Computerworld IBM News

IBM launches Watson customer service smart bot

(Joab Jackson) — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:51:00 GMT

Yoking cognitive computing with customer service, IBM has launched a system that can reference large amounts of unstructured data to help companies better field customer phone calls.

The whole enchilada: Integrated compute platforms steamroll across IT

(Steve Duplessie) — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:33:00 GMT

Vendors are rebuilding the mainframe with converged infrastructure, collapsed kit or integrated compute platforms -- whatever you want to call it. And customers are loving it.

Mobile management morphs

rmitchell@computerworld.com (Robert L. Mitchell) — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Customers are pushing the limits of the software -- asking it to manage and do many more things than it was originally created to do -- and vendors are happy to oblige.

BlackBerry Messenger is expanding to iOS and Android

mhamblen@computerworld.com (Matt Hamblen) — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:10:00 GMT

BlackBerry's free Messenger service is being expanded to work with iOS and Android devices, the company announced today at its BlackBerry Live event.

What CSC Is Doing Right (and Wrong) In Its Turnaround Efforts

(Rob Enderle) — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:13:00 GMT

In the last 15 months, Computer Science Corp. CEO Mike Lawrie has handpicked his executive team and streamlined the CSC product line. This is a good start, but if CSC wants to emulate the turnaround efforts of IBM and Apple, the company should look for a formidable CFO and step up its marketing efforts.

What to expect at SAP's Sapphire

(Chris Kanaracus) — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:32:00 GMT

SAP's Sapphire conference kicks off next week in Orlando, setting the stage for the company to sell customers on its visions for cloud-based applications, in-memory computing and mobility.

Review: HP 3PAR conjures powerful storage magic

(Paul Ferrill) — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:15:00 GMT

HP 3PAR StoreServe 7400 combines high scalability, high performance, and a big bag of tricks for easing storage management

BMC set to go private in $6.9 billion deal

(Chris Kanaracus) — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:02:00 GMT

BMC has agreed to be acquired by a private investment consortium headed by Bain Capital and Golden Capital, in a deal worth about US$6.9 billion.

BMC going private in $6.9 billion deal

(Chris Kanaracus) — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:08:00 GMT

BMC has agreed to sell itself to a private investment consortium headed up by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital in a deal worth approximately US$6.9 billion.

Why Apple Won't Be Around as Long as IBM

(Rob Enderle) — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:39:00 GMT

IBM is 102 years old. At its height, it was almost a cult, with employees dressing alike, speaking a unique language and earning benefits that took care of them for life. Today's tech companies aren't built to last, as Apple's recent earnings report shows all too well.

H-1B reform debate pits tech firms against iT veterans

(Grant Gross) — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:02:00 GMT

Many U.S. tech companies are pushing hard this year for an increase in the number of high-skill immigrants allowed into the country, but many veteran IT workers question their motives for wanting to increase the number of visas under the controversial H-1B program.

U.K. university replaces aging HP servers with Fujitsu vShape virtualization

(Matthew Finnegan) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:50:00 GMT

University Campus Suffolk (UCS) has begun a project to replace its legacy HP servers with Fujitsu's vShape virtualised infrastructure, allowing it to increase compute capacity in a smaller data centre space.

Will fault-tolerant servers improve your virtualized environment?

(John Moore) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:39:00 GMT

Companies are turning to fault tolerant servers as a way to improve uptime without experiencing the downtime associated with high availability solutions. But fault tolerant technology may not be right for every enterprise.

IBM launches appliance for the 'Internet of things'

(Joab Jackson) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:22:00 GMT

Preparing its customers to join the emerging 'Internet of things', IBM has released a new appliance built to manage and route a voluminous amount of machine-to-machine small data messages

Gartner: Worldwide CRM revenue grew 12.5 percent in 2012

(Chris Kanaracus) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:52:00 GMT

Global CRM (customer relationship management) revenue grew 12.5 percent last year to US$18 billion, a rate three times that of all enterprise software segments on average, as companies look to acquire more business and serve existing customers better, according to a new Gartner report.

Salesforce.com launches Social.com advertising platform

(Chris Kanaracus) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:06:00 GMT

Salesforce.com is taking steps to combine its acquisitions in social media monitoring and social advertising with its core CRM (customer relationship management) software through a new product called Social.com.

IBM snatches up UrbanCode for DevOps prowess

(Joab Jackson) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:46:00 GMT

Sensing a need among its customers for faster software development, IBM has acquired UrbanCode, a provider of tools suited for the emerging practice of rapid software development called devops.

SAP and Oracle winners as software growth slows, IDC says

(Mikael Ricknäs) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:03:00 GMT

A growing interest in big data, analytics and cloud computing helped propel a weak software enterprise market last year, according to research from IDC. SAP and Oracle fared the best among the large software vendors.

Infor launches version 10x, plans IBM SmartCloud launch for its apps

(Chris Kanaracus) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:49:00 GMT

Infor is hoping a new social collaboration tool, updated middleware and user interfaces, as well as options for cloud-based deployments, will help cement its place as one of the industry's largest ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendors after SAP and Oracle.

Wall Street Beat: Tech bellwethers report mixed quarter

(Marc Ferranti) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:35:00 GMT

Some of the biggest names in IT including IBM, Microsoft, Google and Intel reported quarterly earnings this week, revealing a picture of the tech sector that, while not as gloomy as had been feared, is nevertheless mixed.

IBM-Lenovo deal likely to focus on low-end, commodity servers, analyst says

(James Niccolai) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:36:00 GMT

Any deal by IBM to sell parts of its server business to Lenovo is likely to focus on low-end commodity x86 hardware, not higher-end x86 systems such as IBM's PureSystems and iDataPlex servers, an industry analyst said Thursday.

IBM's revenue deflated in 2013's first quarter

(Joab Jackson) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:18:00 GMT

Unable to close a number of large mainframe and software deals by the end of the quarter, IBM has reported a 5 percent decline in revenue to US$23.4 billion for the first quarter of 2013.

Harvard global grid computing project will help create printable solar cells

lmearian@computerworld.com (Lucas Mearian) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:36:00 GMT

Harvards Clean Energy Project is conducting a study on millions of potential chemical structures and has identified next-generation organic solar cell material.

Give enterprise software a social makeover to attract users

(John Moore) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:25:00 GMT

When it comes to developing enterprise applications, organizations are increasingly realizing that user experience is as important as functionality. In response, vendors are taking a more agile approach to building those apps in order to better meet users' needs.

IBM to invest $1B in flash memory development

lmearian@computerworld.com (Lucas Mearian) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:12:00 GMT

After its buyout of Texas Memory Systems, IBM is now the latest on the vendor bandwagon to push flash into the data centers, saying it will invest a whopping $1 billion into flash research.

STORServer enters cloud business

lmearian@computerworld.com (Lucas Mearian) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:00:00 GMT

STORServer, a maker of backup appliances, announced private and public cloud backup services.

One-quarter of U.S. patents issued this year will be in mobile, study says

(Stephen Lawson) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 22:53:00 GMT

The land rush for mobile patents is so feverish that about one-quarter of all patents issued in the U.S. this year will be mobile-related, according to a study released on Wednesday.

Enterprise apps get social

(Bob Violino) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Combining the ad-hoc nature of social media with the more structured world of enterprise apps such as CRM is often the best of both worlds, implementers say.

IBM moves toward post-silicon transistor

(Joab Jackson) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:43:00 GMT

Exploring methods of computing without silicon, IBM has found a way to make transistors that could be fashioned into virtual circuitry that mimics how the human brain operates.

Oracle's storage business falters as market slows in Q4, says Gartner

(Mikael RicknA$?s) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:56:00 GMT

Oracle suffered the most as growth in the storage market continued to slow during the end of 2012. Hewlett-Packard, Dell and IBM also struggled while EMC emerged as the big winner.

Email addiction: Why the enterprise can't break free

(Howard Baldwin) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT

The kids may have moved on, but business users love (and hate) their email. Here's why we can't dig out.

Wall Street Beat: Markets advance but tech trends stay stable

(Marc Ferranti) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:04:00 GMT

While U.S. markets have surged lately, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting milestone after milestone in 10 straight days of advances, a relatively modest increase in the value of IT company shares reflects the reality that a rising tide will not lift all boats in the tech sector.

IBM launches 'customer experience' practice

(Joab Jackson) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:10:00 GMT

IBM has started a new practice to help organizations interact more effectively with their customers through the use of social media and other emerging technologies.

