BlackBerry may have won a reprieve but Google and Skype were squarely in the firing line Tuesday as India's security agencies widened their crackdown on telecom firms.
India's 1.1 million BlackBerry users heaved a sigh of relief after the government Monday gave the smartphone's manufacturer a two-month window to provide a permanent solution to avert a ban on its corporate message services.
Security forces in India, battling insurgencies ranging from Kashmir in the northwest to the far-flung northeast, are insisting that telecom groups give them the capability to monitor their data.
Skype, the Internet phone service, and Google, which uses powerful encryption technology for its Gmail email service, are expected to be among the next wave of firms to come under New Delhi's scanner.
"If a company is providing telecom services in India then all communications must be available to Indian security services," a spokesman for the home ministry told AFP.
"If Google or Skype have a component that is not accessible, that will not be possible," he said, asking not to be named in line with standard government procedure in India. "The message is the same for everybody."
Home ministry sources have said in the past that Skype, which uses Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) technology that sends calls over the Internet, poses a difficulty for the domestic intelligence services.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported that notices would be sent to Skype and fellow US Internet giant Google from Tuesday.
"All of them will be asked to comply with the directive or else they will have to close down their networks," a senior official was quoted as saying.
India is also targeting "virtual private networks", which give employees secure access to their company networks when they are working out of the office.
A spokesman for Google, Gaurav Bhaskar, told AFP the company was yet to receive a notice.
"Once we receive it we will be in a better position to comment on what they are looking for," he said, adding that he expected the concern to be the Gmail service.
Skype was unavailable for comment.
The maker of the BlackBerry, Canada's Research in Motion (RIM), has proposed setting up a server in India through which its heavily encrypted corporate messaging service can be routed.
RIM's proposals for "lawful access" to its messages would be "operationalised immediately" and their feasibility assessed, the home ministry said Monday.
A RIM official told AFP the company had not compromised its public commitment to make no special deals with governments.
Analysts note other security-conscious nations such as China and Russia appear to be satisfied that their intelligence agencies have sufficient access to BlackBerry communications although the arrangements between RIM and these countries are not known.
BlackBerry has also been facing a threatened October 11 ban by the United Arab Emirates and has been negotiating with Saudi Arabia on security issues.
For the Indian government, a ban on BlackBerry services, used widely by India's elite, could have caused serious communication problems with the Commonwealth Games due to take place in New Delhi in just over a month.
Banning the service would have also created disruption for Indian companies, which widely use the Blackberry. RIM has 1.1 million users in India, although not all of them are corporate clients.
"It would have been a real inconvenience, I don't know what I would have done. I use the BlackBerry all the time," said an Indian oil company executive.
Copyright AFP 2010
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.379ee288d796626efd3035224b549a27
.91&show_article=1
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
USA Today reorganizing its staff in digital makeover that will result in 130 layoffs
Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer, On Friday August 27, 2010, 5:10 pm EDT
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- USA Today, the nation's second largest newspaper, is making the most dramatic overhaul of its staff in its 28-year history as it de-emphasizes its print edition and ramps up its effort to reach more readers and advertisers on mobile devices.
The makeover outlined Thursday will result in about 130 layoffs this fall, USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke told The Associated Press. That translates into a 9 percent reduction in USA Today's work force of 1,500 employees.
Hunke didn't specify which departments would be hardest hit.
The management shake-up affects both the newspaper's business operations and newsroom.
Like most newspapers, Gannett Co.'s USA Today has been cutting back in recent years to offset a steep drop in advertising that is depleting its main source of income. To compound the problem, fewer readers are paying for newspapers as free news proliferates on the Web.
Those challenges triggered the most dramatic reorganization since USA Today first hit the streets in 1982 with a then-unique blend of shorter stories surrounded by colorful graphics and pictures.
"This is pretty radical," Hunke said of the shake-up. "This gets us ready for our next quarter century."
In the first wave of change, USA Today, which is based in McLean, Va., will no longer have separate managing editors overseeing its News, Sports, Money and Life sections.
The newsroom instead will be broken up into a cluster of "content rings"
each headed up by editors who will be appointed later this year. The newly created content group will be overseen by Susan Weiss, who had been managing editor of the Life section. As executive editor of content, Weiss will report to USA Today Editor John Hillkirk.
"We'll focus less on print ... and more on producing content for all platforms (Web, mobile, iPad and other digital formats)," according to a slide show presented Thursday to USA Today's staff. The AP obtained copy of the presentation.
Given the downhill trajectory of the print newspaper business, a strategy that puts the Web and mobile first makes sense, says Ken Doctor, a media analyst with Outsell Inc.
"The entire organization is set up to put out a daily newspaper and then do this all other stuff," he said. "That's not going to work any more."
In a move that may raise conflict-of-interest questions, Weiss will have a "collaborative relationship" with USA Today's newly appointed vice president of business development, Rudd Davis, according to one slide.
