Android developers can now adapt their apps to send information to forthcoming Android smartwatches. 10 Wearables To look at At CES 2014 (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Google on Tuesday introduced Android Wear, an extension of its Android mobile operating system for wearable devices. Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Android, Chrome, and Apps said in a blog post that Google has only just begun to explore the chances of mobile technology. “That’s why we’re so all in favour of wearables — they understand the context of the arena around you, and you’ll interact with them simply and efficiently, with only a glance or a spoken word,” he said. Pichai said Google is starting with the foremost familiar wearable device: the watch. Google isn’t the first major company to go into the smartwatch market — the Samsung Gear debuted last year to mediocre reviews and Sony has released similarly undistinguished models — however it has managed to wade into the market before Apple introduces... Read More »

SAP tells financial analysts cloud growth will make it the fastest-growing mega-cap company in IT. If the investment community had any doubt about SAP’s commitment to becoming a cloud-driven company, co-CEO Bill McDermott tried to erase it on Tuesday in a speech before greater than 100 financial analysts in Big apple, not faraway from Wall Street. “We’re formidable on every measure,” McDermott declared, after reviewing the company’s position in on-premises applications, analytics, data management, and more, “however the cloud is where we’re taking the corporate.” Echoing themes shared during SAP’s last quarterly conference call, McDermott said cloud computing is the cure for one of the most intractable issue faced by CEOs today: complexity. “Customers are attempting to get complexity out in their lives,” he said. “They’re seeking an organization which could help them simplify a good way to execute on their plans and grow.” [Want more on Oracle’s cloud ambitions? Read Oracle’s Hurd: A ‘Once-In-A-Career Opportunity’.] Pointing to 50% growth in cloud billings and a... Read More »

Microsoft’s planned Parature acquisition will improve Dynamics CRM customer support app to compete more successfully with Salesforce.com and Oracle RightNow. 7 Mistakes Microsoft Made In 2013 (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Microsoft announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to accumulate Parature, a cloud-based provider of purchaser-service capabilities if you want to complement Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM application. Parature is a 13-year-old company that delivers Web- and mobile-access knowledge-bases, live chat, survey and feedback systems, and social monitoring and response functionality. The Herndon, Va.-based firm has greater than 500 customers. Its 2012 revenue was $16.4 million, in keeping with Inc. magazine. The terms and timing of the deal weren’t disclosed, but one news outlet citing unnamed sources put the price of the transaction at $100 million. Microsoft executives said adding Parature will fill in gaps in Dynamics CRM, that is largely taken with case management and on serving because the container for all service interactions with customers. “With Parature, we’ll integrate multiple channels,... Read More »

In effort to trim $1.5 billion from IT, Navy proposes placing most non-classified data into commercial cloud offering. Internet Of items: 8 Cost-Cutting Ideas For Government (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) In its ongoing efforts to attenuate network and IT infrastructure costs, the U.S. Navy desires to move most of its non-classified, publically available data to a commercially provided cloud, cut the variety of Navy data centers from 150 to twenty-five, and eliminate redundant costs including duplicative software applications. The move reflects the Navy’s want to cut $1.3 billion from its IT budget, and cloud-based data storage is a price-effective option, Navy CIO Terry Halvorsen told executives at a central authority IT event in Washington D.C. on March 13. a considerable portion of those savings would come from consolidating the Navy’s data centers and adopting cloud computing and virtualization for many of the service’s non-classified data, Halvorsen said, adding that the Navy would continue to maintain mission-sensitive and demanding information in its classified... Read More »

Fidelity Investments works with ElectroRack, Delta Computer, and CPS to present an innovative new rack design to the Open Compute Project. 6 Ways SDN Shakes Up The Enterprise (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) As the Open Compute Summit ended last week, details emerged of the second one user-originated design of the Open Compute Project: a convertible datacenter rack designed by Fidelity Investments. Fidelity designed the rack to fulfill the desires of its telco providers within the carrier room, where facilities from different communications suppliers are brought together, while continuing its traditional datacenter operations. The telcos wanted a 23-inch design, but a lot of Fidelity’s datacenters require the EIA-standard 19-inch rack that’s utilized by most enterprises. These requirements fit with the Open Rack design initially submitted by Facebook. Its version, which serves as a building block of the company’s air-cooled datacenter complex in Prineville, Ore., is a 23-inch rack that permits for spread-out components on a motherboard. Fidelity’s convertible design incorporates dual-sided internal vertical... Read More »