Cloud Computing has been such a hot topic in the market today. Open Source software has been a major role player in today's technology world that is steadily marching towards a more standards-based model. And, Linux has (for long) been a strong contender to bring in open source into the users' personal computers.
IBM's Smart and timely move could very well be one of the first major steps in the creation of a truly open personal computer platform. On the 23rd of September, IBM announced the partnership with Canonical and other Partners to offer Cloud and Linux-based Netbook Software in Africa.
More on my thoughts on this move, and the potential of this partnership would come later. But for now, here is the video where Mark Shuttleworth, Founder, Canonical, shares his thoughts on this partnership.
Here is a link to the official Press release by IBM.
IBM has unveiled a whole new initiative this year to create a Smarter Planet. Here is the Tale of a Smarter Planet that would set you thinking, and possibly innovating. Together, let's build a Smarter Planet!
Hope this short video has set your thoughts reeling. I look forward to fueling your thoughts and innovation more in the days and weeks to come! Stay Mused! Stay Inspired!
IBM has had a very impressive year 2008. The corporation's Senior Vice President & CFO Mark Loughridge discussed the 4Q08 earnings yesterday evening at the corporation's headquarters in Armonk, NY.
In a year like this, when the world has been facing enormous and growing economic challenges and uncertainties, IBM has shown some record figures in the reports. Here are some of the highlights of the full-year 2008 -
Record revenue of $103.6 billion;
Record pre-tax profit of $16.7 billion;
Record earnings per share of $8.93;
Record free cash flow of $14.3 billion, up $1.9 billion, excluding Global Financing receivables
In just the fourth quarter, IBM has again shown a good increase of 17% in diluted earnings and 12% increase in income. Here are some of the highlights of the forth-quarter results -
Diluted earnings of $3.28 per share, up 17 percent;
Net income of $4.4 billion, up 12 percent;
Gross profit margin of 47.9 percent, up 3 points;
Revenue of $27.0 billion, impacted by strong U.S. dollar, down 6 percent, down 1 percent adjusting for currency;
Software revenues up 3 percent, up 9 percent adjusting for currency; pre-tax income up 15 percent;
Global Technology Services revenue down 4 percent, up 3 percent adjusting for currency; pre-tax income up 35 percent;
Global Business Services revenues down 5 percent, flat adjusting for currency; pre-tax income up 26 percent;
Services signings of $17.2 billion, 24 deals greater than $100 million;
Strategic outsourcing signings up 20 percent worldwide, up 44 percent in North America.
A strong fourth quarter capped an outstanding year. In 2008 IBM performed well in an extremely difficult economic environment. Clearly our strategic transformation --- migrating to the more profitable segments of the industry, investing in growth regions of the world, and driving productivity through global integration --- is continuing to pay dividends - Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer
With such extremely good results, we can expect more from IBM in the year 2009. No doubt that the current economic climate has made things more challenging. But not to forget that opportunities lie in challenges - The smarter ones take a major portion of the apple pie!
In the first part of this post, I had very briefly painted the big picture and also subtly emphasized on the need for a more agile and flexible IT (Information Technology) infrastructure for enterprises. In this article, we will wear the hat of an IT innovator and see some of the aspects of a manufacturing enterprise that an IT leader will need to consider in the process of choosing an SOA-based approach to manufacturing.
We should always understand one thing -
Change is the only thing that is Permanent. Change is the Rule of Nature
A wise leader is one who chooses to build an enterprise that is flexible to this permanent phenomenon called Change. With Change being permanent, the onus is now on the leader to make sure that this Change always happens for the good (a positive change) and with minimal incremental cost.
In the context of Information Technology, IT Leaders are often presented with such situations of having to make a choice between multiple solutions. This is when a leader needs to look through the telescope and see the solution from a long term perspective. An IT architecture that will scale up faster with minimal change with high utilization of existing investment and legacy systems is the basic need.
