IBM
Market news
Net neutrality
Op-Ed
RFID
Sun
Training

IBM

IBM beats Q2 views as software grows 13%
IBM exceeded analysts' second-quarter earnings forecasts on strong software sales. For the quarter that ended June 30, IBM posted a profit of $1.50 per share, minus one-time expenses and gains, 15% above last year and 3 cents over views. Sales rose 9% to $23.8 billion, 3% over views. IBM also nudged up its full-year earnings guidance, forecasting growth of 14% to 15% over last year to about $6.94 a share.  Software took center stage as sales grew 13% to $4.8 billion. IBM's ambitious stock buyback program also helped. IBM's critical services business grew 7% in constant currency to $4.3 billion. Hardware sales were flat compared with the year before, at $5.1 billion. IBM stands to benefit from a trend toward so-called green computing, in which customers cut down on energy usage and carbon emissions in their data centers. In May, IBM announced a Project Big Green, pledging to spend $1 billion annually on new products and services to reduce its own carbon emissions. Big Blue expects to sell more servers and virtualization software to help customers curtail energy consumption as well.
Visit www.ibm.com.

^Back To Top

Market news

System i migration and modernization professionals form new ASNA Services Group
ASNA (Amalgamated Software of North America) announced the creation of ASNA Services Group. This new division provides the services industry professionals with expertise in application development, migration, modernization to the System i (iSeries, AS/400) community employing ASNA's product suite for Microsoft .NET.  The scope of the ASNA Services Group includes:

• Windows, Web and Web Services development extending legacy System i applications.

• Consultative service in the design, architecture and implementation of Microsoft .NET applications.

• Complete or partial migration of AS/400 applications to Microsoft .NET with ASNA Monarch.

• DB2/400 database conversion to Microsoft SQL Server.

The services group responds to ASNA customers' desire to supplement their RPG programmers' talents with .NET developers who share in the knowledge of business applications. Heading up ASNA Services Group is Rick Farina, who brings over 26 years of developer experience in the 3X/400/iSeries community including more than ten years of product development with ASNA Visual RPG and ASNA DataGate.
Visit www.asna.com.^Back To Top

Net neutrality

Senators push FCC on network neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should expand the focus of its network neutrality inquiry to include the impact of carrier practices on content providers, U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said.  Dorgan and Snowe, who have introduced network neutrality legislation in the Senate, also expressed disappointment that the FCC chose to start an inquiry instead of propose concrete network neutrality rules. Following its 2005 decision approving four network neutrality principles for end users, the FCC in March launched a Notice of Inquiry to determine if the marketplace behavior of broadband carriers threatens the historic open nature of the Internet.  Both AT&T and Verizon have floated tentative plans to charge content providers extra fees based on bandwidth consumption. Neither telecom giant has implemented the idea. Proponents of network neutrality claim speed tiers on the Internet would amount to discriminatory network traffic management, creating fast and slow lanes for content providers based on ability to pay. Dorgan and Snowe's bill -- the Internet Freedom Preservation Act -- would prohibit broadband carriers from discriminatory practices, such as pricing in handling traffic from Internet content, application and service providers. The legislation would also require carriers to offer consumers individual broadband service that is not bundled with television or telephone service. The bill is similar to an unsuccessful amendment introduced in the 109th Congress by Dorgan and Snowe.


Beyond the Beltway: Net neutrality support is stronger than ever
The results are in at the Federal Communications Commission. Tens of thousands of public comments supporting net neutrality flooded the agency before they closed their official inquiry.  In a landslide of public support, well over 95 percent of the comments called for rules that prohibit phone and cable companies from seeing through their plans to become the new gatekeepers to the Internet -- deciding which Web sites and services users get to download before others. Internet users from all 435 congressional districts urged the FCC to protect our Internet freedom. Net neutrality supporters include a full range of small business owners, students, churchgoers, bloggers, political candidates, educators and activists who took the time to tell the agency that protecting net neutrality is fundamental to their family life, work and interests. ^Back To Top

Op-Ed

IBM and Ricoh's Joint Venture

IBM has been a dangerous competitor simply because they are so smart. They have taken huge leaps to relieve themselves of divisions and technologies that are not in its core vision of strengths. Their intense focus over the past dozen years has created some interesting and important changes with lasting effects on the broader IT industry.

