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The $15.3 Billion Server Market – Surprisingly Buoyant In Q1 2012

Q1 2012 Server Update

  • Q1 was surprisingly buoyant, although the worsening economy threatens a decline in coming quarters
  • The market grew 1% to $15.3 Billion in the quarter
  • $60 Billion in the year
  • Unit shipments were 4 million in the quarter
  • The installed base reached 44 million
  • x86 servers 2% growth ($11.5 Billion) in the quarter
  • 4% x86 growth to $44 Billion in the year
  • Windows operating systems were 66% of revenues, Linux – 9%
  • A drop in IBM System z revenues set back the rise in virtualised servers
  • Virtualised server represented 37% of revenues: physical-only machines 63%
  • Revenues declined 2% in the Americas
  • Asia Pacific revenues grew by 2%
  • EMEA grew by 1% in local currency

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Asigra And Partners Push Cloud Backup

Asigra Highlights

  • Has deep technical knowledge gained over 26 years
  • Offers its agent-less software exclusively through its hundreds of global service provider partners
  • Is considering a new capacity pricing scheme – lower price for backup (close to the price of disk), but an ‘appropriate’ higher one for restore
  • Aims to prevent customers spending money on things they don’t use as a result
  • Is partnering with NetApp to offer ‘Data Protection as a Service’ (DPaaS) through service providers
  • Will have 3.5k functions in version 12 of its software
  • Is part of an inexorable, but slow replacement of tape with disk
  • Is a strong early Cloud Computing player

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Microsoft previews Surface – plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Microsoft Surface Highlights

  • Announces 2 Surface platforms – based on ARM and Intel chips
  • Includes a keyboard, making this a ‘convertible’
  • Will challenge Apple’s 94% share of the smart tablet market
  • Will compete directly with its PC OEMs in client devices for the first time and will need to balance its activities carefully
  • Signifies the most important move today away from the horizontal PC market

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IBM Builds Its Smarter Commerce Software Business Through Acquisition

IBM Smarter Commerce Highlights

  • Has spent around $3b on software acquisitions in this area
  • Focuses on software to support line-of-business in sales, marketing, procurement and customer service
  • Helps IBM compete as a close second to Oracle in the application software market
  • Hosts a conference in Madrid with 1,750 attendees
  • Is used by Ing for addressing customers’ emotional needs, Boots for its Advantage loyalty card activities and The Home Retail Group for extending its sales to new channels
  • Will continue to invest in acquisitions – probably in building its ‘Service’ business


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HP Networking – Management For Telcos And Enterprises, Wireless For BYOD

For our assessment and forecast for the whole networking market, please click here.

HP Networking Highlights Q2 2012

  • Built a large division by acquiring 3Com – adding it to its ProCurve business in 2010
  • Plays in the LAN, switch and router hardware markets
  • Offerings include including its FlexNetwork architecture, IMC VAN management suite and its Enterprise Mobility platform
  • Has an incremental approach to extending corporate applications to mobile devices connecting to networks as part of BYOD strategies
  • Takes a multi-vendor approach to the management of network devises, accommodating those from Cisco and others
  • Its approach is endorsed by Wellcome Trust, a large reference customer
  • Sees its role as adding IT skills to more traditional networking specialisation
  • Has a good networking approach necessary to build increasingly integrated systems

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IBM Launches PureSystems – An Integrated Compute, Storage, Networking and Middleware Approach

IBM PureSystems Highlights

  • Launches PureFlex and PureApplication – the first of a family of expert integrated systems accommodating compute, storage, networking and middleware
  • A physical manifestation of its Cloud reference architecture
  • Designed for ease-of-use and rapid speed-of-deployment
  • Introduces Patterns for capturing expertise in building infrastructure, platforms and applications
  • Launches the PureSystems Centre – quasi-appstore for Pattern cataloguing and distribution
  • Has certified 150 applications from 126 ISVs and launch among 600 available
  • Has an infrastructure-in-a-box approach, but is also highly pluggable through the inclusion of Storwize V7000
  • ISVs, SPs And Enterprises lacking the budget, energy or resources for highly active infrastructure maintenance likely to be early adopters
  • Demonstrates how far we’ve moved from the pick ‘n’ mix horizontal market of the past

