SAP News Desk

Adaptivity “Platinum Plus Sponsor” of World's Largest Cloud Computing Event

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:15:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that Adaptivity, the IT transformation company, has been named "Platinum Plus Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 5th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo (www.CloudComputingExpo.com), which will take place on April 19-21, 2010, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. Adaptivity's CEO Tony Bishop will be offering major thought leadership in a Morning Keynote.

Ecosystem For Cloud Computing Adoption

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST

TM Forum announced the formation of an ecosystem of major industry players in the emerging cloud services sector. The centerpiece of this effort is the creation of the Enterprise Cloud Buyers Council (ECBC) whose goal is to understand the needs of the largest global cloud buyers and ensure any impediments to the uptake of cloud technology are removed. Together with key service and technology suppliers, the ecosystem will initiate a range of programs designed to remove barriers to the growth of commercial cloud services.

Virtualization Expo Call for Papers Deadline December 15

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:00:00 EST

Delegates will leave Virtualization Expo with a full understanding of the interaction between virtual servers and the rest of the data center infrastructure. Indeed our overall aim is to ensure that all attendees leave the Jacob Javits Convention Center with abundant resources, ideas and examples they can apply immediately to leveraging Virtualization in their own corporate datacenter, on the desktop, and elsewhere. If you wish to submit a speaking proposal for the 8th Virtualization Expo, April 19–21, 2010, then you can do so right here

StorageIO Debuts at Top 400 Analyst List

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:15:00 EST

Following on the heals of being named one of three EcoTech warriors earlier in the year, and then number 5 in the top ten independent bloggers at StorageMonkeys earlier this year (plus appearing on InfoSmack), the momentum continues more recently being named as the 23rd out of the top 30 influential virtualization bloggers by Cloud Computing Expo (www.cloudcomputingexpo.com) and Ulitzer (www.ulitzer.com). If that were not enough, I was also surprised to learn recently that I have also made a debut appearance at number 79 in the Technobabble top 400 analyst and independent blogger lists as well.

SAP Backs Off Maintenance Increase

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:15:00 EST

Singed by user reaction to its plans to up the price of its support contracts, SAP Tuesday postponed any move until early next year. Meanwhile, it’s set up a task force charged with talking to enterprise customers to reinforce the perceived value of their support agreements and justify the proposed price increases. SAP wants to raise the price from ~17% of the license fee a year to 22%. Given the economic temper of the times, SAP is expected to get a lot of pushback.

The Next Sea Change Is Cloud Computing

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:30:00 EST

I've been at this 35 years and I've seen sea changes come and go. If you step back for a moment and look from a broad perspective, we've lived through the mainframeclient/server world and the Internet world. And now, the next sea change is cloud computing. The reality is that visionaries talk about sea changes before things change at the enterprise or SMB level. The way we look at the cloud is there's potential for sea change there, centralizing the capacity to lower costs and improved efficiencies. Yes, there will be change there. Is it going to happen overnight; that today we're in a world of data center solutions and tomorrow we're in the cloud? It's not going to work that way.

SAP & Microsoft Cut Anti-Oracle Pact

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:45:00 EST

Striking while Oracle is at sixes and sevens over Sun, SAP and Microsoft, two of its worst enemies, have cut an anti-Oracle accord. Microsoft will recommend SAP’s BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation application to its customers as its preferred solution, which should irritate Oracle as well as help SAP tickle its flagging sales.

Cloud Computing Fuels Rapid Growth for Cycle Computing

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:45:00 EST

Cycle Computing, providing proven, secure and flexible high performance computing (HPC) and open source solutions in the cloud, today announced that the increasing enterprise demand for HPC and cloud computing is fueling its rapid expansion across industries. Cycle helps cutting-edge companies across market segments, including Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Varian Inc. in the pharmaceutical and life sciences space, to create their own supercomputers for unparalleled freedom and flexibility, faster time-to-market, increased productivity and reduced IT spend.

