HP leaves Dell with an EDS-shaped hole | Channel Register

HP leaves Dell with an EDS-shaped hole | Channel Register

Where would Dell go for next step?

Among all enterprise IT vendors, Dell is the only vendor whom does not possess its own IT consulting arm. Honestly, that indeed may make Dell to stand in an unfavorable position.

On the consumer side, even Apple has surpassed Dell in PC sales. Standing under the shadow of IT giants like IBM and HP, Dell's line of PC Servers is going to suffer even fiercer competition. In age of consolidation, those whom don't buy get bought. But as always, it is easier said than done.

Dell might as well as learn from lessons of BEA, my former employer. BEA focused on its strength-middleware-and tried to be the sole significant independent enterprise software provider standing, and we know how it went.

People like Carl Ichan is always watching for suitable target. Who know which company is next after the market has digested Microsfot-Yahoo! takeover?

IBM hopes to patent 'dealing with chaos' | The Register

IBM hopes to patent 'dealing with chaos' | The Register

According to The Register, the flowchart at left is supposed to be the IBM patent for dealing with chaos.

Perhaps I should patent MBA application process?

InfoQ: Presentation: Operational Manageability lessons learned from eBay

InfoQ: Presentation: Operational Manageability lessons learned from eBay

Design for operation. That is something that today's corporate IT should embed in their minds.

In past 10 years, the so-called application servers are supposed to provide transparent technologies to software programmers so that programmers don't have to worry about availability and scalability issues. Indeed, in small to medium scalability scenarios, Java EE Application Server like BEA WebLogic has achieved certain success. As clustering demand get larger and more complex, however, features offered by today's application servers are not enough anymore. Like any asset, IT assets today are facing the challenge of fluidity. Computing power should be provided when needed and just as much as needed.

Cloud computing offerings provided by Google and Amazon are indeed quite appealing, but corporate mindset is not likely to concede ownership of core business systems to another entity. Outsourcing is one thing; to convince corporate that EC2 or Google App Engine can be a solid substitute for outsourcing is another.

Therefore, I see several technology/business opportunities:

1. Partnership between IBM/Accenture/Tata etc. and Google/Amazon
• This is most likely to happen within near future. An endorsement from IT shop like Accenture would ease corporate mind and fear.
2. IT Consulting practices focused on helping build in-house cloud computing architecture
• Certain entrepreneurs departing Google or Amazon could definitely make some buck by sharing their in-house experience.
3. Advancement of Virtualization software packages to close the gap between Cloud-computing and Virtualization
• I have seen real demo of VMWare ESX Server. It is a very interesting and promising technology. Endorsement of key outsourcing services providers is key to their success though.
  
4. Cloud-enabling application platforms.
• From a Java programmer perspective, I do hope to see a "cloud-enabling" JavaEE application server. But that is near impossible to happen. Java EE is designed with old-style scalability and availability in mind; its current focus is still to achieve easier development and deployment (which makes sense). I hope that current remaining JavaEE players can allocate some effort in cloud-computing.

Acer trumped Dell in Q4 07 world laptop sales | The Register

Acer trumped Dell in Q4 07 world laptop sales | The Register

The only truth of business is that everything changes with time. How could we imagine a powerful Dell being surpassed by Apple and Acer in sales?

Both Acer and Asus are Taiwanese brand that struggled for a decade to gain worldwide recognition. Decades ago, many Taiwanese PC manufacturers faced a difficult dilemma: to brand or not to brand? Many of those companies that chosen to brand their own PC/NB were severely punished by big names like IBM, Dell, Compaq and HP. Even today, many quality PC/NB manufacturers in Taiwan still are afraid of a branding strategy, for it means immediate retribution.

