commercial software

Gartner looks into its IT crystal ball

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:59:59 -0500

Gartner looked into its crystal ball for this year and found plenty of changes coming in IT. The world is changing pretty fast and this will mean smaller tools to do the job and new directions for both ideas for technology. Here's a few of them:

Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe marketshare in computers by 2011.
Half of all traveling workers will leave their notebook computers at home in favor of other devices. Even though notebooks continue to shrink in size and weight, travelers will lament the weight and inconvenience, the firm predicts.
By next year, one-third of IT organizations will have at least one environmental requirement in their top buying rules.
By 2012, 80 percent of all commercial software will include some elements of open-source technology.
Also by 2012, one-third of business-application software spending will be on service subscriptions instead of product licenses.

For the CIO, this means plenty of changes. It means your operational budget could decline, and you will need a workforce trained for this new day. Are you ready for all this? And do you realize that tomorrow will be far different than today? Even some of these changes could mean major savings. But we predict that other costs will continue to rise, and that means that every CIO will have a tough balancing act to stay within the budget and keep their systems running.

For more on Gartner's predictions:
- See this CIO-Today article

Microsoft's new CIO has a very big job

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:59:56 -0500

It's not so easy being #1, especially if all eyes are on you as Microsoft's new CIO. Tony Scott, 56, Microsoft's new CIO, will direct the company's global IT organization. He will oversee worldwide sales, marketing and business applications as he navigates the way for the giant tech vendor. Phil Murphy, an analyst with the CIO group at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., describes it this way: "It's a dragon's den of sorts." Gordon Haff, principle IT advisor at research firm Illuminata in Nashua, N.H., says any CIO at a big IT vendor needs to do the job and simultaneously showcase the company's own products. "CIOs at any of the software or hardware companies very much have to look at their own operations and say, "Wow, I can do that with my products, whether it is Microsoft's or IBM's or HP's, and say this is really cool." Haff said.

Not only that, Microsoft's CIO produces software for customers and makes sure that products work properly across platforms. "It is a very different world when you are in commercial software as opposed to when you are 'simply' trying to satisfy some internal users. The other big thing here is that Microsoft internal users are likely to be far more savvy, right?" Murphy said. "It's no small job, certainly." So we are certainly waiting for the new guy in town to shake things up, do it differently and take a very big job by the horns. Stay tuned.

For more on the challenges for Microsoft's new CIO:
- Check out this SearchCIO article

Breaking the rules

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:01:38 -0400

When it comes to dealing with software, sometimes breaking the rules makes sense. For example, forget the idea that software must always be financed from the capital expenditures budget rather than from operational expense. Forget the convention that software should use a floating license solution, or the notion that every new software release will run more slowly than the previous release. You don't have to accept bugs in the first release of a software program and you should expect 100% uptime for enterprise applications. Don't always choose commercial software instead of open-source. Insist on support for end-of-life software. And don't assume that you always get what you pay for.

Read on for dozens of software rules that should be broken:
- read the article at Optimize

ALSO: read this on navigating software problems

Second Life hack puts users' data at risk

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:01:39 -0400

A hole in commercial software used on servers supporting the fantasy multiplayer game site, Second Life, let hackers have access to the confidential data of over 650,000 users. The site has notified each user about the hacked database incident. Most of the data at risk was not encrypted--including names and credit card information. Computer login and password data, however, were protected.

For more on the latest business data breach:
- Here's a blog at CSO online

Commercial apps predicted to die off

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:01:35 -0500

It's a pretty bold statement to make, but an open source tech titan says commercial software is going to fade away with services taking the industry by storm. That was the statement made by Greg Stein, chairman of the Apache Software Foundation, at the recent EclipseCon 2006. One good example of the trend, said Stein, is how enterprises are turning to OpenOffice automation package as a replacement option to Microsoft Office. The slack left in the wake of no more commercial products will be taken up by needed support services, including configuration, installation, maintenance, upgrading, testing and customization of open-source software technologies.

For more on the demise of commercial software:
- read this article at InfoWorld

Vista delayed until next year

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 19:01:39 -0500

While it probably surprised some, the news that Microsoft's Vista won't be out on the shelves for businesses until January 2007 is not a good announcement for consultants, services providers and even some enterprises hungry for what is hopefully a more secure operating system. In a conference call with analysts, Microsoft said it decided to push back release, originally set for mid-year then extended to "second half of the year," to ensure that security features and usability features were as good as possible. In an interview with The New York Times, the company's Windows division chief also explained the heavy-duty security review and testing the beta system has been through, calling it the "largest penetration-testing effort" any commercial software has gone through.

For more on Vista's latest arrival date:
- read this article at The New York Times