Per on IT or Per on it!

Wow! Things have really changed between SUN and Microsoft!

It is wonderful to see that things have really changed between SUN and Microsoft!

At SUN's JavaOne 2009 conference in San Francisco Microsoft's Steve Martin made an appearance that was very well received.

His first words were "We come in peace, and we want to talk about interoperability today. Nothing is more important than interoperability."  

I feel warm inside when I see the industry working together for the benefit of interoperability.

I salute Mr. McNeilly for inviting Microsoft! This is the beginning of a new era!

Warm regards, Per

Now it is time to invest for a bright future as a Microsoft Partner!

 

 

It is now over yet but it is getting better!

 

From many corners of the world we start to see statistics showing a that turn has happened or is about to happen. Still I expect it to take some time before the economy starts to show tangible strength and unfortunately many companies will face severe cash flow problems. Cash flow is always a nightmare after the Summer for partners being consultants.

 

But now is the time to invest in a bright future!

 

There is a new wave of products coming from Microsoft and our customers will soon be ready to take on more projects. By 'investing' I mean training and strategic recruitment of top talent as well as increased 'touch' with your customers. You want to be there when their budgets get bigger and now is the time to start showing more face time and to understand their needs. Start working on identifying their needs and with your new skills, your new top talent you will be able to make the future a great place for your company and your employees.

 

 

Regards, Per

 

Google kill entrepreneurs without a fair trial

I am upset about the fact that Google is now so powerful so they can kill entrepreneurs without any kind of trial or hearing.

A great Swedish internet entrepreneur, Mr. Ted Valentin, found himself to be left in the cold when Google without any reason just took his websites away from their search engine. He lost 80% of his traffic thanks to this. Read the article here.

Now Google publicly admits that they made a mistake and he is now after two long and harmful weeks back in the search listings!

But this much bigger than this! It makes me wonder how much power Google has? Google is now so powerful so perhaps there should be a formal and easy [read 'afforable for SMEs'] way to appeal against actions that Google take. In the meantime when an appeal is pending they should postpone actions like taking somebody away from the search engine. And if they take someone away for competitive reasons, then Google should be punished to the letter of the law!

Now, this is really something for the EU Commission and the US Department of Justice to investigate!

Well - this blog post might put me on the black list so the risk is obvious that you never are able to read this! :-)

Regards, Per

Windows 7 ships October 22

Now it is official!

Our friends at MSFT will ship the new Windows 7 on October 22!

That gives plenty of opportunity for MSFT and partners to catch the Xmas shopping!

Windows Vista is now really a great operating system so what we will see in Windows 7 is very much a fine tuned system that is even better on several tasks and that will run on a smaller footprint [in other words it does not need a speedy machine to give a nice experience]. So a machine that is running Windows Vista today will run faster with Windows 7 tomorrow.

Customers on Windows XP Pro now need to start thinking about Windows 7 as the old and wonderful XP this Autmun will become really old compared with 7. Moving to 7 from XP will give even more opportunities to substantially lower total cost of ownership with the enhanced abilities for true remote management.

I do not expect corporations to migrate over night but I predict 2010 to be the year of migration!

Remember where you heard it first! :-)

Regards, Per

What to pack for WPC New Orleans 2009?

Dear fellow Microsoft partners,

 

I guess I will see most of you in New Orleans this July! Who wants to miss the Worldwide Partner Conference!

 

After all WPC is the opportunity to network and to plan your business!

 

But what should I pack for NOLA? Well apart from the obvious things when going to the deep south in the middle of summer I suggest that you pack:

• a very large number of business cards with a title that is easy to understand and a catch line so that people remember your company
• a warm heart so that you are willing to give advice and thoughts to people without demanding something in return [I call it 'Givers Gain'']
• a Windows Mobile so that you can enter your follow-ups [follow-up is key to success and the first opportunity to show that you keep your promises]
• an open mind to meet new people and to learn from them 
• a willingness to consider new business models and challenge old ones

 

 

 

See you in New Orleans in July!

 

 

Warm regards, Per

 

IBM, Microsoft and open source citizenship

While reading this post on zdnet, I was struck by the fact that IBM has managed to position itself extremely well in the eyes of both the general public and the IT community. How is it that everyone has succumbed to the same delusion – that IBM and Microsoft are two different beasts with two different modi operandi?

This is simply not the case. Both companies are intensely protective of their core business. They both happily apply for software patents (some of them ludicrous) and are fiercely protective of their source of revenue, utilizing all avenues available. And both companies cooperate with the open source community – or not, if that suits them. It seems that IBM is just better at hiding its non Open Source friendly activities.

I’m sure you’re thinking that this can’t be right but the truth is that they hide it well). Just look at the mainframe market. And before you ask, no I am not concentrating on some minor part of IBM’s business. Proprietary mainframe software, hardware and related services constitute nearly a quarter of IBM’s annual $100 billion revenue. You cannot, as some have done, judge IBM’s open source commitment by looking at markets that are adjacent to its core business or where they have no share – we need to look at areas, where it would hurt them to change their business model.