Davis, the founder of sports website BNQT.com, is being brought in to oversee new business opportunities and brand licensing among other things.
BNQT, which focuses on sports such as skateboarding and skiing that appeal to younger audiences, was bought by Gannett in 2007.
Thursday's slide presentation also said USA Today's restructuring will "usher in a new way of doing business that aligns sales efforts with the content we produce."
In separate interviews, both Hunke and Hillkirk said the newspaper won't allow its need to generate more revenue interfere with its commitment to the First Amendment or investigative journalism.
"Under no circumstances do we ever compromise our integrity," Hunke said.
"But I don't see any problem with finding out ways to build out strategies that work for advertisers. Frankly, if we do that, we will have a very prosperous future and we are going to stay in the journalism business."
Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, didn't see anything in USA Today's plans that would necessarily compromise the newspaper's independence.
"Historically there was this notion that there needed to be a firewall between news and business operations," he said. "That was always more a myth than reality. It was an oversimplification."
Rosenstiel pointed out that editors at many newspapers have always had responsibility for growing circulation, which in turn is sold to advertisers that want a bigger audience. Now, with newspapers scrambling for a new business model, he said, employees on the editorial side will have to help figure out how to once again align the interests of readers and advertisers in a way that generates enough revenue.
Although USA Today still makes most of its money from its print edition, the reorganization revolves around smart phones and computer tablets such as Apple Inc.'s iPad, which are creating new ways to sell subscriptions and advertising.
"We have to go where the audience is," Hillkirk said. "If people are hitting the iPad like crazy, or the iPhone or other mobile devices, we've got to be there with the content they want, when they want it."
USA Today's circulation has been plunging in recent years, dropping to an average of 1.83 million during the six months ending in March. That's down from 2.3 million in 2007 when USA today reigned as the nation's largest newspaper. The Wall Street Journal now holds that position with a circulation of 2.09 million.
Besides its circulation, USA Today's advertising also has been falling. The newspaper sold 580 advertising pages in its most recent quarter ending in June. That's nearly a 50 percent drop from the 1,098 pages sold at the same time in 2006, before newspaper advertising began its steep slide.
USA Today's struggles are one reason why Gannett's stock price has plunged
78 percent in the past four years, going from about $55 at this time in 2006 to Thursday's closing price of $12.18.
Gannett doesn't break out USA Today's finances, but the newspaper is by far the largest of the more than 80 dailies the company owns. Gannett's stock climbed 33 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close Friday at $12.51.
The mobile push will be overseen by Steve Kurtz, who was appointed vice president of digital distribution. He had been director of digital information technology for USAToday.com.
Other new department heads are: Jeff Dionise, vice president of product development and design; and Heather Frank, vice president of vertical development.
USA Today thinks one of its biggest opportunities is sports, which will become "a business unto itself," Hunke said. The newly created USA Today Sports will be run by Ross Schaufelberger, a former CEO of BNQT Media Group.
The newspapers other content rings will consist of "Your Life," "Travel,"
"Breaking News," "Investigative," "National," "Washington/Economy," "World,"
Environment/Science," "Aviation," "Personal Finance," "Autos,"
"Entertainment" and "Tech."
AP Business Writer Andrew Vanacore in New York contributed to this report.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/USA-Today-shaking-up-staff-in-apf-3698078540.html?x=0&.v=2
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- USA Today, the nation's second largest newspaper, is making the most dramatic overhaul of its staff in its 28-year history as it de-emphasizes its print edition and ramps up its effort to reach more readers and advertisers on mobile devices.
The makeover outlined Thursday will result in about 130 layoffs this fall, USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke told The Associated Press. That translates into a 9 percent reduction in USA Today's work force of 1,500 employees.
Hunke didn't specify which departments would be hardest hit.
The management shake-up affects both the newspaper's business operations and newsroom.
Like most newspapers, Gannett Co.'s USA Today has been cutting back in recent years to offset a steep drop in advertising that is depleting its main source of income. To compound the problem, fewer readers are paying for newspapers as free news proliferates on the Web.
Those challenges triggered the most dramatic reorganization since USA Today first hit the streets in 1982 with a then-unique blend of shorter stories surrounded by colorful graphics and pictures.
"This is pretty radical," Hunke said of the shake-up. "This gets us ready for our next quarter century."
In the first wave of change, USA Today, which is based in McLean, Va., will no longer have separate managing editors overseeing its News, Sports, Money and Life sections.
The newsroom instead will be broken up into a cluster of "content rings"
each headed up by editors who will be appointed later this year. The newly created content group will be overseen by Susan Weiss, who had been managing editor of the Life section. As executive editor of content, Weiss will report to USA Today Editor John Hillkirk.
"We'll focus less on print ... and more on producing content for all platforms (Web, mobile, iPad and other digital formats)," according to a slide show presented Thursday to USA Today's staff. The AP obtained copy of the presentation.
Given the downhill trajectory of the print newspaper business, a strategy that puts the Web and mobile first makes sense, says Ken Doctor, a media analyst with Outsell Inc.
