According to IDC, in its Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker report, year-over-year server shipments in Q2 2010 increased to 23.8 percent--the most rapid growth in more than five years. According to the research analysis company, the global server market is cornered by HP (NYSE: HPQ), with 32.5 percent factory output, while IBM (NYSE: IBM) comes in at second place with 29.8 percent. The next three server manufacturers reported were Dell, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Fujitsu, with 15.6 percent, 8.6 percent and 3.4 percent of the factory revenue market share respectively.

Matt Eastwood, group vice president, Enterprise Platforms at IDC noted: "The server market is at a crossroads. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of improving sever market demand and the fastest quarterly server revenue growth IDC has reported in more than five years."

Propelling demand for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows servers would be a 28.2 percent increase in unit shipments of x86 servers, which hit $7 billion worldwide on unit shipments of 1.8 million servers. Windows server sales were $5 billion, while Linux server sales were $1.8 billion. Both Windows and Linux servers saw an increase in revenues compared to the same time last year, though it apparently comes at the expense of Unix, which saw a 7.2 percent dip to $2.9 billion in revenues.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this article at Redmond Channel Partner

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Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) patent infringement lawsuit against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) over Java could have far-reaching ramifications. Oracle claims that Google's Android mobile operating system and the devices that use it infringe on a slew of Oracle's intellectual property related to Java. Here's a quick tour of impressions from around the blogosphere:

Predicting an "epic smackdown," CNNMoney's David Goldman writes that the intellectual property disputes out of Silicon Valley are becoming increasingly complex. With both Oracle and Google developing open-source platforms, this lawsuit could be especially tricky and take many years to resolve. If Oracle wins, it would signal that Java is less open than once considered.

The big winner in this latest fight over Java, according to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, could be Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Developers and users might start to wonder about what's going to happen with Android, and the lawsuit gives "Windows Phone 7 more air cover."

Foley's colleague at ZDNet, Larry Dignan, speculates that the Oracle lawsuit may be the tip of the iceberg for patent infringement allegations against Android. A pending lawsuit by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) against HTC "has a heavy dose of Android in it," Dignan writes, adding that it won't be long before more parties join in.

Predicting that the lawsuit "signals a major reversal in the stewardship of Java," Wired's David Kravets notes that Sun Microsystems, which created the Java programming language and was acquired by Oracle, was not known for filing lawsuits. Sun had given Java away as open-source code as well as licensing it, and in 2006 the language became part of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License. Some developers have lambasted the lawsuit as an attack on open source, and Google has taken up that banner in its defense.

Others anticipate trouble ahead for Java, which has experienced waning popularity in recent years. According to one-time chairman of the opensource convention, Nathan Torkington, Java has "lost its momentum" and "it's becoming legally murky enough that there's room for competition," Kravets reports.

For more:
- see David Goldman's post at CNNMoney
- see Mary Jo Foley's post at ZDNet
- see Larry Dignan's post at ZDNet
- see David Kravets' post at Wired

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The traditional model of outsourcing is undergoing a transformation, and there are different theories on what the next model may be.  One theory is that the multitude of service providers in India will be replaced by the likes of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Amazon.com.  Just as software sold on disks is being replaced by apps, and desktops are being replaced by laptops, legacy outsourcers will give way to providers who leverage economies of scale, argue Arjun Sethi and Olivier Aries in a BusinessWeek article.

Instead of providing customized software, systems integration and long-term contracts, the new outsourcers will deliver off-the-shelf software on a pay-as-you-go basis, providing greater flexibility and efficiency. "Thousands of server computers can attack a task more quickly--and cheaply--or handle a patchwork quilt of different technologies that companies use to run their businesses," Sethi and Aries wrote in a column at BusinessWeek." This approach will let businesses outsource entire tasks such as the tracking of inventory, paying only for the information accessed or used."

This evolution is taking place because traditional vendors have eked all the efficiencies they can out of low-cost labor and automation, the authors maintain. Cloud computing offers a new way to lower costs. "It shifts the center of gravity in outsourcing from physical ownership of assets and process expertise. It focuses on the skills necessary to efficiently manage computing operations that can scale and at the same time are flexible enough to handle scores of different tasks," they write.

The winners in this sea change, they predict, will be companies like Google and Amazon.com; and possibly Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and SAP. To stay in the game, leading outsourcers in India will have to form alliances and acquire other companies to gain the necessary scale.

For more:
- see this column by Arjun Sethi and Olivier Aries at BusinessWeek

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As enterprise IT chiefs grow increasingly frustrated with the constant updating, integrating and reconfiguring of software and hardware that consumes their teams, more vendors are building systems that come integrated and optimized for the customer. The trend means that CIOs and their IT teams will be able to spend less time on the busywork of managing, updating and testing systems, and more time on projects that bring business value, writes InformationWeek's Bob Evans.

Numerous vendors are offering specialized appliances that don't require so much time and effort on the part of the customer, including IBM (NYSE: IBM), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Netezza, Teradata, and now Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Evans writes. Microsoft's recently announced Azure platform appliance is installed in a private cloud on the customer site, bringing features similar to those in the Azure public cloud but with greater privacy and security.

Evans predicts that the rise of this type of specialized appliance will gain a serious foothold in the industry. For one thing, CIOs are just about fed up with the amount of resources required to manage traditional systems. For another, the list of vendors that are leading the trend have a history of responding when customers demand it: "[T]heir track record for spotting new ideas might not be perfect, but when all of them move very quickly and aggressively into a new space, it's probably because customers' screams for help have become impossible to ignore," he writes.

