Tim Matheson Blog - Productive Tips and More

By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Setting the stage for a showdown with two of its biggest rivals, Microsoft will release an overhauled version of its corporate database program today, trying to move further into the territory of Oracle and IBM.

The program, SQL Server 2005, aims to give Microsoft a larger role on the behind-the- scenes computer servers that store and manage data for big businesses. Although much of the company’s past focus has been on small and medium businesses, Microsoft says it has made a series of improvements to better suit SQL Server for large-scale uses, too.

“It absolutely represents Microsoft continuing to scale for the enterprise,” said Steve Guggenheimer, general manager for application platform and development marketing in Microsoft’s Server & Tools Division.

It’s another step in Microsoft’s broader effort to expand beyond its traditional software for personal computers. In contrast with Windows and Office for PCs, which dominate their respective markets, the database field is one where Microsoft is trying to come from behind.

The worldwide corporate database market totaled $15 billion in 2004, the IDC research firm says. Oracle led with 41 percent market share, followed by IBM with 31 percent and Microsoft with about 13 percent. The MySQL open-source database also has a big market presence.

Oracle executives acknowledged last week that Microsoft has made improvements in the latest SQL Server version, but they said they still don’t think it stacks up to their database systems for large businesses.

“I know that they think they’ve done a very good job, and all kudos to them,” said Mark Townsend, Oracle senior product management director. “But they’re still only just starting. Quite literally, there’s nothing that they’ve brought out that we didn’t have five to 10 years ago.”

Willie Hardie, Oracle’s vice president of database product marketing, cited advantages including the fact that its systems work not only on Windows but also on other operating systems, such as Linux and Unix.

At the same time, improvements in Windows-based servers help Microsoft’s prospects with the new SQL Server, said Jeff Reed, chief technology officer of Logicalis USA, which offers computer and networking systems that include high-end databases.

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With the new release, Microsoft is “targeting the enterprise, the mid- and large-business sector,” Reed said. “Because that has typically been the domain of Oracle, they’re targeting Oracle.”

Further boosting the rivalry between the companies, Oracle has been working to adapt its offerings, traditionally used by large companies, for small- and medium-sized businesses.

An executive with a company that partners with Microsoft is upbeat on the new SQL Server’s prospects. Among other things, he cited the lower cost of the Microsoft system.

“I think it’s a game- changer,” said JD Hammerly, vice president of North America for Areva T&D, which offers software and systems for operators of electrical grids and markets. He said Areva, which also offers Oracle-based systems, would be able to use the new SQL Server with larger customers than in the past.

SQL Server 2005 is one of the products to be launched today at a San Francisco event headlined by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Microsoft will also release the Visual Studio 2005 software development system and discuss the upcoming debut of the BizTalk Server 2006 tool for managing processes in specialized business software.

Each of the programs is from Microsoft’s Server & Tools Division, which has been performing well enough to make up for some of the sluggish growth in the company’s PC Windows and Office divisions. Microsoft said improved sales of the current SQL Server 2000 version were a key factor in the division’s 13 percent revenue growth last quarter.

With the new SQL Server release, Microsoft is aiming to lure existing customers of Oracle, IBM’s DB2 and other databases by offering discounts of as much as 50 percent to people who switch from those systems.

Microsoft today is expected to show benchmarks to demonstrate the capabilities of the new SQL Server in handling the big databases used by large companies. Guggenheimer said the company will also talk about the addition of business intelligence features and other improvements to the database program. It will also show how SQL, Visual Studio and BizTalk work together in specific situations.

Microsoft also is expected to talk about companies that will offer or work with the new software in various ways — including hardware makers Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu and IBM’s hardware unit.

SQL Server is generally considered easier to use than its rivals, and the latest version does bring improvements in dealing with large databases, said Noel Yuhanna, Forrester Research senior analyst. At the same time, he said, Microsoft still may have some persuading to do when it comes to winning over customers who use the high-end capabilities of Oracle and IBM’s DB2.

SQL Server 2005 “is a first attempt by Microsoft to reach and close the gap with Oracle and IBM,” Yuhanna said. “I think time will tell,” he said.

Kristen Kenedy, CRN, 7-Nov-2005

The processor uses a dual 667MHz independent front-side bus, and boasts hardware-based virtualization capabilities.

Intel released its dual-core Xeon processor for high-end servers with some extra benefits for high-performance computing.

The chip maker started shipping the parts, formerly code-named Paxville MP, last week to system builders. Developed for servers that use four or more sockets, the processors use a dual 667MHz independent front-side bus for more throughput to the system�s chipset, a gateway to memory and I/O functions.

In Intel platform design for multi-processors, two dual-core processors share the dual front-side bus. Intel�s dual-core offerings for one- and two-socket systems, released last month, rely on a single front-side bus.

The new processors also incorporate hardware-based virtualization capabilities. Those features will not be enabled until Intel releases a BIOS update early next year.

Intel�s entry into dual-core designs trails AMD, which shipped its first products in April. Intel delivered all of its dual-core offerings several months early in an effort to catch its rival.

Many system builders believe AMD stole Intel�s thunder in dual-core systems. Intel�s job now, they say, is to continually improve performance and lower price points. Prices currently range from US$1,980 to US$3,157.

�When pricing gets closer to the single cores and the single cores start to go away, we will see a bigger impact,� says Doug Phillips, vice president of products and solutions at Seneca Data, a system builder in New York.

Intel plans to refresh this line of processors in 2H’06. Those 65-nanometer CPUs, code-named Tulsa, will include 16 Mbytes of shared L3 cache to help improve memory performance. Earlier in the year, Intel plans to update its one- and two-socket dual-core platform with an 800MHz dual front-side bus and updated memory technology called FB DIMM, or Fully-Buffered Dual In-Line Memory Module.

Major cell phone manufactures Motorola recently out sold competitor Samsung Electronics with their new razor phone. Samsung in an attempt to compete with the cell phone giant recently released it’s similar in design Samsung V740. Motorola’s RAZR, touted as slimmer than a pack of Esse cigarettes, is only 14.5 ㎜ thick and weighs 98 g, giving the world’s second largest handset maker a much-needed boost against Samsung on its home turf.

Thanks in large part to that success, Motorola is re-claiming a sliver of the Korean mobile phone market, previously almost exclusively in the hands of local makers led by Samsung and LG Electronics. After introducing mobile phones Korea in 1988, Motorola held over 70 percent of the market, but it started to lose customers in the mid-1990s, not least because of its failure to provide CDMA-type phones — the local standard — in time, while its long design cycle soon dated its models compared to the sleeker domestic ones.

It could be argued that the potential to sell at most 200,000 slim phones a year in a market like Korea, where 15 million phones are sold annually, is no big deal. But the country is a kind of test bed market for the world, so winning one round in the competition here can have larger consequences.

Besides, RAZR sets a new trend whereby function follows form rather than the other way round. Korean handset makers have been focusing on squeezing as many features as possible into one phone, from camera and MP3 players to game and digital multimedia broadcasting functions. But Motorola just thought slim. The idea is that multi-functions are becoming universal, so the company is putting a premium on design by reading buyers’ tastes in advance. “RAZR is making waves among young people who cherish design,” says I’m Chung-hwa, a marketing director with Motorola Korea.

Even for Motorola, the huge success of the phone came something of a surprise, and other local mobile phone makers like LG Electronics and Pantech have now also jumped on the slim bandwagon.

Parent’s have a new form of internet media to worry about. There is a new media circulating the internet called “flesh flicks” available for the very popular ipod. This new form of mobile porn allows ipod owners download pornographic 3 - 5 minute movie clips to their ipod and take the content with them. Parents are concerned that this may breed a portal for pedophiles to prep potential victims. The ipod has been a huge success especially among children and adolescent teens. This is causing quite a stir in the mainstream media. Company executive Steven Hirsch said it could be a “huge percentage” of business.

“People love watching adult movies and to be able to carry an adult movie in your pocket is a powerful tool,” he said. What’s even more interesting about this new growing trend is that many major U.S. porn giants are already jumping on board to capitalize on this new form of ismut.

Vivid Entertainment Group, a major US porn video production company, plans to shoot shorter films specifically for the iPod market.

Jane Roberts, the president of Young Media Australia, a not-for-profit group that advocates for quality media for young people, said iPod porn could be used by pedophiles to target victims.

“What are they (porn companies) doing to guarantee that pornography is not going to children?” Ms Roberts said.