Oracle buying Sun is great for Oracle, bad for IBM

Oracle buying Sun is great for Oracle, bad for IBM
by: Jerry Liao

On 20 April 2009, the I.T. industry was taken by surprised when Sun Microsystems and Oracle announced that they have entered into an agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun in a deal valued at approximately US$7.4 billion, or $9.50 per share.

This came as a surprised to many because IBM was in talks to buy Sun for US$7 billion but the negotiation reportedly failed. Sun approached IBM again but IBM played hardball and said they are no longer interested to acquire Sun, at any price. After that, Oracle came into the picture and snatch Sun from IBM.

So what is the effect of this development to Sun, Oracle, IBM and to the consumers?

Economic downturn drives increased spending on IT security

In general, the local I.T. market is slow as indicated by people I have spoken to. They say that the corporate market is a bit conservative in as far as their I.T. spending is concerned, while the consumer market continue to grow due to the popularity of the netbooks.

According to my sources, the enterprise market is currently spending on upgrades like increase in memory and storage space, rather than buying new and more powerful machines. Another area which I think will also be an area where corporations will be spending a lot is in security. Protecting their corporate data is non-negotiable and threats and dangers in this economic slowdown is increasing.

Carriers will struggle to maintain market position

The impression of many is that telecom carriers seems to be immune to the so-called recession is not totally true. Carriers are affected by the ongoing economic slowdown plus they have to compete with the other players.

Shifts in customer demand, a changing competitive landscape, a weak economy and new government policies will shape carrier strategies during 2009 and 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Carriers will struggle to maintain and grow their market position in this shifting landscape, and success will demand investment strategies that are aligned with the pace of recovery in each country and region. Those with a strong cash position will have an opportunity to outpace their competitors through targeted acquisitions and service innovation.

Dark cloud surrounds cloud computing

Here we go again, a technology will be introduced, a lot of good things will be said about it and after some time, the technology will be proven inefficient.

Remember what happen to data warehousing before? They say its the way to go but it failed to deliver what its supposed to deliver. The failure of data warehousing gave birth to datamarts which also failed miserably. Now the same thing is happening again with cloud computing.

A lot has been said about cloud computing, but the most prevalent of all is the cost efficiency of the said technology once applied in the enterprise space. Its much easier to deploy, easy to manage and will increase efficiency.

Nokia Point & Find – Connect with information and services on the go

Have you been in a situation where you saw something, you want to know more about it but you don’t know what it is or what it is called? Even if you have a computer or an internet enabled phone with you, it would be difficult to search for something that you don’t know.

Sometime ago, I saw a gadget that looks like a telescope. You can use this gadget to view the moon, stars or any object in the sky and it will give you all the information you need about that particular object. You can say that it’s a telescope that comes with a built-in database and search capability.

It seems the same concept was applied by Nokia in its Point & Find technology, an innovative service concept that enables people on the move to access relevant information and services on the internet, simply by pointing their mobile phone camera at real-life objects.

Modernizing CRM Contact Center Will Create Higher Impact and Lower Costs

Are you still thinking about ways on how to lower down your business operating cost? According to research firm Gartner Inc., early adopters of new software applications will see increased customer satisfaction, agent retention, competitive differentiation and lowered costs.

Gartner added that companies especially contact centers need to redouble their efforts in this area and extend the customer Web site, add multiple communications channels, and plan carefully to improve agent performance through the introduction of new technologies.

IT professionals optimistic and unfazed by recession

When the markets are disrupted the effect shows, unemployment is the greatest dread of any man. When there are recessions the employees feel the winds of change first as they are vulnerable. They know they will be laid off the jobs. Staff in the office faces retention as now the work load is divided between only the most necessary employees. The ones left can also forget about the raise in salaries and also work hard.

Given these realities, what should we do? Should we feel negative about the situation and lose confidence? I think it should be other way around. Workers need to be optimistic.

Worldwide Enterprise Software Market to Experience Flat Growth in 2009

“We are not expecting much growth this year. Zero growth will be acceptable to us rather than a negative performance.” This is what I hear most of the time from entrepreneurs due to the ongoing economic slowdown.

But to some, they say that the month of March, showed some recovery. The growth was attributed to consumer confidence since the anticipated economic slump was not as bad as expected for the month of January and February of 2009.

Talk about zero growth, research firm Gartner is saying that worldwide enterprise software revenue is forecast to total $222.6 billion in 2009, reflecting a “flat” 0.3 percent growth rate from 2008 revenue of $221.9 billion.