The manufacturing space is flooded with a lot of industry standards, and the IT infrastructure has to be able to support all of these industry standards. The standards defined by ISA, like the SP95 and SP88 models are the core of any manufacturing industry. It is very important that an IT infrastructure supports the ISA SP95/88 models at the least.
With the advancements made in the technology space, the IT infrastructure should be able to support the latest concepts of social networking, blogging, wikis, instant messaging, etc. Also, this new infrastructure has to be able to support newer hardware technologies like newer readers, sensors, mobile devices, embedded devices, etc.
Also, with the generation-Y people coming into the manufacturing workforce, it becomes an even more challenging task for the IT Leaders to create an IT infrastructure that will attract more of this new generation engineers to the manufacturing industry.
With so many factors to be considered, a flexible and agile IT infrastructure is the key. AMR Research precisely defines an SOA-based approach to manufacturing in its article titled Manufacturing 2.0: Defining Next-Generation Manufacturing. IBM has been a leading player in this space, with a structured approach to Manufacturing 2.0. IBM has partnered with several key players in this space to provide its customers with the Industry Frameworks approach. These frameworks helps the IT Leaders look beyond just MES or ERP systems...into creating an integrated manufacturing enterprise.
IBM Software Universe is happening on November 11 and 12, at The Renaissance Convention Center, Powai, Mumbai. IBM Software Universe is the largest business and IT conclave in the country, which we host for our clients every year. Through this platform, we bring our entire ecosystem together to reinforce IBM's true leadership in driving innovation through middleware technologies, that has steered Indian IT landscape.
This event is a 'must attend', and I urge you to sign-up for this event and experience innovation first hand. I'm going to be around and also doing sessions on 11th. Do feel free to get in touch with me for more information.
Some of the event highlights are -
Conference and Demo zones
Leadership Meet for select customers (by invitation only)
Industry focussed tracks, on BFSI, Manufacturing, Retail, Telecom, Media & Entertainment, Government, Travel & Tourism and Information Technology industries
Leading middleware technology tracks
Keynotes by IBM Executives
World renowned Guest speakers
Real world case studies by IBM customers
Sessions by IBM's leading experts, industry luminaries & Business Partners (ISVs)
Solution zone by IBM Software Labs
Demonstration of best-of-breed solutions by IBM's ISV partners
Free certifications on IBM's leading middleware technologies - Information Management, Lotus, Rational, Tivoli and WebSphere software
I've seen a lot of buzz around SAP and heard a good number of my customers/partners raise this concern in the past many months. I've also been following the series of articles by Thomas Wailgum at CIO.com on this topic. In this article, we'll try to take a few steps back in time, and understand how it started. We'll also see how it evolved over time. Towards the end, we'll also see, as leaders in the IT space, a way to tackle this. The its and this' refer to the ERP bugaboo.
It all started in the early 2000's, right after the dot com boom, when the senior IT management teams of many companies wanted to manage their wide spread businesses effectively. From a management perspective, they thought that having a single ubiquitous platform would help from both talent acquisition and software management perspectives. This was the time when SAP's ERP suite was launched (mySAP ERP was launched in 2003). This suite offered four individual solutions, each addressing specific functional areas, namely-
Human Capital Management
Financials
Operations
Corporate Services
Over the next few years, these customers of SAP were happy with their investment decisions. These companies started to implement these solutions for their enterprises. But slowly, over a period in time, these companies pretty much reached a stage where they completed implementations of these solutions. As their corporate footprint and needs increased, they sought SAP's assistance to deploy these solutions for the newly inducted companies as well.
In the background, there was this monster called complexity that was growing. SAP was continuously adding newer features and releasing newer versions of these solutions. With the new deployments of SAP's solutions, these customers slowly started to realize that they needed to manage these different versions of solutions across their enterprises. This is when SAP introduced their Netweaver integrated technology platform, which was intended to help manage this complexity of different SAP versions. However, they later chose to call this a service-oriented application and integration platform.
