News and analysis to 2nd May 2003
US
Cybersecurity Shock
You decide which is more shocking:
A - Howard Schmidt, the US Government cybersecurity czar’
intends to quit the role citing that e-security is no longer a White House
agenda item
B – The US Government’s ‘cyber security czar’ is Howard
Schmidt, whose previous role was that of Microsoft’s chief security strategist.
ISP - Internet Spam Provider
Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo! have got together with a view to
halting the Internet’s ‘public enemy number one’, ie. spam. So it may well be
the end of those intriguing emails that offer to improve your musical
instruments (“organ enhancement”) or the one’s from those generous people in
Africa that need help in sharing large sums of money.
Capped Gemini
Revenues fell 17% in the first quarter for Cap Gemini Ernst
and Young. In this period it has reduced its staff by circa 2,000. Its focus
going forward is to drive out more costs in order to improve margin. This may
keep shareholders happy for a quarter or two, but at some point the issue of
getting more business needs to be addressed.
Symbian turning Orange?
Wireless operator and France Telecom subsidiary Orange is
toying with the idea of joining the Symbian consortium, which is focused on
standardising mobile phone technology, but from an ‘under the bonnet
perspective’. This could be good news as Orange has a healthy preoccupation
with the user experience. Their perspective stems from the fact that users who
can actually use the services available on their phones are likely to spend
more.
Sars virus infects computers
You thought Sars was confined to organic based life forms.
Well it has just crashed The Computex Trade Show, a major showcase event for
Taiwan’s computer industry. People nervous of contracting the high profile
disease are avoiding the Asia Pacific region. In anticipation of poor
attendance the organisers have decided to cancel the event. Taiwan has had one
reported death from Sars.
Microsoft getting small minded
Microsoft has been eyeing up the SME market (small to medium
sized enterprises) for some time. However it has now realigned its internal
organs to go hunting. Up until now Microsoft’s Business Solutions sales team
and the Microsoft Small Businesses sales team were decoupled. That is not so
now, thus enabling small companies to get access to the full product range from
a single point of contact within Microsoft. This technology dinosaur has
increased its chances of survival by evolving in line with the changing
business environment.
Does my software look big in this?
HP has won the first quarter’s global battle of the ‘back
ends’, according to Gartner’s Dataquest unit. HP’s server sales led Dell by a
healthy distance, though Dell was ‘king of the hill’ in the US. At the
mainframe end, IBM and Sun Microsystems felt pain as customers showed
reluctance to make ‘big ticket’ purchases.