"The entire organization is set up to put out a daily newspaper and then do this all other stuff," he said. "That's not going to work any more."
In a move that may raise conflict-of-interest questions, Weiss will have a "collaborative relationship" with USA Today's newly appointed vice president of business development, Rudd Davis, according to one slide.
Davis, the founder of sports website BNQT.com, is being brought in to oversee new business opportunities and brand licensing among other things.
BNQT, which focuses on sports such as skateboarding and skiing that appeal to younger audiences, was bought by Gannett in 2007.
Thursday's slide presentation also said USA Today's restructuring will "usher in a new way of doing business that aligns sales efforts with the content we produce."
In separate interviews, both Hunke and Hillkirk said the newspaper won't allow its need to generate more revenue interfere with its commitment to the First Amendment or investigative journalism.
"Under no circumstances do we ever compromise our integrity," Hunke said.
"But I don't see any problem with finding out ways to build out strategies that work for advertisers. Frankly, if we do that, we will have a very prosperous future and we are going to stay in the journalism business."
Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, didn't see anything in USA Today's plans that would necessarily compromise the newspaper's independence.
"Historically there was this notion that there needed to be a firewall between news and business operations," he said. "That was always more a myth than reality. It was an oversimplification."
Rosenstiel pointed out that editors at many newspapers have always had responsibility for growing circulation, which in turn is sold to advertisers that want a bigger audience. Now, with newspapers scrambling for a new business model, he said, employees on the editorial side will have to help figure out how to once again align the interests of readers and advertisers in a way that generates enough revenue.
Although USA Today still makes most of its money from its print edition, the reorganization revolves around smart phones and computer tablets such as Apple Inc.'s iPad, which are creating new ways to sell subscriptions and advertising.
"We have to go where the audience is," Hillkirk said. "If people are hitting the iPad like crazy, or the iPhone or other mobile devices, we've got to be there with the content they want, when they want it."
USA Today's circulation has been plunging in recent years, dropping to an average of 1.83 million during the six months ending in March. That's down from 2.3 million in 2007 when USA today reigned as the nation's largest newspaper. The Wall Street Journal now holds that position with a circulation of 2.09 million.
Besides its circulation, USA Today's advertising also has been falling. The newspaper sold 580 advertising pages in its most recent quarter ending in June. That's nearly a 50 percent drop from the 1,098 pages sold at the same time in 2006, before newspaper advertising began its steep slide.
USA Today's struggles are one reason why Gannett's stock price has plunged
78 percent in the past four years, going from about $55 at this time in 2006 to Thursday's closing price of $12.18.
Gannett doesn't break out USA Today's finances, but the newspaper is by far the largest of the more than 80 dailies the company owns. Gannett's stock climbed 33 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close Friday at $12.51.
The mobile push will be overseen by Steve Kurtz, who was appointed vice president of digital distribution. He had been director of digital information technology for USAToday.com.
Other new department heads are: Jeff Dionise, vice president of product development and design; and Heather Frank, vice president of vertical development.
USA Today thinks one of its biggest opportunities is sports, which will become "a business unto itself," Hunke said. The newly created USA Today Sports will be run by Ross Schaufelberger, a former CEO of BNQT Media Group.
The newspapers other content rings will consist of "Your Life," "Travel,"
"Breaking News," "Investigative," "National," "Washington/Economy," "World,"
Environment/Science," "Aviation," "Personal Finance," "Autos,"
"Entertainment" and "Tech."
AP Business Writer Andrew Vanacore in New York contributed to this report.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/USA-Today-shaking-up-staff-in-apf-3698078540.html?x=0&.v=2
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Outsourced Call Centers Return, To U.S. Homes
August 25, 2010
Maureen Quigley-Hogan is the next generation of call center worker.
Wearing pink slippers and sitting at her desk in her home office in Virginia, she takes a call from a woman in New Jersey who has a question about her credit card bill.
Quigley-Hogan was unemployed for 10 years because she couldn't hold down a traditional job, she says. She has rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, a disease that causes severe fatigue.
"It was hard to get to a job," Quigley-Hogan says. "The idea of going through a regular schedule of getting up and getting ready for work, I would be exhausted."
She worked in customer service for more than 20 years, so two years ago, she was thrilled to land this job where she can work from home.
Lost In Translation: Call Center Blues
American customers say they have more trouble getting inquiries resolved efficiently when they're routed to call centers outside the U.S.
Notes
The Contact Center Satisfaction Index is based on online surveys of more than 1,500 adults. Respondents called a contact center within the past month and spoke with a customer service representative. CFI Group used the American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology to conduct the research.
Rethinking Overseas Outsourcing
For years, Americans have had their phone calls about credit card bills and broken cell phones handled by people in the Philippines or India. But American firms are starting to bring call centers back to the U.S. — and this time around, they are hiring more people to work in their own homes.
