What does it mean if HP buys EDS?

I was minding my own business and twittering (I think that is how you say it) when I noticed a breaking news story from the Wall Street Journal: HP would be acquiring EDS. This is quite a significant transition for HP that will help transform the company into a new position in the market. Now, [...]

Ten things I learned about CA

I spent part of last week at CA’s (Computer Associates in the old days) industry analyst meeting. My overall impression is very positive. CA is a complicated company with a complicated history. Often when a company has a near death experience, it either dies or changes. I have seen many companies that [...]

The Desktop as a Service: Can Desktone be a Focal Point?

I have been thinking a lot about the evolution of virtualization lately and so I was intrigued when a company I had never heard of called Desktone asked to come in for a briefing. When I heard that the company specialized on desktop virtualization I was intrigued. I was even more interested when [...]

My Impressions of IBM’s SOA Impact Conference

Last week I attending IBM’s Impact conference which Sandy Carter, VP of SOA for IBM contends is the largest SOA conference in the world. With more than 6,000 attendees all focused on SOA, I think she might be right. So, it is interesting to listen to see what the key messages and issues. [...]

When does the data center become the cloud?

This is the beginning of another season of analyst meetings. Today I am at IBM’s Linux and Open Source meeting. Next week I will be with HP at their industry analyst meeting (hardware, software, services — no printers or PCs), that will be followed by IBM’s Impact (SOA conference), CA’s analyst meeting, and finally [...]

Has IBM Changed its Partner Strategy? The Hunt for OEMs

Partners are getting more and more important to the major software players. IBM announced a very interesting relationship with Kana, a $60 million solution provider of multi-channel customer service software. This is indeed a growing area in the market. Kana sells its software to about 60% of the Fortune 100. [...]

I love the smell of acquisitions in the morning: BMC Gets BladeLogic

The great thing about acquisitions is that it provides a lot of fodder for bloggers and pundits. And there have certainly been a lot lately. For example, just yesterday BMC finally got a data center automation company. It almost had landed OpsWare when HP swooped down and landed the deal. Now [...]

When not to salvage the legacy application

One of the hardest things for organizations to do is to retire old applications. Unlike hardware that tends to be replaced on a regular cycle, old software sticks around way too long. It definitely over stays its welcome. I remember when I worked at John Hancock decades ago and watching as departments [...]

Is there a Link Between Social Computing and Business Networks?

While there were many interesting product announcements at Lotusphere, I was intrigued by some of the innovations and experimentation in collaboration. One example is a project that comes out of a IBM research. I attended an interesting talk by Irene Greif, IBM Fellow and Director, of and Joan DiMicco, Research Staff [...]

Lotus: the next generation

So, here I am at Lotusphere. Whoever invested Disneyworld should be sent for many years of therapy. It is not a happy place. But I digress. Lotus is at a interesting transition in its history. I have a warm feeling for Lotus. I was first introduced to Lotus Notes in 1988 [...]