For more:
- see Bob Evans' post at InformationWeek

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In an earnings call last week, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) President Charles Phillips offered to provide CTOs to its large, devoted customers. More specifically, Oracle is offering up "client architects" who can give technical advice on keeping an enterprise's architecture aligned with Oracle's own strategies, Bob Evans writes in a post at InformationWeek.

"[N]ow, almost any decision they make in the data center could involve Oracle, so we have deployed a cadre of technical advisors that we call 'client architects' that essentially act as dedicated CTOs for our large customers who want to stay tightly aligned with Oracle strategy," Phillips said.

As Evans points out, this "CTO-in-a-box" service gives Oracle more opportunity to cross sell.

For more:
- see Bob Evans' post at InformationWeek

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Despite some high-profile ERP implementation failures in local and state governments in recent years, Indianapolis and Marion County, Ind., are implementing a three-year, $16 million project to replace back-office systems based on mainframes with ERP technology from Oracle, reports Jaikumar Vijayan at ComputerWorld.

Indianapolis hopes to get the deployment right by keeping the project's technical complexity to a minimum while focusing on transforming business processes. The project will consolidate the separate administrative systems used by the city and the county, creating one ERP system for managing payroll, procurement, accounting and human resources, Vijayan reports.

ERP integration has long been a thorny challenge, and the technical and business impediments don't seem to have diminished much, according to a new report from Forrester Research, titled "It's Time to Tame the ERP Integration Beast." Thomas Wailgum, in a post at CIO, summarizes some of the common obstacles discussed in the report:

• ERP apps interoperate with other apps from the same provider but not other providers;
• Vendors choose middleware that limits customers choices;
• There are too many choices when it comes to integration strategies; and
• Dynamic business apps increase the integration complexity.

For more:
- see Jaikumar Vijayan's article at ComputerWorld
- here's Thomas Wailgum's post at CIO

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Scripps Networks acquired the Travel Channel in 2009, which meant that Scripps' IT team acquired another data network to manage. Bringing two sets of IT resources together is rarely easy, but in this case many headaches were avoided because Scripps was using business service management software (BSM) in its own operations.

BSM allowed Scripps to change policies, automatically provision new systems and detect misconfigurations and failures, reports Robert Lemos at CIO. The software helps standardize and automate IT management, making it possible for small IT teams to do more. Server problems are discovered before they cause network interruptions, meaning that they can often be fixed before users call the help desk.

BSM tools were touted early on by BMC Software, Lemos reports, but major vendors, including IBM (NYSE: IBM), CA, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and EMC, have gotten into the market. 

Industry researcher Dennis Drogseth recently examined the products offered by 15 BSM vendors. He focused on the service impact (SI) aspect of BSM, which he considers the heart of the technology. What he found is that BMS SI projects offer the most value and benefits when they are deployed for the purpose of creating consistency and cohesion throughout various environments. The technology can produce value by translating existing IT investments into "a more relevant, service impact context," he writes in a column at CIOUpdate.

For more:
- see Robert Lemos' article at CIO
- see Dennis Drogseth's post at CIOUpdate

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Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) early this week announced the release of a new edition of MySQL Enterprise. This is the first major upgrade of the popular open-source database software since it was taken over by Oracle as part of its acquisition of MySQL's parent Sun Microsystems. ( MySQL was in turn acquired by Sun to the tune of $1 billion in 2008) 

The major new component in this release appears to be the release of MySQL Enterprise Monitor 2.2, which provides performance monitoring tools that allows database administrators to better manage MySQL servers. Other improvements revolve around simplified administration and improved security and integration.

This release will do little to assure MySQL users and community members who are suspicious of Oracle's commitment to MySQL, however. As one analyst pointed out, the development of this release "was well under way before the acquisition so this really has very little to do with Oracle in my opinion."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek

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James Gosling, also known as the "Father of Java" has resigned from Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL). In a blog post titled "Time to move on" posted last Friday, Gosling sought to avoid questions on his precise reasons for leaving. Noting that its "difficult to answer," he did however hint that it wasn't the most friendly of partings when he wrote "just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good."

Already, the blog entry already has over a hundred comments, mostly by well-wishers who thanked him for his contributions. A few though, expressed worry at the future of Java in the hands of Oracle now that he is no longer at the helm.

Gosling created the original design of the Java programming language at Sun Microsystems, prior to the company's acquisition by Oracle. First reported by FierceCIO:TechWatch last year, the deal was finally closed in late January after being stalled for more than half a year over regulatory concerns.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CRN
- check out this article at James Gosling's blog

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CIOs everywhere are facing challenges adjusting to new and evolving pressures, but the vendors they work with are facing plenty of pressures of their own. Bob Evans at InformationWeek outlines the biggest challenges he sees facing the industry's 10 "most strategic" vendors.

For IBM, the main challenge is facing down some heavy competitive pressure from Oracle and Hewlett-Packard, Evans writes. For Oracle, it means withstanding pressure from IBM, HP and SAP, while remaining flexible enough to respond to customer needs. The biggest challenge facing HP, according to Evans, is identifying its unique place in the market. At VMware, the main obstacle is transcending the success of virtualization and discovering the next big thing.

Evans elaborates on the challenges for these vendors plus SAP, Microsoft, Cisco, Teradata, EMC and your outsourcer.

For more:
- see Bob Evans' post at InformationWeek

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