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HP – The African Market Leader Invests For Growth

HP In Africa Highlights

  • Managed by Stefanos Giourelis
  • South Africa is by far the largest market, followed by Nigeria and Morocco
  • Has sub-regional management in East, South, West and French-speaking West Africa
  • Works on social development with CHAI and other charities
  • The Nigerian government is a significant reference customer
  • It expects African IT growth to be 6-7% in 2012
  • Management needs to be more flexible, although offerings are the same
  • Training graduates, turning them into professionals through training and retaining them is key to the future

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HP Cloud Reference Architecture Enhanced With Cloud Protection

HP Cloud Protection Highlights

  • Its delivery model outlines differences between Private, Virtual Private and Public Clouds
  • Its Cloud reference architecture has Demand, Delivery, Supply and Infrastructure layers
  • Its Cloud Protection functions are built into the architecture
  • Is applying security functions from legacy systems to cover and integrate with the Cloud.
  • The Bristol Business Lab hosts multiple visits from governments, 3-star generals and police forces
  • The G-Cloud demonstrator separates Infrastructure from Service Provider access and views
  • Is working on Forensic VMs ‘Forensic VMs’, where small ‘detectors’ investigate Virtual Machines, checking their memory for signs of infection.
  • Security resources include 1,400 staff from the acquisition of Fortify, Arcsight and Tippingpoint and 1,500 in HP Enterprise Security Services

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Comparetheware – A Comparison Site For IT Purchasers

Comparetheware Highlights

  • Opens a comparison site for IT purchasing
  • Generates qualified leads priced at £25 each for resellers
  • Charges suppliers £5k per year for basic inclusion, more for premium status
  • Will open to users in a few months time
  • Borrows techniques from consumer financial comparison sites
  • Needs strong momentum to build critical mass
  • Is a genuinely new go-to-market approach for the IT business purchasers

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RedHat RHEV3 – Alternative Virtualisation And Ecosystem

RedHat RHEV3 Highlights

  • Launches RHEV3
  • Has an Open Source approach – going against the tide of vertical integration
  • Offers lower-cost alternatives in the virtualisation market
  • It is not the hub of an ecosystem in the way Vmware, Microsoft and Citrix are
  • Is now a billion dollar software company
  • Has strong opportunities as users turn to KVM and Linux in database and Cloud Computing areas


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IBM Mainframes – Integrating Business Analytics With zBX

IBM System Z Update

  • Shipped 800 zBX with 450 blades
  • Signed 80 new System z customers
  • Encourages new mainframe participants with education and recruitment support
  • Has added Windows to the supported platforms on zBX and URM
  • Focuses on business analytics workloads with Smart Analytics System 9700 and 7100 alongside its Smart Analytics Cloud
  • We expect to see Security Analytics addressed in future through its Q1 Labs acquisition

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IBM Invests In Africa – ‘The Next India, The Next China’

IBM In Africa Highlights

  • Increased its presence from 4 main offices to over 20 today
  • Established a number of new locations to service Bharti Telecom
  • Has a high-end systems strategy
  • Sees Government, Banking and Telco as the strongest industry sectors
  • Runs regional management from Morocco, Tunis, Cairo, Nairobi and Johannesburg
  • We see Africa as a small region with tremendous growth prospects, dependent on long-term socio-economic trends

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Dell Storage Systems – Big Hat, Good Cattle

Dell Storage Systems Highlights

  • Has shifted from a reseller to an IP-based supplier status
  • Is integrating 4 acquisitions into its Fluid Data architecture
  • Is moving towards a common DFFS file system
  • Maintains PowerVault, EqualLogic and Compellent brands
  • Has to make up for the loss of EMC reseller business a year ago
  • Sees established storage systems suppliers as ‘Big Hats, No Cattle’
  • Will need to increase research, development and engineering spending to maintain innovation