It makes me think to see the trend reversing. Actually, no matter which brand of PC or NB you use, it comes (with almost certainty) from a Taiwanese manufacturer. There is no obvious quality differentiation between those manufacturers. Even Apple's newest Macbook Air comes from Taiwan. Now, what makes you, a consumer, already knowing that the quality behind those products are pretty much the same, to choose a Dell over an Asus? Or HP over Acer?

For Apple, I think it's a different matter. At least Apple offers authentic and interesting design; for all I know, most Dell/HP models are designed inside-out by Taiwanese manufacturers. How will a brand like HP or Dell be able to differentiate their hardware?

My opinion is that branding strategy for PC/NB/gadgets providers should seriously include a software strategy. Software, after all, is what makes using computer an interesting experience.

Sun shrugs off product slip in Q2 | Channel Register

Sun shrugs off product slip in Q2 | Channel Register

SUN finally gets it. Selling product that requires huge consulting man/days rocks. The game will be SUN vs IBM vs Oracle then.

I wonder, however, how those consulting firms without their own proprietary software/hardware would fare in this game? The consolidation of IT vendors is entering its final chapter; will there be a consolidation of IT consultancy?

The right direction where JavaEE application server should be heading

With commoditization of JavaEE application server market, it's good to see application server vendor finding the right niche.

Finextra: LiquidityHub achieves eight millisecond latency for fixed-income price distributione

WebLogic Realtime and WebLogic Event Server are both designed to meet specific latency problems. Low-latency is an area that was forbidden for Java based applications because of uncontrollable pause time brought by garbage collection, a Java Virtual Machine feature that automatically frees up physical memory and re-allocates it.

So, for first time, low-latency applications can be achieved using Java, a common skill set, and Intel-based Hardware. If BEA executes this strategy well, it can find ways to commoditize upper industry sector that was predominantly an IBM territory. If that's the case, then BEA is definitely worth more than 21 dollars per share.

This also reminds me of a myth: how can some Wall Street analysts decide the value of a certain technology company if they don't know technology well? How such market consensus if reached?


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Will fast-paced and relatively-efficient companies take over old corporate types?

If your dear readers have not yet read about it, you might want to do it now.

Apple, Google vs. Big Wireless

With Google and Apple both bidding for a wireless spectrum, strategies of those two companies are getting always clearer. One rule to make big bucks strategically: commoditize others in your value chain. This has never changed in the history of business evolution; what's different each time is approach.

Years ago, while Microsoft was climbing toward peak of its power, I thought that perhaps Microsoft had enough power to change the industry. It indeed had all capital and execution power to outplay all major vendor of IT value chain "one by one", but its tremendous success attracted too much fear. Microsoft wisely chose to stand aside and just happily be a very profitable software vendor; I can almost hear a sigh of relief from those worried industry giant. But now we have Google and Apple, companies ready to disrupt the industry again, and this time they won't settle easily.

Usually, by mature market we mean those market that are commoditized by fierce competition. In a sentence, more features are shipped with lowered price. The industry that Google and Apple are attempting to enter is, however, a mature market that doesn't show any of above mentioned signs. If Darwin was right, then what will happen next is pretty obvious. Either old corporate types would evolve to catch up, or face the fate of extinction.

One month ago, someone who worked in one big IB in Wall Street for 7 years told me: Google is just a company that does only web pages, nothing special about that. Hmm. I guess his opinion does not represent Wall Street, for Google stock price is well over 600+ now. And Apple worth more than IBM. Many would call Google and Apple as arrogant companies, but arrogance paired with capability is called pride; true arrogance is accompanied by ignorance. It would seem that ignorance is more a matter of heart instead of level of education.

Then what's next? I think the industry of air conditioner might be next mark. I have a friend who works at a very big Japanese company that produces air conditioner. If you spread their cost structure carefully, you will find out that 20-30% of revenue for each air conditioner sold goes to personal rebates, rebates that would end up in personal coffer of high executives in corruption speaking. Such situation just reflects a lack of fierce competition. We have wait until then for cheap and high quality air conditioners and refrigerators.

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