Ten years ago, it made a lot of sense to outsource these jobs overseas. But that's changing. Increasingly, companies that want to outsource their customer service jobs are happy with these domestic arrangements.
High inflation and double-digit annual raises in some sectors are pushing up the cost of labor in India. At the same time wages in the U.S. are falling and companies are rethinking the trade-offs associated with outsourcing.
Weighing Costs And Woes
Richard Crespin, director of the Human Resources Outsourcing Association, says when companies decide whether to outsource overseas they have to weigh the costs as well as "the inconvenience of having something distant from you and not close in proximity — what I would call the pain-in-the-neck factor."
He says when wages drop in the company's home economy, those companies are less likely to outsource these jobs to other countries.
Experts say outsourcing is still accelerating for jobs in IT services and manufacturing. Phil Fersht, an outsourcing analyst, says even before the recession started, companies were starting to realize that offshoring wasn't the best option for other services.
In some cases, workers in India are making only about 15 percent less than workers in Nebraska, he says. That's the threshold where companies start thinking about whether it's worth it to hire an American worker instead of a foreign one.
Who's Taking Your Call?
American consumers expressed varying levels of satisfaction with call centers depending on whether the center is perceived to be overseas or in the U.S., according to a new report by the CFI Group. Here, a look at some of the findings:
— Customer satisfaction with calls perceived to be handled in the U.S. was more than one-fifth higher than with calls perceived to be handled outside the country.
— Callers said one of the biggest disparities between foreign and American call centers was the ease of understanding the customer service agent.
— Consumers report that fewer calls are now being handled by agents outside the U.S. Nine percent of consumers say that their calls were handled by an agent outside the U.S. in 2010, down from 11 percent in 2009.
— Joshua Brockman Source: CFI Group's 2010 Contact Center Satisfaction Index
Thousands Of Home Workers
Home workers, such as Quigley-Hogan, represent one of the cheapest models for customer service. There are an estimated 60,000 people doing call center work from home.
"It provides a lower cost point than other traditional means of onshore customer service," says Chris Carrington, who runs Alpine Access, the Denver-based company that Quigley-Hogan works for. Carrington says the low overhead of having home-based workers allows him to charge 20 percent less for the same services provided by brick-and-mortar call centers in the U.S.
"We don't have big buildings and we don't have all of that infrastructure cost, and so we're able to pay our people more and as well as lower our price for the customers we serve," he says.
Even with these cost-cutting measures, American workers are still the more expensive option. But industry watchers say so-called home sourcing will continue to grow as companies look for quality that used to be harder to afford.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129406588&ft=1&f=1003
Maureen Quigley-Hogan is the next generation of call center worker.
Wearing pink slippers and sitting at her desk in her home office in Virginia, she takes a call from a woman in New Jersey who has a question about her credit card bill.
Quigley-Hogan was unemployed for 10 years because she couldn't hold down a traditional job, she says. She has rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, a disease that causes severe fatigue.
"It was hard to get to a job," Quigley-Hogan says. "The idea of going through a regular schedule of getting up and getting ready for work, I would be exhausted."
She worked in customer service for more than 20 years, so two years ago, she was thrilled to land this job where she can work from home.
Lost In Translation: Call Center Blues
American customers say they have more trouble getting inquiries resolved efficiently when they're routed to call centers outside the U.S.
Notes
The Contact Center Satisfaction Index is based on online surveys of more than 1,500 adults. Respondents called a contact center within the past month and spoke with a customer service representative. CFI Group used the American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology to conduct the research.
Rethinking Overseas Outsourcing
For years, Americans have had their phone calls about credit card bills and broken cell phones handled by people in the Philippines or India. But American firms are starting to bring call centers back to the U.S. — and this time around, they are hiring more people to work in their own homes.
Ten years ago, it made a lot of sense to outsource these jobs overseas. But that's changing. Increasingly, companies that want to outsource their customer service jobs are happy with these domestic arrangements.
High inflation and double-digit annual raises in some sectors are pushing up the cost of labor in India. At the same time wages in the U.S. are falling and companies are rethinking the trade-offs associated with outsourcing.
Weighing Costs And Woes
Richard Crespin, director of the Human Resources Outsourcing Association, says when companies decide whether to outsource overseas they have to weigh the costs as well as "the inconvenience of having something distant from you and not close in proximity — what I would call the pain-in-the-neck factor."
He says when wages drop in the company's home economy, those companies are less likely to outsource these jobs to other countries.
Experts say outsourcing is still accelerating for jobs in IT services and manufacturing. Phil Fersht, an outsourcing analyst, says even before the recession started, companies were starting to realize that offshoring wasn't the best option for other services.
In some cases, workers in India are making only about 15 percent less than workers in Nebraska, he says. That's the threshold where companies start thinking about whether it's worth it to hire an American worker instead of a foreign one.
Who's Taking Your Call?