IDC: Big data hype still here, but maturity beckons

(Chris Kanaracus) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:51:00 GMT

Few tech industry buzzwords have gotten as vigorous a workout as "big data," but while the hype remains plentiful, it is starting to give way to real-life successes as well as formal ways companies can develop big data strategies, according to a number of IDC analysts.

Cloud computing's big debt to NASA

pthibodeau@computerworld.com (Patrick Thibodeau) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT

IBM's decision this week to base its cloud services on OpenStack may help establish this open source platform as the standard in enterprises.

IBM: Watson will eventually fit on a smartphone, diagnose illness

lmearian@computerworld.com (Lucas Mearian) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:14:00 GMT

IBM executives are working with healthcare systems to perfect supercomputer Watson's ability to diagnose and suggest treatments. And by 2020, Watson could fit on a smartphone.

Oracle ramping up marketing software battle with Salesforce.com

(Chris Kanaracus) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:11:00 GMT

Oracle has laid in out in detail how it intends to compete with the likes of Salesforce.com in the highly competitive arena for next-generation marketing software.

Software firms defend patents in D.C.

(Grant Gross) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:16:00 GMT

Software patents, facing new scrutiny in the U.S., drive innovation and protect huge investments by developers, representatives of software companies said during a Capitol Hill briefing.

IBM makes big mobile push with MobileFirst

(James Niccolai) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:07:00 GMT

Forget the ThinkPad, IBM is now all about MobileFirst.

Obama, in State of the Union, offers shout-outs to tech

pthibodeau@computerworld.com (Patrick Thibodeau) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:46:00 GMT

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama made a point of drawing attention to three big tech firms: IBM, Apple and Intel.

Dell has its work cut out for it

(John Dix) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:55:00 GMT

Taking Dell private is a bold move, but won't ensure success. If you can't recognize opportunities and execute properly as a public company, buying yourself shelter from investors only takes you so far. The bigger challenge will be rejiggering the corporate culture and core processes to make more innovation possible.

IBM supercomputer takes on new role in health arena

(Christina DesMarais) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 22:37:00 GMT

IBM's Watson supercomputer has gone from game show king to doctor's office helper.

IBM's mainframe chief eyes mobile, social workloads

(James Niccolai) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:24:00 GMT

The head of IBM's mainframe group is looking to bring mobile and social workloads into the platform in another move that would help the mainframe stay relevant and fend off competition from lower-cost systems.

IBM gives cloud storage controls to corporate end users

lmearian@computerworld.com (Lucas Mearian) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:57:00 GMT

Lost in all the Watson server news this week from IBM was its release of is a self-service software portal that allows end-users to dynamically provision storage within minutes.

With buyout set, Dell needs to lay out PC strategy, analysts say

sgaudin@computerworld.com (Sharon Gaudin) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:04:00 GMT

Dell's buyout deal should give the company renewed business flexibility and stealth but now buyers need to know if Dell will be in the PC market for the long haul.

IBM brings Watson technologies to new Power servers for SMBs

(Agam Shah) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:10:00 GMT

IBM's Watson supercomputer outperformed humans in the televised game show "Jeopardy." Now the company is moving some of its underlying technologies from the supercomputer into new entry-level servers.

Lotus position: IBM kills the name, but software and founders live on

(Julie Sartain) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:06:00 GMT

Thirty-one years ago, Massachusetts-based software developers Mitch Kapor and Jonathan Sachs created a program -- an electronic spreadsheet -- that would change the world. A year later, on Jan. 26, 1983, Lotus Development Corp. released Lotus 1-2-3 for the IBM PC and grossed $53 million in sales. The following year, sales tripled to more than $150 million.

At IBM Connect, IT execs talk about betting on enterprise social

(Juan Carlos Perez) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:48:00 GMT

Unused intranets. Siloed departmental portals. Excessive email use.

IBM bulks up analysis muscle with Star Analytics buy

(Joab Jackson) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:34:00 GMT

Adding more performance management muscle to its line of analysis software and services, IBM is acquiring the software assets of Star Analytics.

IBM's Watson supercomputer goes to college for extra smarts

sgaudin@computerworld.com (Sharon Gaudin) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:15:00 GMT

Watson, IBM's supercomputer that came to fame besting a Jeopardy champion, is going to college, to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to hone its skills.