Yahoo: Goodbye Bartz Hello Baidu or Apple

September 8, 2011 Leave a comment

In yet another mystifying move, Yahoo’s board fired Carol Bartz and ended her three year tenure as CEO.  Over the last three years, Bartz has had to clean up after the less than stellar leadership of both Jerry Yang and Terry Semel led to revenue slowdowns, management bloat, product missteps, and who knows what else.

While I’m saddened to see Bartz go, I’m more aggravated by the ridiculous articles and blogs regarding Yahoo’s past, present, and future.  Note to the mainstream press…Yahoo IS NOT Google.  Yahoo is NOT Facebook.

Yahoo IS an Internet icon, a portal destination, an information and communications hub, and is chalk full of popular services and offerings.  Often seen as less innovative than Google, Yahoo has made meaningful contributions to Hadoop and has recently open sourced Traffic Server which was acquired as part of the Inktomi acquisition.

I see two paths for Yahoo; Baidu and Apple.

Baidu has grown into a formidable challenger to Google.  For Baidu to take the next step they must enter the Western marketplace and Yahoo would be the perfect vehicle to make this a reality.  A cash and talent infusion by Baidu would reinvigorate Yahoo giving it new life to innovate and disrupt its way to revenue growth.  It would also mean an end to Yahoo’s partnership with Microsoft (or would it) as well as new competitive efforts across traditional and mobile solutions.

Apple is a dominant force within the mobile/tablet community and Yahoo would make the perfect destination for their users.  With one brush of the pen, Yahoo would be folded under the Apple brand and would change the perception of Yahoo from old/dying to new/exciting.  Apple could use Yahoo as a platform for iCloud services and revamp Yahoo’s offerings to work seamlessly within iOS and OSX.  Additionally, Apple could use Yahoo to offer new and innovative Cloud services and accelerate the adoption of HTML5.

In the end, Bartz will come-up a winner in this mess as her honesty and toughness is refreshing.  However, the future for Yahoo may be bright as long as the Board realizes it’s time to turn the reigns over and sell the company.  Let’s hope they don’t turn down an offer like they had from Microsoft again and Yahoo finds a new home!

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The bamboozle is over: Google’s Mantra is BS

February 1, 2010 3 Comments

Google is scary on many fronts; from the information they collect about their users to how they use their size/power to bully their way into markets.  While Platen has written about the evils of advertising based services and the power that Google (and Facebook) hold over their users, the mainstream media and “Wall Street” are in love with GOOG.  Why?  They are a money making machine with a cult-like following.  Search has become synonymous with Google.

What has Google really done?

Google Search and AdWords puts Inktomi out of business…YES
Google Mail ends Yahoo Mail’s dominance…NO
Google Docs ends Microsoft’s Office dominance…NO
Google Talk ends Skype’s dominance…NO
Google Chat ends Yahoo/AOL IM’s dominance…NO
Google Chrome ends IE/Firefox’s browser dominance…NO
Google Android ends iPhone’s dominance…NO
Google YouTube ends Hulu’s dominance…NO
Google Books ends Amazon’s dominance….NO
Google Nexus One ends iPhone’s dominance…Any bets?…NO
Google Orkut ends (take your pick)’s dominance…NO
Google Chrome OS ends Linux/Microsoft’s dominance…Any bets?…NO
And the list continues…

Has Google made a strategic mistake?

While Microsoft continues to fight Google on many levels, they are too polarizing of a company to be a fanatical threat to Google.  However, the same cannot be said about Apple.  Apple users are incredibly loyal, fanatical, and growing.  Additionally, Apple already has what Google wants and needs; OSX, iPhone, iPad, and i(whatever they want to build).   Google sees the future; it’s in mobile devices and owning the mobile OS and/or advertising platforms.  Apple has the devices, the store, and the platform to dominate.

After Steve jobs said, “…This don’t be evil mantra: It’s bullshit.” Google’s world is very different.  With a single OS upgrade, Google search becomes a memory on the iPhone.  Or, with a single purchase, iSearch is born.  Or, …

As Carl Sagan said, “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.  The bamboozle has captured us.  Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

Google isn’t a non-for-profit, they aren’t the Gates Foundation; instead they are like any other corporation that seeks to maximize profits and shareholder value.  However, while IBM sells services, Cisco sells hardware, and Wal-Mart sells goods, Google needs YOUR personal information, YOUR habits, YOUR mood, YOUR clicks, and more to make money via advertising.