American consumers expressed varying levels of satisfaction with call centers depending on whether the center is perceived to be overseas or in the U.S., according to a new report by the CFI Group. Here, a look at some of the findings:
— Customer satisfaction with calls perceived to be handled in the U.S. was more than one-fifth higher than with calls perceived to be handled outside the country.
— Callers said one of the biggest disparities between foreign and American call centers was the ease of understanding the customer service agent.
— Consumers report that fewer calls are now being handled by agents outside the U.S. Nine percent of consumers say that their calls were handled by an agent outside the U.S. in 2010, down from 11 percent in 2009.
— Joshua Brockman Source: CFI Group's 2010 Contact Center Satisfaction Index
Thousands Of Home Workers
Home workers, such as Quigley-Hogan, represent one of the cheapest models for customer service. There are an estimated 60,000 people doing call center work from home.
"It provides a lower cost point than other traditional means of onshore customer service," says Chris Carrington, who runs Alpine Access, the Denver-based company that Quigley-Hogan works for. Carrington says the low overhead of having home-based workers allows him to charge 20 percent less for the same services provided by brick-and-mortar call centers in the U.S.
"We don't have big buildings and we don't have all of that infrastructure cost, and so we're able to pay our people more and as well as lower our price for the customers we serve," he says.
Even with these cost-cutting measures, American workers are still the more expensive option. But industry watchers say so-called home sourcing will continue to grow as companies look for quality that used to be harder to afford.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129406588&ft=1&f=1003
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Google brings phone calls to Gmail offers free calls to US and Canada
Calls on Gmail
Now you can make phone calls from Gmail without visiting your Google Voice page. Google is bringing Gmail and Google Voice together with the launch of phone call integration within Google Chat and Gmail, the goods news doesn’t stop here – the calls are free to US and Canadian landlines only.
The initial testing with Skype showed that the new Google’s service has better quality and reception. Google Voice product manager Vincent Paquet confirmed that the new calling functionality comes from Google’s Gizmo5 acquisition as the VOIP calling feature is partially based on Gizmo5 technology and was developed by a team including Gizmo5 engineers.
http://www.sporkings.com/2010/08/google-brings-phone-calls-gmail-offers-free-calls-canada/
Now you can make phone calls from Gmail without visiting your Google Voice page. Google is bringing Gmail and Google Voice together with the launch of phone call integration within Google Chat and Gmail, the goods news doesn’t stop here – the calls are free to US and Canadian landlines only.
The initial testing with Skype showed that the new Google’s service has better quality and reception. Google Voice product manager Vincent Paquet confirmed that the new calling functionality comes from Google’s Gizmo5 acquisition as the VOIP calling feature is partially based on Gizmo5 technology and was developed by a team including Gizmo5 engineers.
http://www.sporkings.com/2010/08/google-brings-phone-calls-gmail-offers-free-calls-canada/
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Who The Heck Is 3Par? And Why Are HP, Dell In A Tizzy?
Who The Heck Is 3Par? And Why Are HP, Dell In A Tizzy?
By Scott Campbell, CRN 9:27 AM EST Tue. Aug. 24, 2010
A blog on 3Par's own Web site captures it perfectly: "Quite suddenly, 3Par is a very hot company."
Indeed. As Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) and Dell (NSDQ:Dell) engage in a bidding war for the storage company, many solution providers are no doubt wondering exactly who this company is and why all the fuss.
3Par reported $168 million in sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, and it is a public company. It has almost no channel presence in the U.S. Its 3Par Champions channel partner program is only available in countries without a direct-sales presence, according to 3Par's Web site. That excludes North America, the United Kingdom and Germany.
The company's direct-sales force in the U.S. has worked with some solution providers in the past, Ashby Lincoln, president of VeriStore Systems, an Atlanta-based storage solution provider, told CRN in November 2007 after 3Par went public.
3Par was formed by a group of server-cluster engineers from Sun Microsystems
(NSDQ:JAVA) and has spent the past decade developing and selling large-scale storage products designed for cloud-based IT environments, according to the company's Web site.
It's that word, "cloud," that seems to have HP and Dell (and others?) all in a tizzy. Both of those vendors believe 3Par can accelerate their strategy in what HP called "converged infrastructure" during its call with analysts on Monday to explain its interest in 3Par.
HP has offered $24 per share , or $1.6 billion, upping Dell's original offer of $18 per share , or $1.16 billion, from last week. Now Bloomberg is reporting that Dell appears to be ready to sweeten its original bid. And there's talk that other vendors might be looking at the company, or at least might have before the bids got so high.
Interest in 3Par dates back to at least January, when Barron's reported that the company's virtualization and thin provisioning technologies made it a prime acquisition target.
3Par's blog post Monday tries to explain all the sudden interest.
"We've been very successful with our cloud strategy and have 7 of the top 10 IAAS (infrastructure-as-a-service) customers as clients. 3Par products work very hard in the background for a lot of household-name customers. Most people don't know or care," the blog post read. "However, cloud industry vendors know 3Par because they are also very heavily involved with those same customers, competing with their own products. They see our storage systems in those large data centers and our customers tell them that they need to make sure they work with us. There's nothing unusual about that sort of thing, but we definitely are a player."