Assuming the above fixed the problem of complexity, these companies started to look at the other side of the business - beating the competition and creating a unique business value to their customers. This resulted in the business teams of these companies coming up with some strategic initiatives and strategic business processes. This is when the ball was thrown back to the IT Leaders and CIOs to think of ways to implement these strategic business processes.
Still enchanted by SAP's ERP solutions, these IT Leaders resorted to implementing these strategic business processes in the same SAP platform using the programming languages like ABAP, etc. Now, the monster started to surface again! This time, it came with a greater force and impact. With the existing complexity of managing different versions of the SAP ERP, the companies were now put through a challenge of having to deal with different versions and fixes of these individual custom processes/modules that were deployed to address their strategic initiatives.
Let us now try and remind ourselves that SAP ERP was designed to address the resource management related processes (related to corporate operations, financial processes, human capital managment and the like). These processes are typically found in every enterprise, whatever industry or business they may be. When we talk about strategic business processes, we refer to those unique business processes that help an enterprise/corporate differentiate itself from its competition. The truth is that SAP's ERP was NOT designed to handle this! So, it was a Square Peg in a Round Hole.
IT Leaders looked at managing complexity in the short term, but failed to see the complexity in the longer run. So, is there a way to tame this man-made monster called complexity? Yes, there is. Read on...
Start differentiating between your strategic business processes and your ERP processes. Keep the latter in your existing ERP and move the former to a common, enterprise-wide platform that conforms to IT and Industry Standards. It's very important to think about the IT and Industry standards because your enterprise is bound to have disparate lines of businesses and different softwares from different vendors. You will need to have a platform that will seamlessly integrate these different systems and software.
From an IT Standards perspective, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has is a proven approach that offers the maximum flexibility and seamless integration capabilities. Though SAP-AG chose to call their Netweaver platform as a service-oriented application and integration platform, it isn't really so. Just because your integration platform allows its applications to be exposed as Web-Services, does not mean that it is SOA compliant! To know more on the difference between SOA and Web-Services, read this article.
To summarize, take a closer look at your ERP usage and try to separate out those non-ERP business processes. Adopt the SOA approach to your enterprise's IT architecture. It helps your business and IT be more flexible, agile and robust.
One of the key challenges that the Chemical & Petroleum industry faces today is the inability to make timely business decisions in areas related to performance and field operations in both upstream and downstream parts of the business. The reasons for this challenge are plenty (functional and technical). From a functional perspective, some of them are -
Operational managers and production supervisors do not have access to visibility to the plant's assets
Failure reports get delivered too late, and are often signaled by an alarm (with sound and light)
Failure reports are not intelligible enough to understand the problem to decide on a course of action
All assets and entities in the plant adhere to their own standards of operation; this results in too many standards in one place; manageability becomes a key concern
Technically, the reasons can be attributed to -
A multitude of data sources
Too many instances of data get created from the different data sources
There are many systems that are involved in the managing of these data instances
Each data source follows its own standard in creating data; managing disparate data instances with unique standards becomes a challenge by itself
We at IBM, have been observing this for quiet sometime now, and we do have an answer now! Yes, IBM has come up with yet another innovative and business-driven solution called the Chemical & Petroleum Integrated Information Framework; in short, its called C&P IIF. Chemical and Petroleum Integrated Information Framework (C&P IIF) is the software framework for real-time comprehensive integrated information across multiple disparate systems based on industry standards and an SOA approach. It enables real-time visibility and process collaboration with alerts and event management to speed problem determination plus optimization of existing resources:
For upstream oil and gas, C&P IIF framework enables implementing integrated operations that can decrease production costs while increasing oil field recovery percentages
For plants, C&P IIF enables real-time operations feedback driving integrations that can decrease production costs and improve refinery safety
For drilling, C&P IIF provides a comprehensive view across heterogeneous drilling formats for corporate analysis and easier handoff to production
For more information, do visit the IBM Chemical & Petroleum Integrated Information Framework web page here. A PDF version of the brochure is available here. You can also write to me to know more on IIF.