AppZero Founder Launches Virtual Application Appliances Topic on Ulitzer

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:00:00 EST

Greg O'Connor has over 25 years of management and technical experience in the computer industry. Greg was founder and president of Sonic Software, acquired in 2005 by Progress Software (PRGS). There he grew the company from concept to over $40 million in revenue. At Sonic, he evangelized and created the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) product category, which is generally accepted today as the foundation for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Follow him on Twitter @gregoryjoconnor. Virtual Application Appliances (VAA) decouple an application from the operating system (OS) and its underlying infrastructure. The resultant virtual application appliance contains an application with its dependencies, but with zero operating system (zeOS) component. The aim of VAAs is to enable enterprises to provision server based applications to any machine in the data center in a matter of seconds or move an application from the data center to the cloud (D2C).

SAP Business One 8.8 Is Available

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST

Designed exclusively for Small and Midsize Businesses, SAP Business One 8.8 is an affordable solution that manages a company’s entire business across financials, sales, customers and operations, all in a single system. This article documents some of the enhancements with links to all the details.

Cloud Expo and The End of Tech Recession

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:15:00 EST

Cloud Expo is the new PC Expo, Comdex or InternetWorld, and will be the next global IT event for the decade starting with 2010. This year's West Coast conference had 1,700 pre-registered delegates on the Friday before the conference opened. More than 500 additional registrations came in over the weekend and on-site registrations, which brought the number of delegates who registered and attended for the conference to roughly 2,250, more than double a year ago. As far as the expo floor goes, out of 50 sponsors and exhibitors, 46 companies confirmed during the conference that they will participate in the 2010 Cloud Computing Expo at the same or higher level. Most exhibitors on the expo floor highlighted the quality of the leads they got from the conference, which is due to the fact that we had no free expo option on the registration page. I personally believe Cloud Computing Expo had the most qualified audience of any technology event in recent years.

SAP Appoints New Head of Global Ecosystem and Partner Group

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:00:00 EDT

SAP AG has announced the appointment of S. Singh Mecker as the head of the Global Ecosystem and Partner Group (GEPG) for SAP AG. Mecker, as senior vice president of GEPG, reports directly to SAP Executive Board Member John Schwarz, and is responsible for leading all strategic and operational aspects of the SAP ecosystem and partner programs on a global basis. Leadership of the group is being transitioned to Mecker from Zia Yusuf, who will be leaving the company in November to pursue other interests.

Carl Icahn Resigns From the Board of Yahoo!

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EDT

Carl Icahn announced today that he had informed the Board of Directors of Yahoo! Inc. that he was resigning as a director of Yahoo!. Mr. Icahn told the Board that in his view there was not a need at this time for an activist director at Yahoo! Mr. Icahn indicated that there are a number of other companies on which he is currently focused and therefore would not have the time to give to the business and affairs of Yahoo! required of a Board member properly fulfilling his duties. Mr. Icahn stated that he commended Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz on the job she is doing. Mr. Icahn thanked everyone on the Board for acting so responsibly, especially in connection with the search transaction with Microsoft which he strongly advocated and participated in bringing about. Finally, Mr. Icahn indicated that he hoped to continue his relationship with Carol Bartz and the other members of the Yahoo! Board.

The Cloud Has Cross-Border Ambitions

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:45:00 EDT

There is now a thing called EuroCloud, for the moment a French-based SaaS and cloud community whose 70-odd members include IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com, France Telecom and SAP and whose 30 supporters include Amazon. The object of the name is to share best practices and expand their business across the continent.

Cincom, Accretive and IBM Team Up to Offer 'SAP Cash Optimization'

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:15:00 EDT

SAP Cash Optimization is available on IBM's Smart Cube as part of the Smart Business program. Designed from the ground up for small to midsize businesses (SMBs), IBM Smart Business is a radically simple way to select, install and maintain business software. Cincom's business intelligence solutions combined with Accretive Solutions' cash flow and operations optimization solution on IBM's Smart Cube provide a set of end-to-end technologies that enable SMBs to make the right decisions at the right time.

