Carl Icahn loves to make mischief. He buys just enough stock to have leverage,
then forces large companies to do his bidding, pocketing billions in the process.
Now, sitting
on 3.6 percent of Yahoo's shares, Icahn is reportedly looking to ditch the
board of directors for a group that's more amenable to a Microsoft bid. Icahn
likely bought at least a portion of Yahoo stock after it fell
in the wake of the failed Microsoft takeover. A new bid would, by definition,
be a premium over the current price -- and Icahn keeps the difference.
Here's the rub: Microsoft just publicly said it's no
longer interested in Yahoo and plans to attack the Internet alone. Can Microsoft
change its tune just because Icahn forms a friendly board? If that were to happen,
then all those words about independence from Gates and Ballmer have no meaning.
That doesn't sound like the Bill and Steve that I know.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/14/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
HP is aiming to
scoop
up EDS for a cool $14 billion or so. HP is already cleaning up in servers,
and has a sweet PC and laptop business. And no one can touch it in printers.
But today's complex market requires services -- lots of services.
IBM's service business is the biggest and most influential by far. It can help
companies take a top-to-bottom look at its infrastructure and redo the datacenter
with a more flexible and power-saving architecture. HP can do the exact same
thing, but lacks the sheer muscle of the IBM group.
EDS could change all that in a heartbeat. My only concern is in blending the
cultures which, given Ross Perot's legacy -- he may have sold EDS to GM in 1984,
but his influence lingers on -- are very different.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/14/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Critics love to beat up on Microsoft for its security. But in its defense, Redmond
is clearly the biggest and most fun hacker target. It also has a ton of products.
So it makes sense that holes will be found and attacks mounted.
Microsoft, at least once a month, discloses (and closes) these holes in
a very public way. Meanwhile, the Web has no Patch Tuesday, and consequently
its holes can stay open for a long, long time.
In fact, according to security concern Cenzic, some 70 percent of the Web apps
it looked at lacked
secure communications. Two-thirds of these apps were deemed "easily
exploitable." In many cases, there's no system in place or real plan to
improve Web security and plug holes. The two biggest vulnerabilities, Cenzic
reported, are SQL injections and cross-site scripting.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/14/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I just wrapped up a 2,500-word feature story about Dell's virtualization strategy
for our new magazine
Virtualization
Review. I also spent weeks deciphering Sun, IBM and HP plans. These
last three vendors have multiple hardware environments, their own management
tools and, in two cases, homemade hypervisors. This was all as intricate as
a Dennis Miller commentary (though far more interesting and less pretentious).
Dell
was far different. What Dell does is sell standard servers that run standard
third-party virtualization software. The strategy took all of two seconds to
comprehend -- even for me. Dell has extended this to shipping servers with the
embedded version of VMware, as well as the option to buy servers with Xen pre-installed.
Dell also has a new
Web site where you can easily buy virtual wares.
Dell may not have the broadest range of tools, but at least you won't get a
headache trying to figure it all out.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/12/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Virtualization can be a confusing area to understand. By its very definition,
virtualization is an abstract endeavor. And with the ability to virtualize everything
from PCs to servers to mainframes to storage to files and I/O, no wonder so
many are perplexed.
Just the client alone is filled with many ways to virtualize. You can turn
a PC into multiple PCs with PC virtualization. You can isolate an app from the
registry through application virtualization. You can stream apps from a server
to a PC through application streaming or desktop virtualization.
Tom Valovic, a longtime IDC analyst who just joined Virtualization
Review, recently dissected the world of client virtualization in a recent
blog posting. Now I think I almost understand it. This guy is going to be
really good!
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/12/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Lately, I've been harping on about our new site
RedmondReport.com,
a portal for news about Microsoft. I've been bragging so much I figured I'd
take a look this morning and see if it's as good as I said it was -- and it
is!
My favorite story is one we picked up from Wired. It turns out that
one of worst high-tech companies for the environment is that touchy-feely
outfit from Cupertino with Al Gore on its board.
Yup. Good, old Apple evidently makes iPhones with toxic materials, doesn't
even know how much CO2 it emits and has no real plan to reduce its greenhouse
gases.