This short clip of Nick Donofrio's speech at the 2008 IBM Technical Leadership Exchange, is a must see video. Nick is an Executive Vice President at IBM, and heads the Innovation & Technology programs pan-IBM.
The Story from 1924 to 2002. History keeps repeating. It's always a deja vu - You always feel like you've been here before! Thats been IBM's story - from the days of the meat slicer till date, innovation has always been the driving factor.
Seth Chisamore from IBM in Atlanta Kiosk Group built a really unique Kiosk application for RecycleBank that lets students at Columbia University recycle at a kiosk, gain points for their contribution and get rewards from places like Chipotle. This takes the RecycleBank Business Model to the next level - Earn rewards by recycling!
Direct report from Columbia TV News...
A new recycling program created by Columbia Business School alum has just been introduced to first-year students. Students earn rewards for going Green, getting points that can be exchanged at local restaurants.
RecycleBank gives Columbia students an economic incentive to be more environmentally friendly with a simple process - “recycle, record, reward.” The program is part of the University’s Go Green Initiative, and it began for first-years in Carman, Furnald, John Jay, and Wallach on Monday. If it’s successful, it will expand to the rest of the campus in the fall.
Nilda Mesa, Columbia's Assistant Vice President of Environmental Stewardship, said, "Wherever RecycleBank’s gone in other cities, their recycling rates have increased dramatically. And that’s the kind of thing we’re looking for here.
We want to see our recycling rates just go through the roof."
Students received a bag for collecting recyclables and a key fob with their account barcode. They weigh their bag at one of the kiosks, scan their barcode, place the items in the proper receptacles, and can immediately see their earnings online.
Barani Guttsma, RecycleBank's Director of Account Management, said, "If you put a bowling ball in, A. you’re going to feel pretty bad about it, B. you’re just going to reach your monthly cap that much faster. And I think after a while, you’ll see that it’s really not worthwhile."
A maximum of 50 points earned per month are mailed to students in the form of gift certificates for local stores, like Chipotle, Amir’s, and Pinkberry.
Mike Wymbs, SEAS 2011, said, "I like getting gift certificates to Chipotle. I’m going to actually do this instead of taking the easy way out and throwing plastic bottles in the trash."
Organizers hope other students will have a similar reaction.
CoScripter is a system for recording, automating, and sharing processes performed in a web browser such as printing photos online, requesting a vacation hold for postal mail, or checking bank account information. Instructions for processes are recorded and stored in easy-to-read text here on the CoScripter web site, so anyone can make use of them. If you are having trouble with a web-based process, check to see if someone has written a CoScript for it!
An important part of the CoScripter experience is a custom browser extension for Mozilla Firefox that automates the process of recording and playing back processes. To download and install the extension, visit the download page. If you don't use the Firefox browser, you can still use the instructions provided by the scripts to manually complete web-based processes.
CoScripter is still a research project at IBM Almaden Research Center (IBM's second largest research center in the United States). You could post your comments in the forum. You can also mail at coscripter@almaden.ibm.com. Help and documentation is available here.
With an increased buzz around the Web 2.0 space and the concept of social networking catching up like wild fire, its been a very interesting period for web technologists and developers. With Google leading the bandwagon in the development of cutting-edge web technologies and tools, we've seen the hunger-struck Microsoft desperately trying to dowse the flames of Google's growth and in the market and the user mind share.
While all of this has been happening, off-late, I have been posed with one common question from people in my network and from customers (during informal chats). They have all wanted to know -
"What does IBM have in the Web 2.0 space?
This is indeed a very interesting question. Hence, in this post, I would like to point you to some of the work IBM has been doing in the space of Web 2.0.
The first tool that I'd like to talk about is the QEDWiki (v1.3 being the latest). QEDWiki is a browser-based assembly canvas used to create simple mashups. QEDWiki is a unique Wiki framework in that it provides both Web users and developers with a single Web application framework for hosting and developing a broad range of Web 2.0 applications. QEDWiki can be used for a wide variety of Web applications, including, but not limited to, the following:
Web content management for a typical collection of Wiki pages
traditional form processing for database-oriented CRUD (Create/Read/Update/Delete) applications
document-based collaboration
rich interactive applications that bind together disparate services
situational applications (or mashups).