Tactical Cloud Computing Panel at 1st Annual GovIT Expo

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:00:00 EDT

I'm proud to announce that representatives from Lockheed Martin, SAIC, and Unisys will join me in a "Tactical Cloud Computing" Panel at SYS-CON's 1st Annual Government IT Conference & Expo in Washington DC on October 6, 2009.

As Technical Chair of this conference, my goal has been to provide useful and actionable information to the conference attendees. While the industry has engaged in a rigorous discussion around "enterprise" cloud computing, information on tactical or deployable cloud computing possibilities has been scarce. To address this, I've asked Dataline partners to join me and share their views on this issue.

Tactical Cloud Computing refers to the use of cloud computing technology and techniques for the support of localized and short-lived information access and processing requirements. Use cases could include:

“Cloudbursting” to support cyclic data processing requirements
Establishing a cloud-based collaboration environment in order to coordinate firefighting resources during a wildfire
Virtually binding shipboard IT infrastructures in order to create a battlegroup infrastructure-as-a-service platform
Virtually binding land vehicle based servers and storage resources into a battlefield data center
Dynamic provisioning of virtual cloud-based servers in order to automate exploitation and dissemination of unmanned air vehicle (UAV) streaming video feeds
This discussion panel will explore how defense, homeland security and law enforcement organizations are looking to leverage this new and exciting IT capability.

Please register and join us for this unique opportunity. First 50 registrants are eligible for a VIP pass !!

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )

Magic Software Partners with nefos

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:40:00 EDT

Magic Software Enterprises Ltd., a global provider of application platforms and business and process integration solutions, today announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with nefos GmbH, a leading consulting partner of Salesforce.com located in Zurich, Switzerland. Nefos will use iBOLT, Magic Software's business and process integration suite to integrate the Salesforce.com on-demand application with their customers' existing on-premise applications such as SAP.

SAP CTO to Speak at 4th International Cloud Computing Expo

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:00:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events announced today that Sal Visca, CTO of Technology Development for SAP, will be presenting at the upcoming Cloud Computing Conference & Expo (www.cloudcomputingexpo.com) this coming November 2-4, 2009, in Santa Clara, California. His session will be entitled “Next-Generation On-Demand." The SaaS pioneers have given us a taste of the potential of On-Demand, however, we've only scratched the surface in terms of what's to come and the future model for how the next generation of enterprise software will be delivered.

EC Wrong, Wrong, Wrong – and Sloppy to Boot: Intel

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EDT

Intel’s appeal to the Court of First Instance of the European Commission’s monopoly abuse decision against it claims that the EC didn’t prove that it hammered AMD into the ground with its discounts. According to a summary of the otherwise sealed appeal published over the weekend in the Official Journal of the European Union, Intel says that the EC made an error of law in assuming that its discounts were per se abusive simply because they were conditional.

Jailed Satyam Founder Has Heart Attack

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Founder and former Satyam Computer Services CEO Ramalinga Raju, 54, the admitted bad boy of India who overstated the company's revenues by a billion dollars more or less, suffered a reported heart attack Monday afternoon while in the calaboose awaiting imminent trial. He's in the hospital. He's also got type C hepatitis, common in intravenous drug users from sharing of contaminated needles and also seen in hemophiliacs and people who have had blood transfusions or treatment with blood products. Most of the time the medical establishment has no idea were it comes from. He's looking at life in prison.

Terremark Cloud Hosting for SAP

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:00:00 EDT

Terremark announced it is the first service provider to offer hosting services for SAP solutions on its cloud computing platform. Through its innovative Enterprise Cloud infrastructure, Terremark will be able to leverage its secure, top-tier data centers with access to massive and diverse network connectivity to provide customers a new, cost-effective model for hosting their SAP solutions in a live production environment. “Terremark’s hosting services will offer several benefits to both small and large SAP customers," said Michael Ressemann, global head of BPO Solution Delivery and Partner Enablement at SAP. "Our partnership with Terremark will provide customers the ability to experience significant cost savings, while not having to sacrifice the reliability of their hosted SAP applications."