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HP’s Adds Autonomy And Vertica To Its Information Optimization Strategy

HP Information Optimization Highlights

  • Vertica adds real-time parallel processing of structured data
  • Autonomy adds an analytics platform for all data (including unstructured sources from monitoring and social feeds)
  • Quotes scary market numbers for data growth, but claims it can help manage all enterprise data
  • Proposes an Information Optimization architecture, encompassing information use cases, sources management and optimisation layers
  • A valid start, but over-productises a services business

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How R&D, Innovation And Integration Will Help Reverse HP’s Market Share Decline

HP Market Share Highlights

  • Declined from 4.9% to 3.4% between Q1 2003 and Q3 2011 in the IT market
  • Fell in IT Service and Hardware categories, while growing slightly in Software
  • Fell continuously in the Americas and EMEA and despite growth, remains small in Asia Pacific
  • Has not recovered from 2008’s step decline in large accounts
  • Has done badly in Finance and Transport/… sectors
  • Has been maintained in Manufacturing and Health sectors
  • Should consider investing more than 2.6% of its revenues in R&D
  • Should focus on breaking internal silos by training and redeploying smart managers
  • Should build more integrated solutions with less dependence on broad horizontal partnerships

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IBM And VMware Find Common Ground In Storage And Server Hypervising

IBM and VMware Highlights

  • IBM is VMware’s biggest customer
  • Enhances IBM’s role as a storage hypervisor vendor
  • Matching approaches to server and storage hypervisors
  • 20k common customers
  • IBM addresses multiple APIs to make its storage hypervisor relevant within the VMware ecosystem
  • IBM Stretched Cluster extends vMotion usage to 300km
  • Work together on addressing the cost and latency issues of VDI
  • A potentially strong common go-to-market approach

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ITCandor 2012 Expectations – The Euro Crunch, African Investment And Mobile ITC

ITCandor Expectations 2012 Highlights

  1. The Euro Crunch hits – World ITC spending falls -1.4% to $6.5T
  2. Spending In EMEA And The Americas Fall, Grows In Asia Pacific – A Year For Africa
  3. Distributor business overtakes direct outbound sales – a year for aggregators
  4. Government and Manufacturing sector spending declines fastest
  5. Consumer falls at the same rate as business spending, will go lower in 2013
  6. Cloud Computing becomes a countervailing business – grows 10% to $1.1T
  7. Storage hypervisors give users the cost advantages of VMware in the server market
  8. Converged devices outsell PCs for the first time
  9. A staggered 4G rollout disrupts network and wireless markets
  10. Social media plays a vital role in political change

Click on the links above for our detailed predictions Read more »

From Unified To Social Communications And Collaboration

I’m very pleased to be publishing an artcle her from Pim Bilderbeek, a colleague who works for the METISfiles and has helped us with contributions to this site many times before.

We have come a long way since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. Mr. Bell’s first call was to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, speaking these famous first words, “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you”. Today we can reach virtually anyone on the planet instantly – whenever and wherever they are – with the multitude of communications channels and devices that we have at our disposal. But with this multitude comes the danger of information overload and communications breakdown. In fact, we make a point that the competitive advantages of being an elastic enterprise could be in real danger of being offset through ineffective collaboration between workers, customers, partners and business units caused by information overload and communications breakdown.
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Kaseya Addresses Smart Devices In Corporate Networks WIth Mobile Device Management

Kaseya MDM Highlights

  • Smart phone installed base will overtake PCs in 2014
  • Smart tablet installed base will reach 500 million in 2015
  • Kaseya has added Mobile Device Management to its K2 platform
  • Introduces automated software deployment and device tracking
  • Locks, wipes and alarms lost or stolen devices
  • Designed for MSPs and corporate IT departments

Read more »