QEDWiki also provides Web application developers with a flexible and extensible framework to enable do-it-yourself (DIY) rapid prototyping. Business users can quickly prototype and build ad hoc applications without depending on software engineers. QEDWiki provides mashup enablers (programmers) with a framework for building reusable, tag-based commands. These commands (or widgets) can then be used by business users who wish to create their own Web applications.
You need to Register yourself to be able to download QEDWiki. You can also get to see a Demo of QEDWiki in action.
The next Web 2.0 tool that I'd like to talk about is IBM DAMIA, which provides easy-to-use tools (though a web interface) that developers and IT users alike can use to quickly assemble data feeds from the Internet and a variety of enterprise data sources. The benefits of this service include the ability to aggregate and transform a wide variety of data or content feeds, which can be used in enterprise mashups.
DAMIA lets you do the following:
Import XML, Atom, and RSS feeds.
Assemble feeds from both the Internet and from Excel spreadsheets; database support is coming soon.
Import data from local files in XML format and Excel spreadsheets.
Aggregate and transform a wide variety of data or content feeds into new syndication services.
When building a complete Web application that provides a user interface, additional tools or technologies are required in order to display the data feed provided by DAMIA. Mashup makers, such as QEDWiki, and feed readers that consume Atom and RSS can be used as the presentation layer in the enterprise Web application.
The third tool is the IBM Mashup Hub, which connects Web 2.0 mashup creators and situational application assemblers with the data and user interface components they need for creating their solutions. Mashup Hub provides two broad areas of support: feed generation for enterprise data sources and a catalog of feeds and user interface (UI) widgets.
Mashup Hub enables the users to perform the following actions -
Define which data from an enterprise data source, such as a relational database, should be included in an Atom feed.
Register existing feeds so they can be shared.
Upload or download UI widgets, including those used by QEDWiki to make enterprise mashups.
Participate in community interactions with other Mashup Hub users. These interactions include social tagging, commenting, rating, and searching the content of the Mashup Hub catalog.
Feed sources supported by this release of Mashup Hub include relational databases, collections of XML documents in IBM DB2® pureXML™, Microsoft® Excel files, comma-separated value files, Microsoft Access exported queries, IBM Information Server federated data, and the contents of ordinary XML documents. A user can also register existing feeds in the Mashup Hub catalog.
IBM Mashup Starter Kit is a preview of a new Web 2.0-based mashup platform that empowers business professionals to rapidly get the information they need, no matter where it resides. This toolkit enables users to assemble their own Web 2.0 mashup applications, solving business problems without aid from information technology (IT) specialists.
IBM Mashup Starter Kit consists of two technologies: IBM Mashup Hub and QEDWiki. IBM Mashup Hub is a mashup server that stores information feeds (such as in RSS, ATOM, or XML formats) in order to enable reuse and collaboration. Mashup Hub can also merge, transform, filter, annotate, or publish information in new formats. From there, the newly-enhanced QEDWiki serves as the user interface and allows non-IT users to "mash" information from any data source in order to create a single view of disparate sets of information in minutes.
IBM Mashup Starter Kit can combine information from databases, departmental information, personal information, or the Web. It rapidly blends information and Web services, such as weather reports or maps, with enterprise content and services, such as IBM Information Server, IBM DB2® pureXML™, and IMS (Information Management System) transactions and databases; and it easily "mashes" them together to generate fast, flexible, and affordable applications for specific business needs.
This new approach to delivering Web 2.0 applications builds upon IBM’s Information on Demand strategy for helping organizations seize control of runaway data growth and rapidly respond to emerging opportunities by using information as a strategic business asset.
Just to end the note, IBM's Lotus suite of software has an offering called Lotus Connections, which is a social software for business that empowers you to be more innovative and helps you execute more quickly by using dynamic networks of coworkers, partners and customers. It helps with instant features like Profiles, Communities, Blogs, Dogear, Activities and more.
After a long wait, IBM has finally completed the Cognos buyout at $5bn USD/ $58 per share. Here is a detailed news.
With the buyout of Cognos Incorporated, which is predominantly a Business Intelligence (BI) and performance management software company, IBM has bolstered its Information Management software portfolio. With products like DB2 Alphablox (another acquisition of the past) and Cognos, I see IBM as a very strong player in the BI market space now.
With the growth of information and information overflow, this is yet another good acquisition by IBM. Kudos to the Big Blue!
Even the nation’s elite universities do not provide the technical training needed for the kind of powerful and highly complex computing Google is famous for, say computer scientists. So Google and I.B.M. are announcing today a major research initiative to address that shortcoming.
The two companies are investing to build large data centers that students can tap into over the Internet to program and research remotely, which is called “cloud computing.”
Both companies have a deep business interest in this new model in which computing chores increasingly move off individual desktops and out of corporate computer centers to be handled as services over the Internet.
Google, the Internet search giant, is the leader in this technology. But companies like Yahoo, Amazon, eBay and Microsoft have built Internet consumer services like search, social networking, Web e-mail and online commerce that use cloud computing. In the corporate market, I.B.M. and others have built Internet services to predict market trends, tailor pricing and optimize procurement and manufacturing.
Behind these services are data centers that typically use thousands of processors, store countless libraries of data and engage specialized software to tackle what scientists call Internet-scale computing challenges. This new kind of data-intensive supercomputing often involves scouring the Web and other data sources in seconds or minutes for patterns and insights.
Most of the innovation in cloud computing has been led by corporations, but industry executives and computer scientists say a shortage of skills and talent could limit future growth.
“We in academia and the government labs have not kept up with the times,” said Randal E. Bryant, dean of the computer science school at Carnegie Mellon University. “Universities really need to get on board.”
Google is building a data center, at an undisclosed location, that will contain more than 1,600 processors by the end of the year. I.B.M. is also setting up a data center for the initiative.
The centers will run an open-source version of Google’s data center software, and I.B.M. is contributing open-source tools to help students write Internet programs and data center management software.
The data centers under way have a small fraction of the computing firepower behind Google’s Internet search service. But they will be big enough, scientists say, to do ambitious Internet research. Setting up and running such centers, including providing the electricity and technical staff, is difficult and expensive. The two companies, a person who was told of their plans said, have committed a total of $30 million over two years for the project.
“This is a huge contribution because it allows for a type of education and research that we can’t do today,” said Edward Lazowska, a computer science professor at the University of Washington.
The companies’ and academics’ long-term goal is to expand the data-center clusters so students from many schools can participate and to enlist the support of other companies and the federal government.
The companies and university scientists involved in the initiative have talked to the National Science Foundation and other agencies.
The collaboration began after a meeting in December between Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, and Samuel J. Palmisano, I.B.M.’s chief executive, at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
In an interview on Friday, Mr. Schmidt recalled that he had sketched out his vision of cloud computing on a whiteboard, emphasizing its potential economic and social importance, and urged the I.B.M. chief to cooperate to build the skills needed.
At the time, Mr. Palmisano said, he had just come out of a day of technology briefings at I.B.M., and his company is doing a lot of research in the same field. I.B.M. also has deep knowledge and experience in building and managing complex data centers.
Mr. Schmidt said, “I.B.M. has some of the best technology in the industry, and we couldn’t have done this without them.”
Mr. Palmisano noted that cooperation between the two companies was easier because Google is mainly a consumer company, while I.B.M. concentrates on the corporate market. “We’re more complementary than anything else,” Mr. Palmisano said. “We don’t really collide in the marketplace.”
And by helping university students, I.B.M. and Google hope to help themselves in the marketplace.
“We’re trying to create the easiest possible on-ramp for universities into this world of cloud computing,” said Stuart I. Feldman, a vice president of engineering at Google and a former senior researcher at I.B.M. “But yes, this kind of computing is core value to Google and I.B.M. We have an interest, no doubt.”
Well, I'm sure you know IBM is the acronym for International Business Machines. By saying "I" I was referring to myself. I work for IBM and this was the snap I took with one of the oldest inventions of IBM, the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine.
IBM signaled its commitment to electronic computing with the introduction of 701 in 1952 as the company's first production computer and the first machine in which programs were stored in an interval, addressable electronic memory. Using cathode ray tube (Williams tube) memory for speed and flexibility, the 701 also featured the IBM-invented tape drive vacuum column, an invention that popularized magnetic tape storage technology.
In the above picture, the view of the EDP machine that you see next to me, shows a matrix of cathode ray tubes. Here is a closer look at the front panel of the EDP machine.
What was so special about the 701? Well, a few things. The 701 was a landmark product because it was: (Courtesy: IBM Archives)
The first IBM large-scale electronic computer manufactured in quantity;
IBM's first commercially available scientific computer;
The first IBM machine in which programs were stored in an internal, addressable, electronic memory;
Developed and produced in record time -- less than two years from "first pencil on paper" to installation;
Key to IBM's transition from punched-card machines to electronic computers; and
The first of the pioneering line of IBM 700 series computers, including the 702, 704, 705 and 709.
This is something that most of us would have just read in textbooks during school and college days. It was sheer pleasure and excitement to touch and feel something like the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing machine.
This is been the talk of the towns...all over the world - Microsoft to take over Yahoo Inc. Wow! That is indeed something that will raise a trillion eyebrows. This has indeed brought a lot of smiles in the faces of several MS and YAHOO stock holders....not for long!
Yes, this has been one of the most sizzling stories of recent times...and the 'would have been' the monstrous deals of recent times and of course in the history of Microsoft. Yes, I did say 'would have been'. In my opinion, this is certainly not the right thing to happen (and most likely will not materialize). I have three good reasons to support my opinion...
The first and foremost reason being - A Profile Mismatch
MS being totally into the product space (starting from an Operating System space)
MS later branched into hosted application space and the portal space
MS has not been into the middleware space - though having tried to do something here by some acquisitions (like that of Groove Networks)
Yahoo has predominantly been in the Search business
Yahoo has spread its offerings into the Internet world - collaboration space
Yahoo also went into signing a deal with the Big Blue and rolled out the IBM Omnifind Yahoo! Edition, which was a move to get a hold in the enterprise search engine space
The second reason is that Microsoft acquiring Yahoo will be construed as Microsoft accepting a defeat to Google - not withstanding competetion and going in for an acquisition due to lack of capabilities to come up with an in-house solution!
The third reason I would see from a business impact standpoint is that - The deal, if it happens, will be too humongous a deal, to the business case in hand (that I can think of)
Currently, as per current rankings of Search Engines, Google tops the charts with Yahoo following second and Microsoft falling third.
It was not long ago (in 2005) that Bill Gates treated Google and Yahoo as new-kids-in-the-block. He even said that Google search API's were not as good as Microsoft's!!!
"With Google, there are rumors about them being interested in that services piece, but they really haven't done that much. Our search API is way better than their search API - Bill Gates, at Microsoft Professional Developer Conference in 2005
This is always going to be an interesting thing - The Microsoft - Google war!
In the context of Information Technology, IT Leaders are often presented with such situations of having to make a choice between multiple solutions. This is when a leader needs to look through the telescope and see the solution from a long term perspective. An IT architecture that will scale up faster with minimal change with high utilization of existing investment and legacy systems is the basic need.
From an IT Standards perspective, Service Oriented Architecture (
One of the key challenges that the Chemical & Petroleum industry faces today is the inability to make timely business decisions in areas related to performance and field operations in both upstream and downstream parts of the business. The reasons for this challenge are plenty (functional and technical). From a functional perspective, some of them are -