Platform as a Service Journal Launched on Ulitzer

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:15:00 EDT

Platform as a service (PaaS) is a big piece of the cloud computing puzzle, the other pieces being Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and Application software as a service (SaaS). PaaS enables the delivery of solution frameworks and components as on-demand, pay-as-you-go services. Some examples of these are Google Apps Engine, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Windows Azure platform, SalesForce Force.com platform, Cisco WebEx Connect platform. PaaS will allow developers to create SaaS applications with agility and will be critical to the success of cloud computing. Also launched by Vinay Singla are IT as a Service, and Saas Journal.

SAP Told To Fork Over ~$139m in Patent Case

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EDT

The fabled Eastern District Court down in Texas has struck again. After nailing Microsoft for $290 million and counting on a patent rap and enjoining Word a couple of weeks ago, it's now found SAP guilty of patent infringement and told it to pay Versata Software $138.6 million, which is more than the $100 million Versata asked for. At least Versata, a subsidiary of Trilogy Inc, is a Texas company and didn't go venue shopping.

SAP Business One Journal Launched on Ulitzer

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:00:00 EDT

SAP Business One Journal launched today on Ulitzer by Brad Windecker, founder and CEO of Orchestra LLC. Brad is the CEO and co-founder of Orchestra LLC, an IT firm dedicated to small and mid-size companies. THe company helps businesses solve problems through the use of innovative technology, such as leading business management software and open source website development, as well as through process redesign. The SAP Business One topic at Ulitzer is a place for articles, stories, and more related to SAP Business One.

Oracle To Keynote Cloud Computing Expo

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:15:00 EDT

Enterprises large and small are drawn by the advantages of cloud computing - pay-for-use, self-service, elastic scalability and the elimination of hardware management – resulting in very low barriers to entry and exit and high agility. However, enterprises are also concerned about security, quality of service, integration, compliance, lock-in, and the long-term costs of public clouds.

Gang of Four Creates Cloud BI Stack

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EDT

RightScale, Jaspersoft, Talend and Vertica have joined together to deliver a complete business intelligence solution in the cloud. Jaspersoft’s kicking in the compute-intensive BI software, Talend the open source data integration software, and Vertica the analytic database management system running on Amazon and orchestrated by RightScale’s cloud management platform.

SAP Rumored to Be Interested in TIBCO

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:15:00 EDT

Oracle rival SAP is supposed to be close – but not absolutely committed – to buying TIBCO according to the German business weekly Wirtschaftwoche. Such rumors have been heard before. TIBCO has a market cap of roughly $1.6 billion, with its shares pre-leak trading at under eight bucks. They pushed up to a 52-week high of $9.87 Monday on the rumor then settled back a bit.

SingTel Throws in its Lot with the Cloud

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EDT

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, a k a SingTel, Singapore's largest phone company and a major local player in broadband Internet services, is going into the cloud business, intending to establish Singapore as a regional cloud computing hub. It's launched Singapore's first integrated cloud computing marketplace for businesses. The SingTel Innovation Exchange is meant to accelerate the development of cloud computing services. The company expects to attract developers and promote their services in Asia-Pacific markets.

Sun’s Numbers a Bummer; Oracle Hangs Tough

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:30:00 EDT

Such projections have long since ceased to be news but Oracle, which will take Sun over before another quarter closes unless the regulators make some objection, rushed out a statement saying it's seen the preliminary estimates and still expects the Sun acquisition to be accretive to its earnings "by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing and estimates that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle's non-GAAP operating profit in that year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year."

Software AG To Buy IDS Scheer

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:45:00 EDT

With 47.68% of the company already pledged to it by its two founders, Software AG says it intends to tender for the rest of German-based IDS Scheer AG and create a global vendor of infrastructure software and Business Process Management (BPM) that has more than 6,000 employees and upwards of $1.4 billion in sales.

Oracle Buys SAP Investment

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:15:00 EDT

Oracle has taken over the IP assets of Conformia Software, a lifecycle management ISV geared toward the life sciences where Oracle’s bitter rival, SAP, invested some money from its NetWeaver Fund a couple of years ago. NetWeaver was meant to invest in firms “committed to the SAP ecosystem.”