The printer division, located in Lexington KY was one of the casualties, when IBM "hatched" Lexmark in the early 1990’s. [They have since sold off other manufacturing and engineering divisions such as Hard Drives (Hitachi), Communications (Cisco), PC’s (Lenovo), etc.] One would have assumed that IBM’s next generation of printers would be an IBM branded machine made by Lexmark. (Made an ass of me) So, just as we all were getting our arms around the idea of this new company, “Lexmark,” we were surprised by IBM’s next move. They chose, oddly enough, to use Fuji-Xerox as their manufacturer for their own next-generation IBM-branded printers. It seemed strange that IBM would spin off its venerable engineering and manufacturing infrastructure, only to go with another vendor. (Did IBM and Lexmark have a tiff and decide to not see each other anymore? Or did IBM walk because they couldn’t get a “deal” from their offspring?).

Read entire Op-Ed.
^Back To Top

RFID

Boom in RFID will be reflected in Europe’s leading conference
As the $5 billion RFID market moves strongly to over $25 billion in ten years, advances are on a broad front. This year, the IDTechEx RFID Europe conference in Cambridge UK 18-19 September is growing and widening its scope to reflect this booming industry. RFID is an enabling technology that provides safety, security, cost reduction, increased sales, reduced crime and much more.  In item and conveyance tagging, Unisys has recently landed an extension order from the US Department of Defense worth $28 million yearly and up to $112 million if three further planned extensions are granted. China is spending $2 billion on RFID this year, mainly the 900 million person national ID card and the city payment card schemes for up to 14 million people at a time. Little wonder that there is a rush of acquisitions and investments in the RFID industry, because few other electronics sectors see this level of commitment. To reflect this, the optional Investment Forum at the IDTechEx RFID Europe conference will be addressed by no fewer than 15 CEOs and by others in companies seeking growth funds.
Visit www.idtechex.com/RFIDeurope.
^Back To Top

Sun

Sun Microsystems named 2007 "Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100"
Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine named Sun to its top "100" list of supply chain solution providers, consultants and other organizations that are helping lead the way in transforming companies' supply and demand chains. In its sixth annual award, the magazine focused the criteria for its "100" feature on the 21st century supply chain. Sun Microsystems was one of the companies chosen for being at the forefront of supply chain innovation. Sun was recognized for its "One-Touch Supply Chain" - a program that spans all aspects of the fulfillment supply chain, from order entry through to customer acceptance. By working with vendors to streamline and automate the company's manufacturing process, Sun enables suppliers to ship products directly to customers and thereby reduce the need to plan and hold stock in a distribution center. This new model increased the predictability, reliability and speed of shipments to customers, while saving Sun money: logistics costs have been reduced by 20% and finished goods inventory has been reduced by as much as 40%. Sun's One-Touch Supply Chain was also named the winner of InformationWeek's Innovation category in the 2006 InformationWeek 500 awards.
Visit www.sun.com.
^Back To Top

Training

The Business Continuity Institute launches certificate exam and e-learning training courses
The Business Continuity Institute (BCI), a leader in setting and validating standards of professional competence and ethics in business continuity management, announced its first certificate examination and e-learning program for business continuity professionals at the 17th Annual World Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto, Canada. Based on its Good Practice Guidelines, the BCI Certificate examination is part of a rigorous process for business continuity professionals who wish to acquire one of three BCI credential grades – Associate, Specialist and Member.  The first exam is set for October 2007 and additional exam dates will occur quarterly. In addition, BCI is introducing an e-learning program for business continuity professionals in August.  The e-learning program will be available in chapters based on the six elements of the Good Practice Guidelines, developed by BCI and which incorporate the British Standard BS25999.
Visit www.thebci.org.
^Back To Top