IBM’s cloud computing revenues are smaller and no more “cloud-intensive” than customers and Wall Street analysts might think. That is the claim of a former IBM employee who backed up a number of of his/her critical assessments of the vendor’s cloud prowess with various confidential internal documents shared with InformationWeek. The documents put IBM’s 2012 cloud-related revenue at $2.26 billion, a figure the corporate has declined to reveal publicly. In 2011, IBM did issue a roadmap that set forth the goal of reaching $7 billion in annual cloud revenue by 2015, so the much lower figure raises doubts about whether the corporate is not off course. Webcasts More >> White Papers More >> Reports More >> IBM also said in 2011 that only $3 billion of that total would come from net-new business, suggesting that $4 billion can be tied to cloud-based ways of delivering its current hardware, software and services. Noteworthy is data that shows that roughly half current IBM cloud revenues are tied... Read More »

New VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger faces challenges because the company approaches VMworld, that’s scheduled for later this month in San Francisco and again in Barcelona, Spain, in October. There are four things VMware should do to aid itself regawithin the initiative in the virtualization market. The corporate is currently dealing with a period of reorganization because the Pivotal piece is spun out and end user applications are sold off. This retrenchment, inclusive of the appearance of Gelsinger and the departures of key executives equivalent to VP Bogomil Balkansky and CMO Rick Jackson, suggest that a few of the changes are roiling the ranks. VMware has unloaded Zimbra to Telligent for “an undisclosed amount,” but it’s unlikely it got anything just like the $350 million with which Yahoo originally purchased Zimbra in 2007. Whatever VMware paid Yahoo in 2010, it is also unlikely that VMware got its purchase price back. Earlier, VMware dispatched SlideRocket to ClearSlide for an additional undisclosed sum. Either one of these acquisitions... Read More »

Numerous federal agencies are moving to Agile software development methods for some or all in their IT systems development projects. In an era of tightening federal budgets and increased demand on technology to assist meet mission requirements, agencies are seeking how you can deliver critical mission functionality more quickly and with less risk. For various agencies, Agile has become the solution. On its face, the case for Agile is easy: Break the software development process right into a series of short “sprints,” each of which delivers on a small part of the necessities of a system. This modular approach enables (and encourages) frequent delivery of latest functionality to finish users, and facilitates (even demands) user participation and feedback during system creation. Compared, the “Waterfall” development approach used traditionally within government requires users so as to fully describe what they need in a system up front and to attend years until the system is completed. Webcasts More >> White Papers More >> Reports More >> Agencies... Read More »

As we’ve discussed previously, software-as-a-service, engineered stacks and personal cloud could be the biggest IT winners within the next five to 10 years. Private clouds hold the foremost potential — in reality, early adopters together with JP Morgan Chase and Fidelity are seeing larger savings and bigger benefits than initially anticipated. While savings is a key reason to head to a non-public cloud, shorter development cycles and faster time to market are more significant. Organizations can test risky ideas more easily as small, low-cost projects, quickly dispensing with those projects that fail and accelerating people that show more promise. Meantime, early implementations at scale are producing savings well in far more than 50%. It truly is well past my earlier estimate of 30% savings, occurring largely due to the vastly reduced labor requirements to construct and administer a personal cloud versus traditional IT infrastructure. [ What does the proliferation of cloud services mean in your IT organization? Read IT As Cloud Merchant: New Skills Required.... Read More »

“E-commerce” is a dated concept, consistent with Hybris CEO Ariel Luedi. Instead we must always contemplate all kinds of purchaser transactions simply as commerce. We must always also stop handling digital transactions and standard transactions with separate silos of technology. Luedi touts Hybris as a contemporary platform that handles the complexities of managing multiple customer touch points, delivering consistent information and consistent customer experience without reference to how the buyer desires to do business. Start a transaction online and you may pick up a phone and complete it through a decision center while not having to begin from scratch. That promotional price quoted in an email offer won’t be new news to the shop clerk or call center service rep. And if you purchase something online you possibly can return it at store with no problem. It’s easier for Luedi to be bold about his promises now that Hybris is officially portion of SAP — a deal formally closed last week and extensively discussed on... Read More »