SOA World Expo: Managed Methods Announces JaxView 5.0

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:00:00 EDT

Boulder, CO. Managed Methods Inc. (www.managedmethods.com ) the leader in SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) visibility and SOA runtime governance today announced the availability of their SOA management and runtime governance product JaxView 5.0. While providing full support for SOA and Web service management for the IT operations, JaxView 5.0 expanded runtime policy enforcement features such as expanded service virtualization and visibility into intra-container message communication.

SAP Executive John Wookey

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:45:00 EDT

Furthering its commitment to become a leader in the on-demand software space, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) recently announced the first details of its on-demand strategy for large enterprises. Dedicated to its installed customer base, on-demand software for large enterprises from SAP is planned to consist of function-specific software applications, available by subscription, which plug directly into a customer's on-site SAP(R) Business Suite software. The strategy was unveiled by John Wookey, executive vice president of Large Enterprise On-Demand at SAP, during his keynote presentation titled "Next Generation OnDemand" at SIIA On-Demand Europe 2009.

Cassatt Collapses into CA

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:45:00 EDT

After weeks of slow-moving negotiations and due diligence, CA has bought what it describes as “certain data center automation and policy-based optimization expertise and assets from Cassatt,” the failed Bill Coleman start-up that sucked up $100 million in venture money on its way to this inglorious end.

MSC Industrial Direct Selects SAP to Improve Data Management

Tue, 19 May 2009 08:00:00 EDT

MSC Industrial Direct Co has selected the SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management component (SAP NetWeaver MDM) to transform how product information is managed throughout its enterprise. More accurate, consistent product information will help and support its growth and cost savings goals. Wholesale distributors globally are using business solutions from SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) to automate and optimize business processes, reduce supply chain costs, increase cash-flow and facilitate collaboration with suppliers, customers and partners.

Peeking Through the Keyhole on Sun’s Boardroom

Fri, 15 May 2009 11:45:00 EDT

Sun had a suitor other than IBM and Oracle. It says so in its proxy statement where it tells of its blow-by-blow adventures since November 6 when Sam Palmisano, the CEO of IBM, thinly disguised in the account as Party A, approached Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz about a takeover. Sometime between November 6 and December 19 Sun approached the unidentified Party B, who was interested but found the timing inconvenient.

Accenture Recognized as SAP’s Leading Partner for Third Consecutive Year

Wed, 13 May 2009 05:00:00 EDT

Accenture has won four 2009 SAP Pinnacle awards, bringing its total won to date to 18 and cementing its global position as one of SAP’s leading strategic partners. The SAP Pinnacle Awards recognize SAP partners who have excelled in developing their partner relationships with SAP and who provide quality products, solutions and services to SAP customers.

Jet Aviation Selects HCL AXON's iMRO Solution

Tue, 12 May 2009 07:22:00 EDT

HCL AXON, the world's largest services provider dedicated to SAP® solutions, announced today that Jet Aviation has selected HCL AXON's proprietary maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) solution, iMRO, to optimize the management of MRO operations within their existing installations of SAP solutions. In addition to Jet Aviation, three other global aerospace and defense organizations have chosen HCL AXON's iMRO solution to address their MRO needs.

Panaya Automates SAP Support Package Implementations

Mon, 11 May 2009 10:08:00 EDT

Panaya has announced the availability of its new SAP Support Package automation product. Support packages are software updates released by SAP that include problem fixes. SAP customers need to install them to ensure the smooth operation, regulatory compliance, and security of their SAP systems. However, support packages also pose a risk, as they may conflict with existing system customizations and disrupt business processes. As a result, implementing support packages require a significant testing effort, to the point that SAP users often defer the installation of support packages to reduce the burden of testing.

Microbia Selects ChemOne to Support Aggressive Start-up Growth of Company

Wed, 06 May 2009 06:00:00 EDT

YASH Technologies has announced that Microbia, Inc., has selected ChemOne as its integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)solution. ChemOne will provide the foundation for operational efficiency for Microbia's manufacturing and business requirements to prepare them for the launch of their line of naturally derived carotenoids for the food ingredient and nutritional supplement markets.