Marketing

Linux and Windows heat up mobile market

For those resigned to 30 years of Apple dominance in the mobile market, think again. While Apple clearly hit a home run with the iPhone, it's now under several serious threats from the Linux camp, and it seems Microsoft might finally have its act together with Windows Phone 7 Series.

Time to kiss your iPhone goodbye?

Maybe. Google had already been giving the iPhone serious competition with its Linux-based Android platform, but Monday Intel and Nokia joined forces with their own Linux initiative, MeeGo.

MeeGo is an amalgamation of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo, two initiatives that … Read more

Microsoft dropping FAST search for Linux, Unix

Microsoft plans to begin phasing out Unix and Linux platform support for its FAST enterprise search products, as of its next release.

According to a Thursday blog post from Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Bjørn Olstad, the team will be "investing in interoperability between Windows and other operating systems, reaffirming our commitment to 10 years of support for our non-Windows products, and taking concrete steps to help customers plan for the future."

Enterprise search remains a lucrative, if oddly fractured market. According to analyst firm Gartner, in 2008, software revenue (new licenses and maintenance revenue) in the enterprise … Read more

Already a pacesetter, Amazon drops cloud pricing

With Microsoft finally releasing the Windows Azure cloud operating system to the public earlier this week, Amazon Web Services (AWS) took just one day to offer new pricing reductions to re-establish the market price for cloud services.

Effective February 1, AWS is reducing prices by 2 cents per gigabyte based on the tiers of usage offer. Amazon also lowered rates for data transferred out of its Amazon CloudFront content delivery network, cutting rates by 2 cents per gigabyte. And while 2 cents may not sound like much, at the highest usage levels of 1,000 terabytes, that takes the cost … Read more

Makara turns the cloud into a virtual layer

Several months back, I spoke with Issac Roth, CEO of platform-as-a-service start-up WebappVM, about taking advantage of the cloud by moving to a virtual layer approach.

The idea behind this virtual layer is to enable developers to easily take Web applications to cloud environments--be they private, public, hybrid, or elsewhere in the ether.

On Tuesday, Roth and company are announcing the developer edition for their Cloud Application Platform with a newer, catchier name: Makara.

According to Roth, developers want to be able to get their apps up and running quickly but haven't had the ability to do so previously. … Read more

Windows Azure finally ready for customers

Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud computing service became generally available on Monday with very little flourish. And that might be because this first wave of Azure offerings is frankly a bit odd.

I am sure Microsoft will eventually figure out how to give its users options that are more obviously appealing (perhaps using Amazon Web Services as the model?), but in the near-term the options are not as clear as they could be.

It's still a positive for cloud enthusiasts that Azure has finally reached a place where Microsoft is comfortable offering it commercially. And if you're part … Read more

Oracle and Apple shift the hardware game

Between Apple's iPad (important but disappointing) and Oracle's explanation of how it will integrate Sun (goodbye, best of breed) this has been a big week in the technology landscape. And oddly enough, hardware, rather than software, is the area to pay attention to.

Now that Oracle has Sun hardware to sell, it took the wind out of the sails of many Sun value-added resellers who were effectively order takers. Oracle is notoriously good at wringing money out of customers in a way that makes it feel OK. It seems highly unlikely that customers will prefer to not buy … Read more

Free Linux training to help you get a job

Research shows the demand for Linux talent is on the rise with some firms reporting a 50 percent increase in Linux-related jobs just in the last year. This is certainly good news if you already know how to work with Linux, and perhaps better news if you are looking for a new technical role.

The nonprofit Linux Foundation is looking to help meet this need with an expanded training program that includes a free Webinar series hosted by leading technical talent from the Linux kernel community and expanded classes in new locations around the world.

There are many Linux training … Read more

Securing iPhone payment processing

Quite a bit of hype surrounds Square, the mobile payment processing service founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. But mobile payment processing is hardly a new concept, as companies like Symbol (now owned by Motorola) have long offering a wide array of devices.

The big deal is not the concept, but the fact that you can turn your iPhone or other mobile device into an on-demand payment processing service.

I spoke to Tom Patterson, chief security officer of MagTek, a provider of electronic devices for the secure transfer of payment data, to understand the implications of this new wave of … Read more

Microsoft and Intuit partner up in the cloud

Intuit and Microsoft announced Wednesday that the two companies plan to integrate the capabilities of their cloud services platforms, the Intuit Partner Platform (IPP) and Windows Azure platform, to build solutions for small businesses. Azure will become a "preferred platform" for small-business application development as part of the relationship.

According to Kim Akers, general manager of Partner Evangelism at Microsoft, there are three constituencies that benefit from this partnership:

Developers working on Azure apps can take advantage of the IPP--gaining access to the features and promotion in the marketplace. Channel partners have a way to offer broader applications … Read more