Brian Alexander, managing director of equity research at Raymond James & Associates, wrote Monday that HP (NYSE:HPQ) is willing to pay such a lofty valuation because 3Par's tiering and multitenancy features would complement its existing storage technologies.
"These two features are critical for selling into the emerging cloud computing market and are also features that HP's EVA storage line is currently lacking," Alexander wrote in a report about HP's bid.
3Par claims to do three things very well: handle mixed workloads in multitenant environments, operate efficiently at high utilizations and give administrators the highest levels of automation.
"The thing that we didn't completely understand at 3Par was how quickly the onset of the virtualized data center was going to tilt the storage world in our direction," the company wrote in the blog. "3Par storage systems are based on a highly advanced, granular storage architecture. It's not always the easiest thing for people to understand because it is so different than any other vendor's architecture. However, people familiar with virtualized server features have a much easier time understanding how our technology works."
3Par admits that it isn't as well known as larger competitors, a facet that has cost it some deals, but with HP and Dell both battling for its expertise, that appears ready to change soon.
http://www.crn.com/news/storage/226900139/who-the-heck-is-3par-and-why-are-hp-dell-in-a-tizzy.htm;jsessionid=PtmnvtrfybkxB2hCNFRcJw**.ecappj02?cid=nl_vi
By Scott Campbell, CRN 9:27 AM EST Tue. Aug. 24, 2010
A blog on 3Par's own Web site captures it perfectly: "Quite suddenly, 3Par is a very hot company."
Indeed. As Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) and Dell (NSDQ:Dell) engage in a bidding war for the storage company, many solution providers are no doubt wondering exactly who this company is and why all the fuss.
3Par reported $168 million in sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, and it is a public company. It has almost no channel presence in the U.S. Its 3Par Champions channel partner program is only available in countries without a direct-sales presence, according to 3Par's Web site. That excludes North America, the United Kingdom and Germany.
The company's direct-sales force in the U.S. has worked with some solution providers in the past, Ashby Lincoln, president of VeriStore Systems, an Atlanta-based storage solution provider, told CRN in November 2007 after 3Par went public.
3Par was formed by a group of server-cluster engineers from Sun Microsystems
(NSDQ:JAVA) and has spent the past decade developing and selling large-scale storage products designed for cloud-based IT environments, according to the company's Web site.
It's that word, "cloud," that seems to have HP and Dell (and others?) all in a tizzy. Both of those vendors believe 3Par can accelerate their strategy in what HP called "converged infrastructure" during its call with analysts on Monday to explain its interest in 3Par.
HP has offered $24 per share , or $1.6 billion, upping Dell's original offer of $18 per share , or $1.16 billion, from last week. Now Bloomberg is reporting that Dell appears to be ready to sweeten its original bid. And there's talk that other vendors might be looking at the company, or at least might have before the bids got so high.
Interest in 3Par dates back to at least January, when Barron's reported that the company's virtualization and thin provisioning technologies made it a prime acquisition target.
3Par's blog post Monday tries to explain all the sudden interest.
"We've been very successful with our cloud strategy and have 7 of the top 10 IAAS (infrastructure-as-a-service) customers as clients. 3Par products work very hard in the background for a lot of household-name customers. Most people don't know or care," the blog post read. "However, cloud industry vendors know 3Par because they are also very heavily involved with those same customers, competing with their own products. They see our storage systems in those large data centers and our customers tell them that they need to make sure they work with us. There's nothing unusual about that sort of thing, but we definitely are a player."
Brian Alexander, managing director of equity research at Raymond James & Associates, wrote Monday that HP (NYSE:HPQ) is willing to pay such a lofty valuation because 3Par's tiering and multitenancy features would complement its existing storage technologies.
"These two features are critical for selling into the emerging cloud computing market and are also features that HP's EVA storage line is currently lacking," Alexander wrote in a report about HP's bid.
3Par claims to do three things very well: handle mixed workloads in multitenant environments, operate efficiently at high utilizations and give administrators the highest levels of automation.
"The thing that we didn't completely understand at 3Par was how quickly the onset of the virtualized data center was going to tilt the storage world in our direction," the company wrote in the blog. "3Par storage systems are based on a highly advanced, granular storage architecture. It's not always the easiest thing for people to understand because it is so different than any other vendor's architecture. However, people familiar with virtualized server features have a much easier time understanding how our technology works."
3Par admits that it isn't as well known as larger competitors, a facet that has cost it some deals, but with HP and Dell both battling for its expertise, that appears ready to change soon.
http://www.crn.com/news/storage/226900139/who-the-heck-is-3par-and-why-are-hp-dell-in-a-tizzy.htm;jsessionid=PtmnvtrfybkxB2hCNFRcJw**.ecappj02?cid=nl_vi
Monday, August 23, 2010
Philly requiring bloggers to pay $300 for a business license
It looks like cash hungry local governments are getting awfully rapacious these days:
Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she's made about $50. To [Marilyn] Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it's a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
"The real kick in the pants is that I don't even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous," Bess says.
