SAP announced it was buying a US web/cloud software company (SuccessFactors) that provides human resource management and productivity tools, a move to boost its total cloud repertoire and thus be more competitive as a cloud provider. The decision shows that the SaaS business is starting to create problems with product scope that didn’t exist for…
Alcatel-Lucent continues to develop their cloud vision, announcing a partnership with HP that demonstrates Data Center Network Connect and CloudBand. From a business perspective it’s a win for both companies. HP needs (badly needs, in fact) a relevant public cloud position that integrates networking and computing, because of its competition with Cisco. Alcatel-Lucent needs a…
Enterprises are coming to terms with the cloud, according to my most recent survey, but they are also recognizing that there are things that “classical wisdom” says they can do in the cloud that simply don’t work out. This is going to change the risk/benefit profile for cloud computing for the providers because eventually the…
Microsoft’s Xbox will now feature the ability to stream 26 FiOS channels and access (presumably the same network) content on VoD. The step isn’t a technological revolution because AT&T’s U-verse has been a streaming IP video service from the first (and it’s also available on Xbox, but in the same form; FiOS for Xbox is…
Wall Street is speculating on Huawei’s future in enterprise networking as the company prepares to make what everyone (including Huawei) says will be a major push there. In some ways, the move is a validation of the thesis that service provider networking is not a growth market; constraints on transport ROI are simply too great…
The retail holiday season got off to a good start in the US according to all reports, with significant gains over last year and a particular focus on consumer electronics. One hot space is the tablet market, where Apple cut iPad prices and where Android devices continue to gain overall market share. A new group…
Business changes in networking are often more significant than technical changes even though networking is ostensibly a tech market area, and that’s the case this AM in my view. NSN has announced a major refocusing/restructuring that will cut about 17,000 jobs worldwide and concentrate company efforts on mobile broadband. Obviously this is a big deal…
HP reported its quarter, and while the company’s revenue-line beat of estimates buoyed its stock after hours, we think that the results were at least as troubling as they were gratifying for HP, or at least they should have been. Whitman’s decision not to spin out the PC business was a major risk factor for…
We’ve got an interesting juxtaposition of supply and demand issues in video, a reflection of the tension that’s inherent in the Internet or OTT or streaming video model, whatever you’d like to call it. Just what kind of video future the Web has will likely play out based on how these forces interact, and how…
Well, it’s official; HP is not going to spin out its PC operations. Some (most, on the Street) are hailing the move as a reversal of a crazy notion of the now-gone Leo Apotheker, but as I’ve noted in earlier blogs, I’m not so sure. I do believe that the tablet won’t sweep the PC…