propensity to eat away at Microsoft's Windows Client division revenue, are starting to look like less of a threat. Klein estimated that netbooks currently account for about 11 percent of the PC market, a number that is roughly flat year on year.
Microsoft is trying to become more consumer oriented and the Q2 results suggest it has made some progress in this area. But Microsoft, of course, has traditionally made most of its money from business customers, and its outlook in this regard is decidedly less rosy. Klein admitted that enterprise spending still hasn't seen any kind of meaningful uptick that would indicate a recovery is imminent.
The server hardware market was stronger than expected during the quarter, and customer adoption of Windows Server 2008 R2, as well as Microsoft's virtualization and management offerings, continued to grow during the quarter, Klein said. But the Microsoft Business Division saw revenue drop 3 percent due to the weak IT spending environment. And annuity licensing revenue, which Microsoft derives from volume licensing agreements, was also flat year-on-year.
Klein said Enterprise Agreement sales cycles are starting to lengthen and that overall, Microsoft's unearned revenue, much of which comes from volume licensing, was down slightly for the year, he said.
This is important because annuity licensing has acted as a cushion for Microsoft's revenue in the past. Last July, Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft's Server and Tools division, acknowledged this in a meeting with financial analysts.
"What you have in essence is a shock absorber to the business," Muglia told financial analysts last July.
Elsewhere, Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division saw revenue fall 11 percent, and Online Services division revenue dropped 5 percent, including a 2 percent drop in online advertising. Microsoft was quick to point out that Bing has gained market share in each of the 7 months since its launch, but has been impacted by declining display advertising rates in international markets.
While it's no doubt encouraging to Microsoft executives to see the Windows cash cow back on its feet, the questions about its enterprise business have probably stifled any champagne cork popping in Redmond. With Microsoft set to launch Windows Azure as a paid service next week, all eyes will be on the Server and Tools division in next quarter's earnings call.
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RT Outsourcing Organizes Aagman 2010
RT Outsourcing Services organized Aagman 2010, its annual cultural event organized on the eve of Republic day. The reverse logistics company also awarded its long-term employees at the event held in New Delhi.
Lighting the lamp, Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT, and chief guest of the evening said, “At a time when the employees are feeling the pressure to meet customer demands, programs like this can be a huge stress buster.”
Shammi Moza, Managing Director, RT Outsourcing Services, added, “RT Aagman offers our 4,500 employees across the country an opportunity to extend their interpersonal relationship and enhance camaraderie.”
In its ninth year, RT Aagman 2010 saw employees perform some regional dances and showcase their singing talent. Padamshree Shobha Singh, Director and Vice Chairperson, Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, and renowned classical dancer Sasidharan Nair judged the performances.
Lighting the lamp, Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT, and chief guest of the evening said, “At a time when the employees are feeling the pressure to meet customer demands, programs like this can be a huge stress buster.”
Shammi Moza, Managing Director, RT Outsourcing Services, added, “RT Aagman offers our 4,500 employees across the country an opportunity to extend their interpersonal relationship and enhance camaraderie.”
In its ninth year, RT Aagman 2010 saw employees perform some regional dances and showcase their singing talent. Padamshree Shobha Singh, Director and Vice Chairperson, Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, and renowned classical dancer Sasidharan Nair judged the performances.
Fujitsu Enhances Entry-Level Eternus Disk Storage Range
Fujitsu recently introduced enhancements to its 2.5-inch Eternus DX90 model. The entry-level range will now feature storage-based replication capabilities, and management software—Eternus SF Express—and will be cased in space and energy-saving base units.
Targeted especially at small and medium-sized businesses, Eternus SF Express simplifies operation and maintenance across the full range. It monitors and manages multiple Eternus DX systems via just one centralized console, and manages advanced copy functions for snapshots and clones. The fibre channel base models minimize system footprint and reduce overall system power consumption.
Dr Helmut Beck, Vice President, Storage Business, Fujitsu Technology Solutions said, “These innovative enhancements enable our customers to better cope with disaster recovery and business continuity issues, plus a lowered total cost of ownership (TCO) through the use of smaller, denser disk drives.”
Targeted especially at small and medium-sized businesses, Eternus SF Express simplifies operation and maintenance across the full range. It monitors and manages multiple Eternus DX systems via just one centralized console, and manages advanced copy functions for snapshots and clones. The fibre channel base models minimize system footprint and reduce overall system power consumption.
Dr Helmut Beck, Vice President, Storage Business, Fujitsu Technology Solutions said, “These innovative enhancements enable our customers to better cope with disaster recovery and business continuity issues, plus a lowered total cost of ownership (TCO) through the use of smaller, denser disk drives.”
D-Link Gets Aggressive With Router Pricingi
D-Link has slashed the price of its Wireless-N routers by 20 percent. Routers available at a discounted price include DIR-615, DIR-635 and DIR-655.