It would be one thing if Bess' website were, well, an actual business, or if the amount of money the city wanted didn't outpace her earnings six-fold. Sure, the city has its rules; and yes, cash-strapped cities can't very well ignore potential sources of income. But at the same time, there must be some room for discretion and common sense.
When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city's now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, "I was told to hire an accountant."
She's not alone. After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number - though no one knows exactly what that number is - of Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a privilege license, plus taxes on any profits they made.
Even if, as with Sean Barry, that profit is $11 over two years.
To say that these kinds of draconian measures are detrimental to the public discourse would be an understatement.
Read more at the Washington Examiner:
Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she's made about $50. To [Marilyn] Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it's a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
"The real kick in the pants is that I don't even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous," Bess says.
It would be one thing if Bess' website were, well, an actual business, or if the amount of money the city wanted didn't outpace her earnings six-fold. Sure, the city has its rules; and yes, cash-strapped cities can't very well ignore potential sources of income. But at the same time, there must be some room for discretion and common sense.
When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city's now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, "I was told to hire an accountant."
She's not alone. After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number - though no one knows exactly what that number is - of Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a privilege license, plus taxes on any profits they made.
Even if, as with Sean Barry, that profit is $11 over two years.
To say that these kinds of draconian measures are detrimental to the public discourse would be an understatement.
Read more at the Washington Examiner:
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Young will have to change names to escape 'cyber past' warns Google's Eric Schmidt
The private lives of young people are now so well documented on the internet that many will have to change their names on reaching adulthood, Google's CEO has claimed.
By Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:00AM BST 18 Aug 2010
Eric Schmidt suggested that young people should be entitled to change their identity to escape their misspent youth, which is now recorded in excruciating detail on social networking sites such as Facebook.
"I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal.
In an interview Mr Schmidt said he believed that every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrasssing photographs and material stored on their friends' social media sites.
The 55-year-old also predicted that in the future, Google will know so much about its users that the search engine will be able to help them plan their lives.
Using profiles of it customers and tracking their locations through their smart phones, it will be able to provide live updates on their surroundings and inform them of tasks they need to do.
"We're trying to figure out what the future of search is," Mr Schmidt said.
"One idea is that more and more searches are done on your behalf without you needing to type.
"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions.
They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."
He suggested, as an example, that because Google would know "roughly who you are, roughly what you care about, roughly who your friends are", it could remind users what groceries they needed to buy when passing a shop.
The comments are not the first time Mr Schmidt has courted controversy over the wealth of personal information people reveal on the internet. Last year, he notoriously remarked: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
Earlier this year, Google was condemned by the privacy watchdogs of 10 countries for showing a "disappointing disregard" for safeguarding private information of its users.
In a letter to Mr Schmidt, Britain's Information Commissioner Chris Graham joined his counterparts in countries including Canada, France, Germany and Italy, in raising concerns over its Street View and Buzz social networking services.
By Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:00AM BST 18 Aug 2010
Eric Schmidt suggested that young people should be entitled to change their identity to escape their misspent youth, which is now recorded in excruciating detail on social networking sites such as Facebook.
"I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal.
In an interview Mr Schmidt said he believed that every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrasssing photographs and material stored on their friends' social media sites.
The 55-year-old also predicted that in the future, Google will know so much about its users that the search engine will be able to help them plan their lives.
Using profiles of it customers and tracking their locations through their smart phones, it will be able to provide live updates on their surroundings and inform them of tasks they need to do.
"We're trying to figure out what the future of search is," Mr Schmidt said.
"One idea is that more and more searches are done on your behalf without you needing to type.
"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions.
They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."
He suggested, as an example, that because Google would know "roughly who you are, roughly what you care about, roughly who your friends are", it could remind users what groceries they needed to buy when passing a shop.
The comments are not the first time Mr Schmidt has courted controversy over the wealth of personal information people reveal on the internet. Last year, he notoriously remarked: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
Earlier this year, Google was condemned by the privacy watchdogs of 10 countries for showing a "disappointing disregard" for safeguarding private information of its users.
In a letter to Mr Schmidt, Britain's Information Commissioner Chris Graham joined his counterparts in countries including Canada, France, Germany and Italy, in raising concerns over its Street View and Buzz social networking services.
Friday, August 6, 2010
US Postal Service loses $3.5 bln in third quarter
WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service reported a quarterly net loss of $3.5 billion on Thursday and said it will likely have a cash shortfall going into 2011.
The agency, which delivers nearly half the world's mail, has reported net losses in 14 of the last 16 fiscal quarters.
Revenue in the third quarter that ended June 30 fell $294 million to $16 billion from a year ago, while expenses were $789 million higher at $19.5 billion, due largely to higher workers' compensation costs and retiree health benefits.
