Economics

Analyzing public-cloud logs and transactions

Gartner has predicted that IT will spend more money on private cloud computing than the public cloud through 2012. And while I personally am a big supporter of private cloud, I've still been trying to figure what are the real issues that would make users avoid public cloud services, and what aspects of public clouds could be changed to make them more appealing to enterprise users.

It's no secret that security is a major concern, but companies' reluctance to adopt the public cloud seems to go beyond security. At its heart, it appears to be a matter of … Read more

Linux: Strong and getting stronger

At the Linux Foundation's annual collaboration summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, Executive Director Jim Zemlin kicked off the event with some interesting perspectives on the state of the Linux marketplace today.

The short version: Linux is going strong and getting stronger.

According to Zemlin, the macro-economic trends have played to the strengths of Linux and open source. Few can dispute that Linux is cheaper to procure and run in comparison to proprietary platforms. This applies not only to end users but also to device manufacturers and development shops building platforms.

Would Google be the company it is today … Read more

Venture investment rises in first quarter of 2010

Private company research firm CB Insights (formerly known as Chubby Brain) on Tuesday released new venture investment data for the first quarter of 2010. Overall, the news is very positive with strong growth in the number of deals from 687 in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 731 in the first quarter of 2010.

The first quarter of 2010 saw $5.9 billion invested across 731 deals, a marked increase over the year-ago quarter when $3.9 billion was invested across 483 deals. "The psychology and sentiment of entrepreneurs and venture capital investors continues to improve, albeit cautiously," the report concluded.

And while CB Insights notes that $5.9 billion remains far below quarterly levels seen before the '08-'09 recession, there is some belief (that I share) that "the VC asset class has perhaps reset at a lower but ultimately more sustainable and healthier level."

The fact that VCs are opening their collective wallets, even for smaller deals, is good news for both entrepreneurs and the economy as a whole. That said, there is still probably too much money still sitting on the sidelines.

What's interesting to note is the vast disparity in the number of deals by sector, where health care and Internet outpace all other categories by at least 3 to 1 in number of deals.

… Read more

Security driven by compliance, rather than protection

A new report by Forrester Research, commissioned by Microsoft and RSA, the security division of EMC, found that even though corporate intellectual property comprises 62 percent of a given company's data assets, security programs are focused on compliance rather than data protection.

The report highlights a number of key findings, that provide a number of things to think about if you are remotely involved in the security of corporate data:

Secrets comprise two-thirds of the value of firms' information portfolios Compliance, not security, drives security budgets Firms focus on preventing accidents, but theft is where the money is The more valuable a firm's information, the more incidents it will have CISOs do not know how effective their security controls actually are

According to Forrester, corporate security programs are typically divided into two main categories of data types to protect: secrets and custodial data.

Secrets--that can confer long-term competitive advantage such as product plans, earnings forecasts, and trade secrets.

Secrets refer to information that the enterprise creates and wishes to keep under wraps. Secrets tend to be messily and abstractly described in Word documents, embedded in presentations, and enshrined in application-specific formats like CAD.

Custodial data--which includes customer, medical, and payment card information that becomes "toxic" when spilled or stolen.

Custodial data has little intrinsic value in and of itself. But when it is obtained by an unauthorized party, misused, lost, or stolen, it changes state. Data that is ordinarily benign transforms into something harmful. When custodial data is spilled, it becomes "toxic" and poisons the enterprise's air in terms of press headlines, fines, and customer complaints. Outsiders, such as organized criminals, value custodial data because they can make money with it. Custodial data also accrues indirect value to the enterprise based on the costs of fines, lawsuits, and adverse publicity.

Forrester notes that while toxic data spills are both dramatic and expensive, secrets are actually much more valuable and are an "underappreciated and underprotected information asset." … Read more

Outlook good for venture-backed exits and IPOs

New data released from the National Venture Capital Association shows evidence of a rebounding acquisitions and IPO market for venture-backed companies in the first quarter of 2010.

According to the Exit Poll report (PDF) by Thomson Reuters and the NVCA, Q1 2010 ended with nine venture-backed initial public offerings (IPOs) and 111 merger and acquisition transactions.

Additionally, there were 31 disclosed venture-backed M&A exits averaging $180.2 million, 21 percent higher than the total average disclosed transaction value for all of 2009. As the chart below shows, the funding-to-exit ratio for software and Internet start-ups was roughly 4 … Read more

Apple and Google race for mobile dominance

Many media and technology pundits are convinced that the impending release of the Apple iPad will herald a change in the way we consume computing resources.

And while the iPad may usher in a new way to interact with computing devices, it's far from a perfect device. Perhaps it's the promise of what a device of this type can offer that's the message, rather than the actuality of what the initial iPad will deliver.

In fact, according to a new survey by development tools maker Appcelerator, developer interest actually waned during the past three months, primarily due … Read more

Why Java could thrive at Oracle

When Oracle announced its intention to acquire Sun Microsystems nearly one year ago, one of the prime areas of consternation for developers was what would happen to the Java programming language.

Perhaps putting some of those fears to rest, a new report from IDC (subscription required) suggests that Java can thrive more under Oracle than it did at Sun itself.

In making the strategic commitment to Java in its next-generation Fusion applications, Oracle says on its Web site that the future success of Java is "fundamental to the success of Oracle as a vendor of anything other than databases.&… Read more

Report: Tens of millions still opening junk e-mail

In this day and age of technological advancement and digital lifestyles, it's incredible to me that nearly half of a recently surveyed audience opened junk e-mail (aka spam), intentionally.

According to an Ipsos Public Affairs Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) survey report (PDF), tens of millions of users continue to respond to spam in ways that could leave them vulnerable to a malware infection or bot network.

The results of the survey show that nearly half of the users have opened spam, clicked on a link in spam, opened a spam attachment, replied, or forwarded it--all activities that leave consumers susceptible to fraud, phishing, identity theft, and infection.

Of those who intentionally opened spam, they did so to unsubscribe or complain to the sender or to see what would happen. Fifteen percent clicked to learn more about the products or services being offered.

… Read more

Content is king when it comes to Web sites

It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since the first dot-com domain name was registered. With 668,000 dot-com sites registered each month and an estimated 80 million dot-com names in use today, it's a complete understatement to say that the Web has come a long way in the last quarter century.

Generally speaking, the raw technology that allows us to develop and serve Web pages hasn't changed dramatically in the last 10 years. What's changed is the way users interact with sites and how much easier it's become to publish content … Read more