The bamboozle is over.

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2009: We Fooled You

December 31, 2009 1 Comment

As 2009 comes to a close, below is my very incomplete list of top “we fooled you” moments of 2009.

  • Cloud Computing trumps everything
  • Virtualization renders the OS irrelevant
  • Google “does no evil”
  • Cisco can’t grow or compete
  • Outsourcing isn’t forever
  • Chrome is better than Firefox or IE
  • Storm / Android beats the iPhone
  • Bobby (Foundry) would never sell
  • Huawei will falter
  • HP can’t catch IBM
  • IBM wouldn’t get back into networking equipment
  • Sun is dead
  • Open Source Software kills ISVs
  • Open Source Hardware dominates storage
  • Free Software – LOL
  • PBT vs. MPLS
  • Nortel would be saved
  • Web vs. traditional advertising
  • Juniper would never enter switching
  • Oracle is just a database company
  • Apple vs. Microsoft
  • Dell doesn’t care about services
  • IPOs are dead
  • Facebook is a fad
  • LTE is years away
  • Cisco UCS crushes HP, IBM, Dell, and more.
  • Business Intelligence wars would end
  • IPv6 – enough said
  • All start-ups need traditional VCs
  • Internet / IP Security is solid
  • Google Apps ends the need for Microsoft Office
  • Yahoo is dead
  • Linux Desktop vs. Apple and Microsoft

2009 was both an exciting and frustrating year for technology.  The battle lines are drawn for 2010 and I’m looking forward to a great and surprising year.

Happy New Year!

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Note to Juniper: Wake Up!

October 28, 2009 Leave a comment

If anyone knows how to compete against Cisco, it’s Juniper. Juniper redefined core routing and forced Cisco to re-invent their aging portfolio of core devices. My affection for Juniper runs deep. From the outside, I marveled at their ASIC designs, the elegance of JUNOS, and the sheer power of their devices. From the inside, I learned first-hand how talent, hard-work, and passion for an alternative vision of networking can lead a company to not only battle but win against Cisco.

However, since Juniper’s acquisition of NetScreen in February of 2004, and subsequently their yearning for a piece of the Enterprise pie, Juniper is beginning to resemble a long list of Cisco challengers. As Benjamin Franklin said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Unlike Cisco, Juniper has been either resistant or hesitant to complete their portfolio via acquisition. For example, while Juniper was in dire need of a switch they chose to develop it internally rather than purchase companies like Foundry or Extreme. Subsequently, Juniper has been forced into a best-of-breed scenario whereby they partner with other companies to provide end-to-end solutions. One such example is their partnership with IBM.

Meanwhile, both Cisco and HP are driving towards a one-stop-shop model of providing all the hardware, software, and services required to implement and maintain their respective solutions. Given the success rate of this strategy, IBM may be forced to join Cisco and HP. The danger to Juniper is they simply cannot match the Enterprise reach of these massive companies or the breadth of solutions they offer.

Finally, Juniper is light on public/private cloud computing solutions. Juniper needs to evaluate storage networking, an answer to Cisco’s UCS vision, virtualization, and management solutions. Of course Juniper touts their Stratus Project and just signed another OEM relationship with Dell to team on data center technology. However, Juniper has done this before; remember the Infranet?

In the end, Juniper may end-up being purchased by Dell or IBM. Or, Juniper can get back to their roots by innovating and disrupting the market. Why follow Cisco and HP’s lead? Offer a viable alternative to their strategies. Develop, market, and deploy a real datacenter fabric built on Ethernet and chalk filled with MPLS. Create a new type of Router that can handle the shear speed, QoS, and security requirements of the next generation backbone.

Come on Juniper, Wake Up!

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AT&T & iPhone: “Can you hear me now?”