Maybe the next time Steve Jobs flies across the country on the Gulfstream V
Apple bought him, he can think up a plan. By the way, Jobs' plane holds some
41,300 pounds of fuel and uses about 64 pounds per nautical mile. That's even
worse than my '96 Cadillac.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/12/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Tomorrow should already be on your -- or one of your minions' -- schedule,
so you won't forget to patch your Windows and client PCs. Luckily, this month
is pretty light with a
scant
four patches.
Microsoft Word tops the list with a remote execution exploit just begging to
be fixed. Publisher also gets a plug (write me at [email protected]
if you're one of the few that actually use this program). Lastly, the Jet Database
Engine gets one of its flaws un-flawed.
How does your shop patch? Manually? A patch management tool? A combo? Any advice
for would-be patchers? Write me at [email protected]
and I'll pass it along.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/12/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Server and PC virtualization aren't exactly old hat, but they are established
markets -- and established technologies that are proven to work.
A lesser-known area that's ripe for take-off, I believe, is I/O virtualization,
where connections to networks and storage lose their physical constraints and
gain the flexibility of virtual connectivity. Setting up a new server, for instance,
doesn't have to involve the manual installation and configuration of NICs, HBAs
and all the rest.
One company I came across in this space is Xsigo
Systems. Unlike earlier forms of I/O virtualization where a regular I/O
device is shared by multiple apps, systems or VMs, Xsigo does away with the
adapters all together. In their place is a new device that acts like the physical
devices, but can be dynamically assigned and allocated. Pretty slick.
Tom Valovic, executive editor of Virtualization Review (that's our new
magazine/Web site which can be found at VirtualizationReview.com),
found
another player, 3 Leaf Systems, that also virtualizes I/O. From what I can
tell, the 3 Leaf V-8000 Virtual I/O Server is very similar in concept.
How much have you virtualized? Servers, desktops, apps, storage? Tell me your
story by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/05/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Late last week, Microsoft made it clear that Yahoo
wasn't
worth the money it would take to buy it. This was after Microsoft raised
its offer from $44 billion to nearly $48 billion.
I couldn't agree more. Yahoo isn't as large as you might think, and its growth
isn't as impressive as, say, Google. In the last quarter, Yahoo brought in a
bit less than $2 billion in revenue and only $112 million in operating income.
The only way a company this size would be worth almost $50 billion is if its
growth were truly staggering, which it's clearly not.
My bigger concern is that Yahoo
has nothing that Microsoft hasn't already built or bought. Microsoft would
be far better off using its billions to invent the future, not to buy the past.
Tell me where I'm wrong at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/05/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Software-as-a-Service isn't yet the dominant way that applications are delivered,
but it's the
No.
1 thing on the minds of enterprise software customers -- at least, according
to a survey by venture firm Sand Hill Group and consultancy McKinsey & Company.
The No. 2 trend is actually similar: Web services and SOA.
For large apps, the services model makes a lot of sense. It can take years
to properly install and configure ERP, CRM, BI or a management framework --
and there's no guarantee it will work right when it's done. Pre-configured services
allow corporations to try out functions bit by bit, and let the service provider
do the heavy lifting.
What's your experience? Are you using SaaS? And if so, what do you love (and
hate)? Let us all know with a quick e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/05/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Microsoft Research is at it again -- doing good, that is!
The group's latest noble cause is green
computing, and to that end Microsoft Research is working with Harvard, Stanford
and a couple of big state universities to dramatically reduce datacenter and
x86 processor power consumption. The University of Tennessee, for instance,
is working on reducing the power demands of virtualized datacenters. Sounds
pretty slick.
Share your thoughts on the topics in today's issue! Go here
Or contact Doug Barney directly at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/28/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
If you want a new PC with XP, you best get to steppin' before the end of June.
After that, machines
will
come only with Vista.
Now, here's the weird catch: For the next year, you can buy a Vista PC and
then have XP installed in its stead -- so-called downgrading. This sounds more
convoluted than a Britney Spears press conference.
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/28/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments