Enterprise Headlines and Highlights, 2012-07-22

And to demonstrate that not everything coming from Microsoft Advertisement agency’s is not completely worthless, here are a few ads that Microsoft got right.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Palo Alto priced 6.2 million shares at $42 apiece Thursday night, above a boosted range. It ended Friday at $53.13, up 27%, or $11.13 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange trading. Kayak Software, a travel-search engine, launched on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Whereas iPad is primarily a consumption device, with what amounts to some elegant kludges for enabling varying degrees of input, the Windows 8 tablet experience will be for both creation and consumption. With many of the new hardware devices either coming with a built-in keyboard (like the Surface and the convertible laptops) or supporting a variety of Bluetooth keyboards (like the Series 7 and its brethren), the line between tablet and PC begins to blur.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Jelly Bean brings full ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) implementation to the operating system. ASLR simply randomizes where memory processes get mapped, so attackers can only guess where their malicious payloads will end up. As Jon Oberheide of Duo Security told Security Watch, their odds go from 1 in 2 to “maybe 1 in 1000.” Every wrong guess could lead to the app crashing, and the user uninstalling the app, thus dramatically reducing the chances of a successful exploit.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Introduced 3 weeks ago at Google I/O 2012, the Nexus 7 with Android JellyBean has proven to be a runaway hit. It has already sold out at brick-and-mortar stores such as Costco, GameStop, Sam’s Club, Office Depot, and Staples, and is unavailable at online stores such as B&H. The 16GB model is especially hard to find.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Apple and Samsung were each handed victories and defeats in court this week ahead of a patent trial scheduled to begin July 30.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Google’s enterprise business had reached a tipping point, characterizing it as a “serious small but growing business.” He repeated previously released statistics, noting that Google now has over 5 million enterprise customers.

“You can’t fake a commitment to cloud computing,” he said.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

The initial focus: igniting more consumer use of Bing, the Microsoft Web search engine.

In an interview, Mr. Penn said he is assembling a “SWAT team” to work on thorny strategy questions around Microsoft consumer projects. His initial priority, Mr. Penn said in the interview, would be Bing, which lags far behind Google in market share and revenue despite billions of dollars of investment from Microsoft. Mr. Penn, whose appointment was announced Thursday, will have a new post as corporate vice president of strategic and special projects.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Although Ballmer repeatedly reassured the audience that Microsoft would continue to sell Office as purely local client software, he also punctuated his keynote at least once with the qualifier “for now.”
The Importance of SkyDrive

Microsoft SkyDriveDuring the Office presentations, SkyDrive received a lot of love from Kirk Koenigsbauer, the Microsoft VP in charge of Office. One of the customer quotes that Ballmer highlighted after the demo focused entirely on SkyDrive, which is Microsoft’s answer to Dropbox.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

0xB16B00B5 was discovered lurking in code that helps a Microsoft program work with Linux open source software…
The string was used every time the Microsoft program ran a virtual version of Linux.

Kernel hacker Paolo Bonzini posted a message about the string on the Linux Kernel mailing list saying “Somone (sic) was trying to be funny, I guess”.

Microsoft was alerted to the mistake and swiftly issued a statement.

“We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologise for the offensive string,” it said to Network World.

It added that it had prepared a patch that would change the spelling of the string in an update.

Commenting on the gaffe, developer Matthew Garrett noted that the first version of the Microsoft code used a similar string of 0x0B00B135 – a form of letters that roughly translates to “boobies”.

“Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys’ club where girls aren’t welcome,”

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

HP announced they’re making a new push into cloud computing and that they totally know what that is.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

As the global head of product for Ads Measurement and Reporting at Google, Chang has led a portfolio of products for the past six years, including Google Analytics, Multi-channel conversion attribution and Website Optimizer.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Microsoft’s US$1.2 billion acquisition of Yammer has been finalized, less than a month after the companies announced the cash deal.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Apple must run ads in U.K. newspapers saying that Samsung Electronics didn’t copy designs for its iPad – the jurisprudential equivalent of ordering a pupil to write “I will not engage in spurious patent battles” on the blackboard 10,000 times.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

The flaw in the Transport Network Substrate (TNS) Listener database component, which could allow a hacker to break into a database without a username or password, affects versions of Database 11g and 10g.

In April, Oracle flagged the issue and said it might be able to rectify it, but noted the difficulties in doing this. On Tuesday, it confirmed it will not issue a fix.

“Because of the nature of this issue (amount of code change required, potential for significant regression issues, and inability to automate the application of a fix), Oracle does not plan to backport a permanent fix for this vulnerability in any upcoming Critical Patch Update,” the company said in its July security bulletin.

Oracle has known about the TNS issue for at least four years. It recommended in April that Database administrators apply workarounds listed in a security advisory. A proof-of-concept attack method for the vulnerability has been made public by the security researcher who originally discovered the

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Skire was founded in 2000 and offers cloud-based and on-premise software aimed at managing large construction projects and multiple facilities. Oracle will combine the software with a similar product called Primavera, which it acquired in a 2008 deal. Skire’s management and employees will join Oracle’s Primavera unit when the acquisition is complete, Oracle announced…Skire is the fourth company Oracle has acquired in the past three months: The Redwood City company purchased social-media software companies Involver, Collective Intellect and Vitrue since May. Those deals followed larger acquisitions of cloud-based companies RightNow technologies in October and Dublin-based Taleo in February, acquisitions that led to last month’s launch of Oracle Public Cloud.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Based on interviews with 333 C-level executives from U.S. and Canadian enterprises conducted in March and April, the report revealed that 38% of respondents say that they don’t have the right systems in place to gather the information they need, and 36% report that they can’t give business managers access to pertinent information and need to rely on IT to compile and analyze information. What’s more, 29% of these senior execs say their systems are not designed to meet the specific needs of their particular industries.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

94% of C-level executives say their organization is collecting and managing more business information today than two years ago, by an average of 86% more
29% of executives give their organization a “D” or “F” in preparedness to manage the data deluge
93% of executives believe their organization is losing revenue – on average, 14% annually – as a result of not being able to fully leverage the information they collect
Nearly all surveyed (97%) say their organization must make a change to improve information optimization over the next two years
Industry-specific applications are an important part of the mix; 77% of organizations surveyed use them today to run their enterprise—and they are looking for more tailored options

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

SAP is planning to organize its analytics and BI (business intelligence) product strategy around five “pillars,” or subject areas, spanning from essential platform technology to social collaboration, the company announced Tuesday.

Other pillars include “creative” technologies, or ones that provide self-service features for individual users; support for mobile analytics; and “extreme” technologies such as predictive analytics, SAP said in a statement.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Walravens writes that his sources aren’t seeing any snags along the lines of “higher approval levels, project delays, more scrutiny.” He cites Netsuite’s lack of European exposure as a possible explanation. The company primarily sells to small and medium-size businesses in the U.S. Total euro denominated exposure is under 1%.

Meanwhile Walravens cites that Netsuite is hiring new sales reps aggressively, and in some cases splitting existing sales territories to create room for hires. Walravens saw this in the early days of Salesforce.com’s ramp up. Walravens is predicting billings growth of 30%, consensus is 28%.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Organizations are experiencing unprecedented
growth in data volume, variety, and velocity; they
are increasingly relying on focused IT solutions to
generate value by:
• Addressing their most pressing business challenges
• Managing and extracting business insight
• Improving customer service
• Capitalizing on new business opportunities
• The need for better data management is all too
acute, but how are organizations doing?

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

EU’s chief antitrust regulator promises sanctions because Microsoft left browser ballot out of Windows 7 SP1

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Politics, as it often does in relationships of all kinds, played at least a small part in the breakup. But the bottom line, as it usually is in business deals, was profits and power — specifically, lack of both.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Google is far outpacing Microsoft in the cloud business. Compared with Microsoft, Google is winning one-third to one-half of new, paid-for, cloud-based office system seats, the analyst firm reported.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

IPO could be largest after Facebook chilled markets

* Latest enterprise-software player to tap investors

* Takes advantage of fledgling JOBS Act

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

In 2010, Infor struck on a new approach, named ION, in which data is exchanged between applications as XML documents. Any time data in one of Infor’s applications is changed, it creates a new XML document. These documents are stored in what the company calls its ‘Business Vault’, a database of XML documents, from where they can be pushed out to all other applications.

According to Charles Philips, who joined Infor as CEO that year after a long stint as co-president at Oracle, nailing integration has allowed the company to innovate – a word that Infor has not been associated with in the past.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Tripit’s technology will allow the company to bring what he describes as “unmanaged” business travel into the expense management process.

“Managed travel is when you do everything through the company’s travel agent, whereas unmanaged travel is when you pay for a train ticket or a hotel room on your personal credit card,” he explains. “With Tripit, you don’t really have to make that distinction any more, because it allows you to collect all kinds of booking information in one spot.”

Concur is now working on the integration of the two companies’ technology. “Our strategy is to combine Tripit’s ability to take itineraries and trips from anywhere with Concur’s ability to make sure all your bookings and expense claims are reconciled,” he explains.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Paul Maritz is out as VMware CEO, and he is being replaced by Pat Gelsinger, president and COO of EMC (NYSE:EMC)’s Information Infrastructure Products division, CRN has learned.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Salesforce.com is rolling out the next phase for Radian6 with the introduction of the Insights ecosystem platform for handling social big data.

Acquired roughly 18 months ago, Radian6 is now expanding with this new platform to tackle sentiments, intents, demographics and more key metrics found within the most commonly used social media channels. The idea is to then convey this information in a way that will better enable business customers to optimize their marketing, customer service, and lead techniques.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Yahoo Inc picked Google Inc’s Marissa Mayer to become its new CEO, turning to an engineer with established Silicon Valley credentials to turn around the struggling former Internet powerhouse.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Images of components point to a larger screen, but a similar design to the iPhone 4/4S.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Combining keynotes, roundtables, six audience-based summits and 10 industry-based summits, along with exclusive receptions and networking experiences, the program is an invitation-only event designed for senior level executives to stay at the top of their games and keep their organizations at the top of their markets.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

When: Monday, July 16, at noon PDT
What: News from Microsoft
Who: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will share the news.
Where: Live via webcast at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news (available for viewing in the following languages):

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

SQL Server 2012 offers Business Intelligence to help companies analyze business data, an AlwaysOn availability and uptime enhancement, Contained Databases for managing databases as a group and a quick-query tool called ColumnStore Index.

On the flip side, Microsoft’s new licensing model will probably cost enterprises more money. And database administrators should be aware that taking full advantage of these new features will require additional network bandwidth and will impose extra burdens on IT.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

On Sunday night, MSNBC.com did something that successful Web sites almost never do: it renamed itself.

The site became NBCNews.com, signifying the end of a relationship between NBC and Microsoft that dates back to the earliest days of the commercial Web. Early next year, MSNBC.com will be reborn as a stand-alone site for the cable channel MSNBC, ending the brand confusion that has plagued the site in the past.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)

Highlights of enterprise software and solutions news from the past week:
SAP posts strong results in a preview of Q2, but warn employees to cut spending so that profitability will stop rising slower than revenues.
Microsoft announces Bing Fund to invest in start-ups, while cutting many jobs in their on-line business driven by Bing.
Oracle’s legal losing streak continues, losing a case in Europe that allows resale of “used” software licenses.
Oracle acquires Involver for social media growth.
Gartner predicts increased IT spending in 2012.
Salesforce.com suffers an outage. Man bites dog.

(Curated by Dennis Moore. Read the complete article here)