September 28, 2009 1 Comment

AT&T Wireless has become the company that we love to hate.  After-all, they are the 2nd largest wireless carrier in the United States and maintain exclusive rights to the Apple iPhone.  Furthermore, we are bombarded by advertisements from Verizon poking fun at AT&T with their clever “can you hear me now” advertisements based on the quality of their wireless network.  How can poor AT&T even dream to compete against Verizon?  For goodness sakes, Verizon scared Sprint right out of the core network business.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a currently an AT&T wireless customer and I am completely addicted to my Apple iPhone 3G.  Like many iPhone users, I find myself using the “phone” less and less and instead rely on AT&T’s 3G network for data transmissions.  For me, the iPhone is an extension, and in some cases a replacement, for my laptop.  While I have experienced issues with both Apple’s software and the AT&T network, I understand AT&T’s challenges and I am thankful they are spending both the time and money to correct those issues.  Is Verizon’s network up to the iPhone challenge?

It is time to find out the answer to that question.  I propose that AT&T renegotiate the terms of their exclusivity agreement with Apple to allow Verizon to offer the iPhone on their network.  AT&T would maintain exclusive rights to all next generation iPhone models (4G, 5G …) for x number of months.  This would allow AT&T to keep a competitive edge on Verizon while giving consumers greater choice and providing Apple access to the number one wireless provider in the United States.

Additionally, it has the potential to bring Verizon’s network to its knees.  While Verizon’s network is impressive, it has never seen anything like the traffic iPhone users generate.  Verizon would be saddled with the same growing pains that AT&T experienced with one difference, “can you hear me now.”  Initially, Verizon would gain some high volume customers from AT&T while watching a significant percentage of their base switch to the iPhone.  Let’s face it; Verizon’s phones are boring at best.

After this initial spike in subscribers, the real fun begins.  Verizon’s iPhone users will begin to complain about similar issues to the ones that AT&T users have experienced; poor battery life, dropped calls, no rings, slow network, no network available, no data available, and more.  Verizon’s customer care will see their call volumes spike and their customer satisfaction numbers will fall.  Finally, “can you hear me now” will become a thing of the past and we’ll see Verizon’s CEO walking through the park apologizing and promising they can do better.

Finally, the emperor will have no clothes and all eyes will be focused squarely on Apple.  Apple will be forced to clean-up their act by providing more reliable software and introducing better hardware in their newest iPhone models.  Who does that benefit the most? AT&T (see above exclusivity agreement).  In the meantime, AT&T will have spent billions of dollars upgrading their network using the lessons they have learned to provide a superior experience via their network.

“Can you hear me now?”

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Is Cisco for or against automation?

September 18, 2009 2 Comments

Cisco has long understood the need to market to the Executive/Board Room as-well-as to the Network Engineer; Wall Street and Main Street.  Throughout the years, we have watched John Chambers and company move from an obscure little company to the bell weather of high technology.  Additionally, we have watched Cisco’s certification program move from an obscure “nice to have” to the gold standard of networking professionals.

Today, Cisco Certified X (CCx) is not only obtained by network engineers, but by sales, marketing, and other executives alike.  Why?  Simply put, CCx materials give individuals an excellent education on just about any modern day network infrastructure; routing, switching, cable infrastructure, and more.  Whether or not you take the test is usually based on career/industry advancement (who pays) as well as personal preference toward certifications.

Of course, Juniper Networks has a program of their own and offers a demanding certification called Juniper Networks Certified x (JNCx).  However, Juniper does not have the breadth and depth of products or the market penetration of Cisco, particularly in the enterprise.

The brilliance of Cisco’s certification program is twofold; it gives network engineers a career path and it provides Cisco an army of loyal and trained users.  Resellers and Customers were willing participants in training thousands of network professionals proudly displaying their CCx’s on desks and resumes.  In fact, some companies base career advancement, bonuses, and salary grades on the level of certification that one obtains.  A byproduct of this has been the elevation of Cisco’s IOS CLI to the standard of networking devices; a fact that Juniper continues to fight everyday with JUNOS.   In-turn, this creates bias and a competitive advantage for Cisco vs. competing devices because it’s “just IOS or an IOS derivative” and I know that already.