“Our mission has always been to make technology affordable for the mass market consumers and small to medium business, so that everyone can realize the benefits of technology,” said Jayesh Kotak, Vice President, Product Marketing, D-Link. “This new pricing policy will help us reach-out to newer regions.”
Early this year, D-Link had shared its plans to concentrate further on strengthening its channel strength. D-Link is now keen on increase its penetration in consumer space. The price slash is a move in the same direction.
“Our mission has always been to make technology affordable for the mass market consumers and small to medium business, so that everyone can realize the benefits of technology,” said Jayesh Kotak, Vice President, Product Marketing, D-Link. “This new pricing policy will help us reach-out to newer regions.”
Early this year, D-Link had shared its plans to concentrate further on strengthening its channel strength. D-Link is now keen on increase its penetration in consumer space. The price slash is a move in the same direction.
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IBM will allocate additional resources to help its software partners generate new business opportunities and improve their profitability. As part of its Software Value Plus initiative, the company will pass on sales leads valued below $50,000 to authorized partners.
IBM will also provide certification and training on cloud computing architecture to partners. As part of the training, partners will have access to more than 130 industry training sessions online and in local markets worldwide.
The move follows results of a survey commissioned by IBM that showed global IBM partners expected to improve profitability through IBM Software Value Plus Program and by taking advantage of cloud computing.
"Business Partners are key to IBM's success in the marketplace, and we continue to invest in new resources that help ensure their success. With this new initiative, we are now providing our partners with the same training and resources we provide our IBM sales team,” said Anil Menon, Vice President, IBM Software Group Business Partners.
"Our partners are constantly looking for new ways to demonstrate business value to clients and differentiate themselves from the competition. IBM's strategy to boost access to sales, marketing and technical skills with initiatives like Software Value Plus can help partners meet client requirements in a better way and also improve their profit margins," said A Francis Albert, General Manager, Redington India, an IBM value-added distributor.
The IBM Software Value Plus program helps software partners build technical, marketing and sales skills on IBM's software portfolio and key growth opportunities such as business analytics, collaboration and industry transformation.
IBM will also provide certification and training on cloud computing architecture to partners. As part of the training, partners will have access to more than 130 industry training sessions online and in local markets worldwide.
The move follows results of a survey commissioned by IBM that showed global IBM partners expected to improve profitability through IBM Software Value Plus Program and by taking advantage of cloud computing.
"Business Partners are key to IBM's success in the marketplace, and we continue to invest in new resources that help ensure their success. With this new initiative, we are now providing our partners with the same training and resources we provide our IBM sales team,” said Anil Menon, Vice President, IBM Software Group Business Partners.
"Our partners are constantly looking for new ways to demonstrate business value to clients and differentiate themselves from the competition. IBM's strategy to boost access to sales, marketing and technical skills with initiatives like Software Value Plus can help partners meet client requirements in a better way and also improve their profit margins," said A Francis Albert, General Manager, Redington India, an IBM value-added distributor.
The IBM Software Value Plus program helps software partners build technical, marketing and sales skills on IBM's software portfolio and key growth opportunities such as business analytics, collaboration and industry transformation.
Avnet Beats Q2 Expectations
The recovering economy helped Avnet perform well in the second fiscal quarter in both operating groups and all three geographic regions that it reports on, according to the distributor.
Avnet reported $103.9 million in net income, or 68 cents per share, on $4.83 billion in sales for the fiscal quarter ended January 2, 2010. Sales increased 13.2 percent compared with the year-ago quarter while earnings increased about 3 percent, excluding a $1.32 billion impairment charge in the year-ago quarter that dramatically impacted earnings last year when the economy collapsed.
Analysts had expected earnings of 59 cents per share on $4.55 billion in sales for the second fiscal quarter.
"Avnet's strong growth this quarter provides further evidence that the global economy has begun the next growth cycle as sales at both operating groups came in well above normal seasonality and our upwardly revised expectations for the quarter," said Roy Vallee, Chairman and CEO of Avnet, in a statement.
Avnet's Technology Solutions, which includes its enterprise computer products and services distribution, reported sales of $2.32 billion for the quarter, a 15.8 percent increase from the year-ago quarter. Sales in the Americas increased 11.7 percent, while Europe, Middle East and Africa revenue increased 4.3 percent and Asia sales went up 136.5 percent
"Technology Solutions also delivered a 77 percent increase in year-over-year return on working capital. Our TS business is well positioned to translate this resumption of revenue growth into higher margins and returns," said Vallee in the statement.
Avnet Electronics Marketing reported sales of $2.52 billion, up 11 percent year-over-year.
For the current quarter, Avnet expects sales of between $4.1 billion and $4.7 billion with earnings of 53 cents to 61 cents per share. Analysts have expected 52 cents per share in net income on $4.31 billion for the third fiscal quarter.
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