"Given current trends, we will not be able to pay all 2011 obligations,"
said Joseph Corbett, the agency's chief financial officer.
Cash flow seems on track to handle 2010 operations, Corbett said, but it is uncertain whether sufficient liquidity will be in place for 2011 after the agency must make a $5.5 billion payment on Sept. 30 to prefund retiree health benefits.
"It is clear that a liquidity problem is looming and must be addressed through fundamental changes requiring legislation and changes to contracts,"
Corbett said.
A U.S. law requires annual payments through 2016 to prefund the health benefits, a requirement not placed on any other government agency. The Postal Service is pushing for legislation that would restructure this payment schedule.
Congress lowered the amount the Postal Service was obligated to pay to prefund benefits in 2009, but there has been no indication that will happen again this year.
To remain solvent, the Postal Service is also seeking Congressional approval to cut Saturday service, and has proposed price hikes for 2011 that require approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission.
The Affordable Mail Alliance, consisting of hundreds of small businesses, charities, and other customers of the Postal Service, contested the service's predictions of a cash shortfall.
The group said certain filings suggest the agency will have $1.3 billion in cash after making the benefits payment.
"Unfortunately, the Postal Service seems to be attempting to justify their proposed rate hikes of ten times the rate of inflation - a move that would drive away more consumers and worsen the financial situation they're highlighting in this report," said Tony Conway, a spokesman for the group and executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.
SHRINKING MAIL VOLUME
The Postal Service faces a continued downward spiral in mail volume, as more Americans communicate by email and electronically pay their bills.
Some 40.9 billion pieces of mail were delivered in the third quarter that ended June 30, down 1.7 percent from the same period a year ago.
While the global recession sparked unprecedented drops in mail volume, the increased popularity of email and competition from FedEx Corp (FDX.N), United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) and other delivery services have long cut into the agency's mail volume.
Postmaster General John Potter said the Postal Service is expected to achieve around $3 billion in cost reductions in 2010 through cuts in work hours to match declining volumes and other initiatives, but more is needed to secure the agency's fiscal stability.
"It also will require that the Postal Service gain flexibility within the law to move toward five-day delivery, to adjust our network as needed, to develop new products the market demands, and to work with our unions to meet the challenges ahead," he said. (Reporting by Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Tim
Dobbyn)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0517225620100805
The agency, which delivers nearly half the world's mail, has reported net losses in 14 of the last 16 fiscal quarters.
Revenue in the third quarter that ended June 30 fell $294 million to $16 billion from a year ago, while expenses were $789 million higher at $19.5 billion, due largely to higher workers' compensation costs and retiree health benefits.
"Given current trends, we will not be able to pay all 2011 obligations,"
said Joseph Corbett, the agency's chief financial officer.
Cash flow seems on track to handle 2010 operations, Corbett said, but it is uncertain whether sufficient liquidity will be in place for 2011 after the agency must make a $5.5 billion payment on Sept. 30 to prefund retiree health benefits.
"It is clear that a liquidity problem is looming and must be addressed through fundamental changes requiring legislation and changes to contracts,"
Corbett said.
A U.S. law requires annual payments through 2016 to prefund the health benefits, a requirement not placed on any other government agency. The Postal Service is pushing for legislation that would restructure this payment schedule.
Congress lowered the amount the Postal Service was obligated to pay to prefund benefits in 2009, but there has been no indication that will happen again this year.
To remain solvent, the Postal Service is also seeking Congressional approval to cut Saturday service, and has proposed price hikes for 2011 that require approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission.
The Affordable Mail Alliance, consisting of hundreds of small businesses, charities, and other customers of the Postal Service, contested the service's predictions of a cash shortfall.
The group said certain filings suggest the agency will have $1.3 billion in cash after making the benefits payment.
"Unfortunately, the Postal Service seems to be attempting to justify their proposed rate hikes of ten times the rate of inflation - a move that would drive away more consumers and worsen the financial situation they're highlighting in this report," said Tony Conway, a spokesman for the group and executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.
SHRINKING MAIL VOLUME
The Postal Service faces a continued downward spiral in mail volume, as more Americans communicate by email and electronically pay their bills.
Some 40.9 billion pieces of mail were delivered in the third quarter that ended June 30, down 1.7 percent from the same period a year ago.
While the global recession sparked unprecedented drops in mail volume, the increased popularity of email and competition from FedEx Corp (FDX.N), United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) and other delivery services have long cut into the agency's mail volume.
Postmaster General John Potter said the Postal Service is expected to achieve around $3 billion in cost reductions in 2010 through cuts in work hours to match declining volumes and other initiatives, but more is needed to secure the agency's fiscal stability.
"It also will require that the Postal Service gain flexibility within the law to move toward five-day delivery, to adjust our network as needed, to develop new products the market demands, and to work with our unions to meet the challenges ahead," he said. (Reporting by Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Tim
Dobbyn)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0517225620100805
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