• Bang for the Buck: Raising the System iQ

  August 28, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Direct competition, at least as far as customers are concerned, is a beautiful thing. It can make vendors react quickly and decisively, and in ways that they had not anticipated with their technology and marketing. Because one vendor figures out some trick, its competitors have to figure out how to counter or copy that trick. A good example is IBM‘s invention of the dual-core processor, and another example is the advent of the quad-core processor. IBM has used the first in the iSeries line, but for some reason, it has neglected adding the second to the i5 line. This

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• Federal Trade Commission to Weigh In on Net Neutrality

  August 28, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The Federal Trade Commission, the agency of the United States government that regulates commerce as it relates to consumers, announced this week that it would put its two cents in on the so-called “Net Neutrality” issue. To simplify somewhat, some people want the Internet to remain a flat space, where no bits get preferential treatment compared to other bits, while others–mainly, the companies that comprise the backbone of the Internet–want to be able to offer tiers of Internet service and charge a premium for faster or better service. The egalitarian nature of the Internet, which was founded on open source

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• Magic Software Reports Financial Slide, Seeks to Regain Form in Europe

  August 28, 2006 Dan Burger

  Magic Software Enterprises, the Israeli-based provider of business integration technology, stumbled to losses in its second quarter. Application and licensing fees were unable to keep up with comparable categories from a year earlier, even though those numbers were also down from the previous year totals. The company, in June, sold its customer relationship management software assets to eContact Software. Magic had total revenues of $15.2 million for the second quarter ended June 30 a decline of 3 percent compared to the same quarter of 2005. License sales for the quarter accounted for $3.9 million, which was an 11 percent

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• DataMirror Reports Gains in the Second Quarter

  August 28, 2006 Dan Burger

  A decent second quarter of revenue growth has lifted DataMirror to a halfway mark in its fiscal calendar that still shows it running behind its 2006 numbers, but optimism runs high in the camp of this data integration and high availability clustering software company. DataMirror’s revenue for Q2 fiscal 2007 increased 5.9 percent, reaching $11 million. However, net income dropped from $1.3 million to $1.1 million during the same time line. Cash flow from operations for Q2 left DataMirror in the red $700,000, which is an improvement over the $1.4 million hole it was in one year ago. Cash, cash

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• IBM Debuts New WebSphere Portal 6.0, Slices Prices

  August 28, 2006 Dan Burger

  With the introduction of WebSphere Portal 6.0 server, IBM is delivering a package designed to activate more portal projects. Portal technology holds a great deal of promise, but it remains sluggish in terms of the number of projects up and running. IBM expects the Portal 6.0 portfolio boost this business because it has reduced the upfront costs as well as the complexity of portal deployment by virtue of eliminating features that are built into its portal products, known as Enable and Extend. You can’t really argue with those types of product/marketing changes. Will it motivate companies that were balking at

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• Bang for the Buck: Raising the System iQ

  August 28, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Direct competition, at least as far as customers are concerned, is a beautiful thing. It can make vendors react quickly and decisively, and in ways that they had not anticipated with their technology and marketing. Because one vendor figures out some trick, its competitors have to figure out how to counter or copy that trick. A good example is IBM‘s invention of the dual-core processor, and another example is the advent of the quad-core processor. IBM has used the first in the iSeries line, but for some reason, it has neglected adding the second to the i5 line. This

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• IBM Buys Security Expert ISS for $1.3 Billion in Cash

  August 28, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The IBM software and services spending spree continues, and the company shelled out $1.3 billion in cold, hard cash last week to acquire Internet Security Services. ISS, the fourth big acquisition IBM has done in as many weeks, is based in Atlanta and is one of the big players in security advisories, software, and appliances. ISS is a publicly traded company, and only two months ago its stock was trading down in the range of $18 a share after a hiccup caused, in part, by problems with its ERP system. IBM’s all-cash offer of $28 a share was only

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• As I See It: Corporate Tithing

  August 28, 2006 Victor Rozek

  In 1973, Wilt Chamberlain published the first of two autobiographies, titled Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door. It was a masterful title, seeking to normalize three things that were rare in the early 1970s–being simultaneously tall, black, and wealthy. But “normal” is a relative concept and, like a small number of athletic phenoms of his generation, Wilt was one of those “average” guys who skewed all the averages. Lacking a context, words like “normal” or “average” become meaningless modifiers that aim for precision but offer none. “Normal temperature,” for example, is ambiguous without citing

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• COMMON Preview: A Few Little Changes, and Some Big Ones in Store

  August 28, 2006 Mary Lou Roberts

  As is expected and desired, each COMMON conference brings with it some changes, which are designed, of course, to attract and meet the needs of COMMON members, draw more independent software vendors into the Expo, and build the momentum of the COMMON organization itself. This fall’s conference, which will be held in Miami Beach, Florida, from September 17 through 21, is no exception. Did someone consciously plan the Disaster Recovery theme of the COMMON event? In the middle of hurricane season? In Miami? The most obvious difference from past practice is that the Opening Session will be combined with the

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• The Server Market Struggles for Growth in Q2, Says IDC

  August 28, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The second quarter is never a particularly good one for the server business, and according to the latest statistics from IDC, server makers are having a hard time making up their revenues in volume. In the second quarter of 2006, worldwide server revenues across all types of servers rose by only six-tenths of a percent to $12.3 billion, and server volumes decelerated to a mere 8.3 percent growth, with just over 1.8 million units shipped. This is the third straight quarter of single-digit server shipment growth, and the eighth quarter of slowing shipments. The growth in server sales was

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