Friday, May 27, 2011

Cisco to Unveil New Wholesale Managed Services?

Cisco Systems believes it has found a gap in the telecom managed services market and is set to unveil a new white-label offering for operators in the coming weeks. Cisco will attempt to sell the managed service, called SmartOps, to telecom operators looking to serve small business customers.

Operators are expected to brand the service under their own names, which would be run from a Cisco data center.

6% of U.S. Mobile Owners Used a Shopping App Last 3 Months

About six percent of U.S. mobile phone owners have used a dedicated shopping application in the last three months, according to Forrester Research. That doesn't include any shopping-related activities using a standard mobile browser.

CEO Changes Evidence of Computing Era Shift?

Hewlett-Packard Co., Google Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. lead technology companies with a combined $265 billion in market value on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index that have changed CEOs since August 2010. That’s up from companies worth $75 billion a year earlier. Privately held Twitter Inc. replaced its CEO in October, a month after Finland’s Nokia Oyj did the same.

There now are calls for replacing Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer and Cisco CEO John Chambers. Research In Motion probably is next, said Bill Coleman, a partner at venture capital firm Alsop Louie Partners in San Francisco.

One wonders whether the changes are just one more sign that a new computing era, to be lead by new firms, is gaining momentum, pressuring the old leaders.

Those of you familiar with the evolution of computing technology over the past few decades are aware of the way historians describe the key "eras" of that history. We begin with mainframe computing, transition to mini-computers, then to personal computers, then to a period we generally call the "Internet" or "Web" era and now seem to be at the beginning of the next era, for which we do not generally agree on a name.

The point we like to make is that, in each era, and eras do not break cleanly and neatly into 10-year periods, there are some firms which dominate the business in terms of market share and influence. What we also have seen, though, is a different set of leaders in each era.

Apple might be the anomaly, as it is in so many other ways. Some will argue that Apple already was a "leader" in the PC era. Others of us who once were Apple fanatics and were forced by our trading partners to join the Wintel orbit might not agree that Apple was a leader in the PC era.

In that case Apple might yet remain a candidate to emerge as among the leaders of the next era. But you already can see that leadership is shifting to software companies rather than "hardware" firms.

PayPal Sues Google Over Google Wallet

PayPal has filed a lawsuit accusing Google of stealing trade secrets because former PayPal executive, Osama Bedier now works at Google.

Stephanie Tilenius, another ex-PayPal executive now at Google, violated contractual obligations by recruiting Bedier, PayPal said.

Bedier “is now leading Google’s efforts to bring point of sale technologies and services to retailers on its behalf,” according to the complaint. “Bedier and Google have misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers.”

All Spectrum below 5 GHz for Mobile Broadband?

"I think mobile broadband will occupy all of the spectrum below 5 GHz in five years," said Telstra general manager Brian Miller, as Australian authorities prepare for mobile spectrum auctions expected to happen in 2012. Whether that was just a bit of exuberance or a genuine belief is hard to say, but it is nothing if not bold.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority plans to auction 700 MHz frequencies as well as 2.5 GHz licenses for mobile use, and is expected to underpin new Long Term Evolution fourth generation mobile networks.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Vast Majority of Small Businesses Unaware of Cloud Computing?

Some 71 percent of small businesses surveyed by Newtek Business Services said they have never heard of cloud computing. The poll of approximately 1,800 respondents found 26 percent of those who had heard of cloud computing could describe what it was. See http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/most-smbs-ignorant-of-cloud-computing-30355.

On the other hand, during the first half of 2010, 14 percent of small and medium businesses reported using cloud computing services and another 10 percent reported plans to deploy cloud-based services, according to a study by Spiceworks.

Twice as many SMB information technology professionals (28 percent) are using cloud solutions today compared to the second half of 2010 (14 percent).

The difference in survey findings might be that the Newtek survey is of non-technical business owners, while the Spiceworks survey is of IT professionals. One might assume the Newtek respondents do not have in-house technology staffs, while the Spiceworks respondents in fact work in that capacity.

Growth plans for 2011 continue to be aggressive, as another 14 percent of IT professionals plan to start using the cloud by midyear. In all, 42 percent of SMB IT pros plan to be using cloud services by mid-2011.

Among SMB IT pros using the cloud today, 39 percent use the cloud for web hosting, making it the single largest varietal in the cloud family. Another 14 percent plan to start using the cloud for web hosting within the first half of 2011.

As for other cloud services, email hosting (32 percent), data backup and recovery services (29 percent) and application hosting (25 percent) were top applications.

The 1,500 Spiceworks respondents work at firms with fewer than 1,000 employees. But the study suggests smaller SMBs are more aggressive when it comes to cloud services adoption than their larger SMB counterparts. See http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/226700068/smbs-gobbling-up-cloud-computing-in-2010.htm.

Some 38 percent of SMBs with fewer than 20 employees use or plan to use cloud solutions in the next six months, the Spiceworks survey found. This adoption rate is markedly higher than the 17 percent of organizations with between 20 and 99 and the 22 percent of organizations with more than 100 employees that use or plan to use cloud services over the same time period.

Technology companies also are adopting cloud services at a faster pace. Some 34 percent of SMBs in the tech sector use or are planning to use cloud services. Companies in the services sector (finance, HR, consulting) comprise next fastest growing vertical segment with 22 percent using or planning to deploy cloud solutions.

So Where are the Net Neutrality Rules?

It has been about five months since the Federal Communications Commission decided to impose network neutrality rules on fixed line access providers. But the actual rules haven't been published in the Federal Register, so haven't taken effect.

That is an unusually long delay, and some think it will take another five months before the rules actually are published. The delay, say FCC officials, has to do with the sheer complexity of implementing the order. In other words, some might say, it isn't easy to quantify exactly what has to be done, what cannot be done, and how to collect information to ascertain what is happening.

Then, once the actual orders are published, the lawsuits will start to be filed, leading to possibly years more delay. And in the meantime, it is entirely possible that the market participants might themselves come to some understanding that either side steps the rules or makes them unnecessary.

Directv-Dish Merger Fails

Directv’’s termination of its deal to merge with EchoStar, apparently because EchoStar bondholders did not approve, means EchoStar continue...