Today, the winds of change may be blowing as Companies are realizing the economic impact of this system.  In a way, organizations around the world have subsidized Cisco’s growth by providing the means for their staff to become a CCx to the detriment of their bottom line.  This includes hiring of individuals with top-of-the-line CCx certifications, paying for training, paying for tests, promotions, and losing certified individuals to rivals or other organizations.

Compounding the need for CCx or JNCx certifications is the utter lack of automation within the networking industry.  Enterprise Management Systems are inadequate, PERL (the adopted language of networking) knowledge is not easy to find and a bit too powerful for many and third party Network Change and Configuration systems are fighting the commodity label.

In a world where the ratio of network engineers to network devices is ever increasing and the notion of single-vendor (Cisco Powered) deployments is losing steam, why do we accept the idea that manual intervention is the best way to manage our networks?  Why are CCx or JNCx working on less complex activities?   Why are operations personnel beholden to the networking engineering teams?  What good are BPM and BRE if the end result is a human rather than an automated action?  Why allow a PERL developer to be in command of complex changes without guardrails, auditing trails, or (in some cases) networking skills.

Companies are beginning to realize that automation within networking will improve operational efficiencies, reduced downtime, improve SLAs, and reduce MTTR.  They are awakening to the fact that the best use of a CCx is not to be turning up or down ports or building initial configurations; instead it is performing advanced troubleshooting, deployment, or visionary functions.

Automation is paramount to cloud computing, PAAS, SAAS, or whatever else you want to call it.  We can no longer allow networking, or storage, to be the last bastion of manual over automated management.  For a datacenter to be truly cloud-like, most activities across the OSI stack must be automated.   Perhaps, networking is the most important piece as without it nothing works.

It is time for Cisco to get serious about network, storage, server, and security automation.   What happened to the early ideas of a self-managing, self-healing, self-defending network?  If Cisco wants to transform itself into a software company, then transform network management into true network automation.

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Why Cisco should fear HP

September 16, 2009 1 Comment

Earlier this year, Cisco made headlines with their UCS B-Series Blade Servers.  They followed this up with the Nexus 1000v and several other announcements including a partnership with BMC.  At the time I called this announcement a letdown as I hoped that Cisco would re-invent the server market turning it a new “servernet” device.

Today, HP announced the availability of the ProCurve 6120 series Blade Switch integrated with the BladeSystem cClass infrastructure.  This is a significant announcement from HP and one that heightens their war with Cisco.  Doesn’t Cisco make a 3200 for HP c-Class BladeSystems?

In yet another fracture between HP and Cisco, HP now has the capabilities and product offerings to steal Cisco’s UC thunder.  In fact, one could argue that HP has a stronger position within this market as they have servers, storage, networking, management, and service capabilities all wrapped in an HP bow.

To date, Cisco has been battling smaller rivals for dominance in the Enterprise; Juniper, Brocade, Enterasys, 3Com, and more.  However, this fight has been on Cisco’s turf; networking.  Today, Cisco is fighting equal or larger rivals in the Enterprise; HP, IBM (OEMs), and others.  However, this fight is on foreign soil that Cisco has no base of operation; servers.

Until IBM decides to get back into networking by purchasing Juniper, Brocade, or both, HP remains Cisco’s number one challenge.  Cisco relies on HP on many fronts of which I’ll highlight two points; to re-sell Cisco hardware and to OEM HP’s Network Management Software called Network Compliance Manager.  The importance of re-selling of Cisco hardware is self-evident but what about the OEM relationship?

The key to UC is management.  In fact the key to cloud computing, virtualization, PAAS, SAAS, or whatever you want to call it is management.  While HP has a strong offering of management software, Cisco continues to rely on OEMs or partnerships to fill this gap.  What’s wrong with this strategy?  Simply put, if you are going to push a vision you better be able to support the vision.  VMware has awoken to this fact and is finally pushing aggressively into virtualization management.  So too will Cisco, as they cannot continue to make management the “red-headed step-child” of their billion dollar empire.  Eventually, Cisco will need to either purchase BMC or home-grow a real solution.

