A recent research report on cloud computing says that SMB buyers prefer to get their cloud applications from a single provider rather than to mix and match. That’s not surprising given that for over a decade, SMBs have cited difficulties in sustaining strong technology talent as being among their top three tech problems. But it … Continue reading Cloud Musings
Skype and Microsoft? Well, apparently it’s more than just a possibility. There have been rumors swirling around a buyer for Skype for a week or more, but they’ve been just rumors. The possible deal with Microsoft is a lot more than that—Microsoft confirmed it at about 8 AM today. So now, the question is “why?” … Continue reading Microsoft/Skype Threats, and a Juniper Exec Defects to the Enemy
Today begins with more negative comments on Cisco, and it’s hard not to wonder at the way a company that was once a model of tech success (“I want to be the next Cisco”) is now seen as a model of a transition failure. The idea of breaking Cisco up into pieces so that valuable … Continue reading Cisco Angst and Open Switching/Routing
We’ve got more signs of change from the earnings announcements, and as always change is good for some and bad for others. There does seem a bit of a bias toward bad-ness, though. Nokia is going to shift Symbian support to Accenture and cut 4000 jobs. The move illustrates that there are significant challenges for … Continue reading Business News Erects Tech Signposts
Two “tech embarrassments” lead the news today, and there’s at least one lesson to be learned from each of them. Amazon had a cloud outage that disrupted some websites, and both Apple and Google are accused of tracking users with their smartphone technology. The Amazon outage was apparently related to its distributed RDBMS, though precise … Continue reading Four Lessons in Disappointment
Google reported after the bell yesterday, and while the company reported a quarterly profit gain of 17% the numbers were below estimates because of higher costs. The Google results point out two issues that will not only haunt Google but also haunt the whole OTT or “Internet” sector; the limitations of advertising as a revenue … Continue reading Lessons from Google
Economic news is largely lacking today but the markets appear to be headed for another downturn, driven perhaps again by speculative short selling ahead of earnings season. Monetary and economic data worldwide isn’t suggesting any problem at this point, but it does seem to me that the stock market is trending a bit ahead of … Continue reading RIM Tablet Woes, Juniper and Alcatel-Lucent’s Directions
An industry consolidating is an industry commoditizing at the product/service level, and that’s obviously happening in telecom. The AT&T bid for T-Mobile has now been followed by a Level 3 bid for Global Crossing; both are subject to regulatory approval, of course. The simple reason for all of this is disintermediation, the fact that operators … Continue reading Mergers and Reorgs and Bulls/Bears
Lots of interesting and potentially pivotal happenings in tech, and perhaps the most interesting thing is that the real meanings of all of these happenings are more important than the surface topics! AT&T wants to buy T-Mobile, which is no surprise given that DT has been looking for years at selling its US property and … Continue reading More Transition Proof in Telecom
It’s obvious that the big question this week, politically and economically, will be what happens in Libya. Politically, the situation poses a kind of double threat. First it’s a continuation of a kind of Middle-East-domino problem that might or might not result in democratic sweep of the region. Second, the turmoil puts western governments in … Continue reading For the Week: March 7th 2011