If we now apply the author’s statement “But when was the last time IBM sued an open source vendor or even threatened to do so?” to this area, suddenly things are in a different perspective. IBM controls all aspects of the mainframe and there is no discussionabout sharing code here. The last time someone tried to produce mainframes that interoperated with the IBM system (PSI), IBM sued them rather than sharing, or even licensing, the code., IBM have also aggressively blocked Open Source mainframe solutions such as Hercules from running on their platforms allowing them to maintain their dominance in the mainframe market. Hercules, for example would have allowed customers to run mainframe workloads on alternative platforms, effectively allowing mainframe software to be run on PCs. “

This uncompromisingly tough stance, in comparison,  with the other beast discussed here  who seem to have been beaten into licensing their family jewelry. So why does no-one in the OSS community pick up on this? If we are calling for open source software, why not open architecture?

 

Regards, Per

Swedish Police and French Gendarmerie have something in common

This week I learnt that the Swedish Police never saved as much money going Open Source as the press have claimed!

In fact they saved 99% less [ninetynine percent!] which means that instead of the equivalent of a large number of shiny new Volvo patrol cars they saved more or less only the cost for a couple of wheel caps!

This is the problem with tales - they are often not true and as people tell the stories people start to belive in them.

The Swedish Police now admit that the savings with Open source never have materialised and they feel embarassed that they have forgotten to tell that the dream of Open Source did not bring any savings.

I fear that the true story is that Open Source has increased the total cost [due to training and integration/interoperability challenges] but we will probably never now...

The French Gendarmerie are making a similar journey and they are being very vocal about it and without being Sherlock Holmes I guess our French friends will eventually learn the same as their colleagues in Sweden embarassingly already knows.

Instead of experimenting with non-commcercial software I suggest that the polices forces in Sweden and France run software that works and delivers so that they can put their focus on fighting crime.

Regards, Per

PS. Apart from the adventures around Open Source I have the strongest admiration for the men and women in our police forces that every day help us citizens. They do a great job in a tough environment!

Certified open?

I follow news and developments within the open source community with a keen personal and professional interest, but it wasn’t until recently that I observed a disturbing pattern emerging. It seems that the open source values and ideals are not only being cynically exploited by large proprietary vendors, but those vendors are continuing to get away with it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand that many open source products are money making machines that fiercely compete with platforms like Windows, as well as with each other.  But when a group of companies bands together to try to define the future of openness, but do so in a non-open way that excludes some players and just promotes themselves, well, that sends shudders down my spine.

Open Forum Europe (OFE) seem to do just that. Their upcoming annual summit “The Future is Open” partly reads like an event organized in support of Opera’s case against Microsoft. However, even if I can let that slide, despite my strong belief in the need to talk to rather than sue companies into submission, I cannot ignore the fact that attendance to the event is “by invitation only”. Hardly open, I would argue.

In addition, and this is not limited to OFE, it seems that the debate about what constitutes openness has been frozen in time. Everybody talks about the principles of  openness – in the case of OFE, they mention flexibility, interoperability, avoidance of vendor lock-in, ensuring access to information and a level playing field, etc. But why don’t these principles apply to OFE’s members?

What about services? What about systems?  What about algorithms?  For OFE members, these are all proprietary.  Thinking about whether any of the above mentioned principles apply to IBM’s mainframe marketjust leaves my head spinning. And this is the same IBM that recently  masterminded the “Open Cloud Manifesto” – behind closed doors and with participation by invitation only. Again, hardly open.

OFE years ago announced an initiative called “Certified Open”. Nothing much ever came out of it apparently, but perhaps now is the time to revisit it and apply it to the organization’s own membership. On the other hand, given the recent stance of the organization, some very powerful business powers have probably decided that Certified Open is a threat to their positioning.  Why would OFE actually want to be open?

Regards, Per

Mixed feedback from partners around this recession!

 

Hi friends,

 

I get mixed feedback from my partner friends around the globe! It looks like there is much talk about recession but the IT sector has only been hit a little bit. The partners that are more affected are the ones that sell hardware, manning and licenses in the SmallBiz and MidMarket space. All other areas seems to be more or less in good shape - and some are in great shape.

 

In the very best shape are partners that are doing outsourcing and cloud computing because their offerings are both 'hip' and they reduce the cost for customer's IT operations.

 

The very best vertical seems to be the Public sector but I must admit that I get mixed feedback here - in some countries selling to the Public sector is a nightmare but in most countries it looks like the Public sector is the place to be in!

 

And this month when you open up your Financial Times, Wall Street Journal or whatever your poison is - you see that there are not only negative news - our politicians and stock markets have started to see the light in the end of the tunnel.

 

 

Regards, Per

Oracle casts a shadow over Sun

So now the game has come to a close with Oracle's successful bid for Sun! My guess is that the Board of Directors at Sun was a little bit nervous after having said no to IBM.

What will Oracle do?

My sense is that they will need to run a few strategy sessions around the future of MySQL, the hardware business and how to make money out of the Office suit without interfering with the notion of ´free´.

I also expect that there will be few cuts in the work force both in the US and perhaps even more in other countries. There will be lot of duplicate positions!

But I want to congratulate Mr. Ellison for landing such a wonderful deal! And even more to the shareholders of Sun that can laugh all the way to the bank!

Regards, Per