Mark Hurd, CEO and Chairman of the Board of HP, has definitely proven to the world that he plays to win.  As Hurd and his team aggressively integrate HP into a Unified Powerhouse (UP), Cisco’s Unifed Communications (UC) is well within their cross-hairs.  With any infection point of technology comes a changing of the guard, will UC be Cisco’s un-doing?

As a reader of Platen, you know the respect and admiration I have for John Chambers and his leadership.  However, if I were Cisco I’d stop battling Apple and Kodak and start making their UC strategy a reality.

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VMware and SpringSource; Getting Warmer

August 11, 2009 Leave a comment

VMware announced the acquisition of SpringSource for a total of around $420 million. SpringSource provides a opensource Java development platform but they also own Hyperic an opensource management platform; a fact that is being virtually ignored by the mainstream media.

While SpringSource’s Java development platform is “interesting”, nobody gets rich selling or supporting a development environment. However, what’s more interesting is SpringSource’s vision of Building, Managing, and Running applications; one of the driving forces behind their purchase of Hyperic.

Take this vision and expand it into VMware. SpringSource will build the applications, vShere will run the applications, and a combination of Hyperic and VMware will manage the applications. Sadly, Hyperic will not solve all of VMware’s management problems, but it’s a move in the right direction.

There are two fundamental risks with this strategy; VMware’s continued reliance on Java (Oracle) for Platform-as-a-Service (PAAS) and VMware’s commitment to opensource. While Java is a wonderful platform, there are questions regarding its future as well as new and more modern platforms that are challenging its dominance.

While VMware claims to maintain a long history of support for opensource, its more of a self-serving position. With this acquisition, VMware has not only acquired a company but a community of users and developers. With a strong opensource challenge from Oracle/SUN, VMware would smart to harness this community asset rather than turn them into a newfound liability.

Aside from the fact that VMware may have overpaid for SprngSource (especially in this economy), SpringSource/VMware makes sense for both companies. VMware is getting a little warmer on their quest to becoming a datacenter powerhouse.

One word of caution: all companies, VMware, Oracle, Sun, Citrix, IBM, BMC, HP, CA, and more are vulnerable until a new paradigm of management is brought forward. Management cannot continue to be an afterthought and a “central brain” is needed to make cloud computing a reality.

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Riddle Me This: Cloud Sprawl

August 6, 2009 Leave a comment

Riddle me this: Imagine taking a dollar bill and cutting it up into four pieces. Each piece is placed inside different containers that are identical. Carry the 4 containers together in a bag and their total value remains $1. Now, take a second dollar bill and cut it into four pieces making sure they are the same dimensions as the first one and put it into 4 identical containers to the first batch. Place the 4 new containers in the same back and shake. All eight containers have a value of $2. Next, each into the bag and throw out one of the containers. The value of all 7 containers is now only $1 yet you have 3 extra containers. Finally, throw out the 3 remaining pieces from the original dollar bill that is missing a piece inside the bag.

Extra credit: Multiply the above riddle by 1000 and repeat.

Extra Extra Credit: Do the above with a mix of $1s, $5s, $10s, $20s, and $100s.

This is Cloud Sprawl and today this is an impossible task. Cloud Sprawl includes remnants from virtual machines, data, users, storage blocks, acls, firewall rules, vpns, passwords, and more.

What’s the answer to Cloud Sprawl? A new management paradigm. A move away from the after-thought that is server, storage, security, and network management. A move away from wrap-and-roll buying decisions. A move away from the hype that is today while building a real plan to get there tomorrow.

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Android in the Enterprise: Forget About It

August 5, 2009 Leave a comment

Google has announced their intentions to add “enterprise features” into Android OS beginning with the ability to synchronize with Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar. Are you kidding me?

First, Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar are not enterprise-class applications. As an enterprise user of all three applications, I find them slow and light-years behind Microsoft Exchange/Office and even Open-Xchagne/OpenOffice.

Second, can you trust Android OS in the enterprise? If Google’s entire business model is based on advertising and data mining, what security risks does Android OS pose? RIM has spend years building up corporate trust and security controls that have proven themselves within the enterprise. With all Apple’s success, they have struggled to make deep inroads against RIM. Google will face the same challenges and more.

Borrowing the words of Donnie Brasco, Google….”Forget about it.”

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