But Wait, There's More

Some Clarifications from IBM on Workplace for the iSeries

IBM had some issues with the story we did last week on its future Workplace collaboration software (see IBM's Workplace Collaboration Suite Is Almost Ready).

First of all, our story said that it was a product preview, but it is in fact a limited release, which means it is a regular product but that IBM is working closely with customers who download and try the software and monitoring the deployments. We also said that the software would include server hardware in a bundle, but it will not. And finally, while IBM was clear that it would not run on entry iSeries or i5 servers with 500 CPWs of processing power, it was not clear on how much oomph Workplace would require. As it turns out, for most installations, IBM will be recommending that customers have at least 2,400 CPWs of power and 2 GB of main memory to run and IBM said emphatically that Workplace will not run in 500 CPWs of capacity. This, of course, makes sense, since it takes 500 CPWs just to run WebSphere, upon which Workplace is based.

Third World Growth in Programmers to Cap Growth in the First World

If you think it is tough finding a job as a programmer in North America, you may be disheartened to hear it may just end up getting even worse. According to a new research report by IDC, the North American programmer pool that has represented the vast majority of programming in the past several decades is feeling the pressure from growth in emerging economies and the growing practice of outsourcing and offshoring.

IDC is projecting that the worldwide pool of professional developers will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.8 percent between 2003 and 2008, reaching 14.9 million programmers by the end of 2008. The countries with the most programmers are currently, in ranking order: the United States, Russia, India, Japan, Canada, Germany, China, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. But growth rates in China and India are going to shift the balance, with China's programmer pool expected to grow at 25.6 percent CAGR and India's at 24.5 percent. On a geographical region basis, Asia/Pacific (which includes China and Japan and other Asian countries but not India) will have more programmers than North America by early 2006. And because of the influence of India, the Middle East/Africa region will have the highest regional growth rate, with a CAGR in the number of programmers between of 18.3 percent between 2003 and 2008.

To compete, programmers in North America are going to have to live by their wits, using automated and rapid development techniques as well as whatever deep knowledge they can muster. Bad documentation and a lack of native language training will hold back these developing nations somewhat, but the sheer numbers of bright and motivated people in China and India mean a lot of newbie programmers are going to find success.

Freeman Says Tape Library Sales Up Even with Flat Shipments in 2004

Tape market watcher Freeman Reports has done its casing of the worldwide tape library market and says that despite the fact that shipments were flat in 2004, revenues among tape library vendors were up last year.

Freeman says that 62,000 tape libraries were sold last year, accounting for $1.98 billion in sales. However, the market looks due for some price competition, since Freeman also says that shipments will grow to 68,300 in 2005, but revenues will only grow to $2.08 billion. The tape market watcher expects the tape library market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent to reach $3.09 billion by 2010, when shipments will reach 102,000. This is a big expansion in the market, and Freeman is clearly of the opinion that inexpensive disk storage is not going to obviate the need for even less expensive tapes.

Freeman says that LTO libraries were strong last year, with 45,600 shipments and $985 million in sales, and offset declines in sales of libraries based on DLT/SDLT and 8mm tape technologies. Specifically, sales of DLT/SDLT tape libraries fell by 44 percent to $142 million, with shipments rising slightly to 10,000 units. Libraries based on low-end LTO drives are hammering 8mm tape libraries as well. Sales of half-inch cartridge libraries also rose last year to $735 million with 1,700 sales. These high-end tape products, which are the descendents of IBM's 3480 and 3490 mainframe tapes, accounted for only 2.8 percent of shipments but, because of their high performance and capacity and therefore their high prices, they accounted for 30 percent of sales in 2004.

Past JDA Restructuring Yields Current Profits

Retail application specialist and iSeries application developer JDA Software has announced its first quarter results, which show that its restructurings from last year were pretty much in the mark. JDA said that it posted sales of $50.3 million in the first quarter, with software sales accounting for $10.2 million of that. In the same quarter a year ago, JDA had $55.2 million in sales and $14.6 million in software license sales, but it lost $437,000. This time around, on significantly lower sales, it brought $703,000 to the bottom line and increased its cash hoard to just over $100 million.

Lakeview Tech Adds Three New Executives

High availability and data replication software vendor Lakeview Technology said last week that it has bolstered its management team with the addition of three new executives.

Privately held Lakeview has hired Mike Cullinane as executive vice president and chief operating officer; he was previously chief financial officer at Chicago technology services company Divine (which is now known as Data Return) and software maker Platinum Technology before it was sold to Computer Associates. Lakeview has tapped Jude Sullivan as its vice president of corporate development and general counsel. Sullivan was senior vice president and general counsel at Divine and has 14 years as a corporate attorney prior to that. Most recently, she was a partner at Chicago's Katten Muchin Zavis and Rosenman. Finally, Marty Leamy, who also had a stint at Platinum where he rose to become the head of its systems management business unit, joins Lakeview as the new executive vice president and general manager of the MIMIX Division.

iTera Adds Resellers and Partners in the Asia/Pacific Region

iSeries high availability software maker iTera has announced that it has signed up several new partners to distribute its Echo2 products in the Asia/Pacific region. Specifically, iTera has inked deals with Cavu of Singapore, Intelli Computer of Indonesia, Integrated Global Solutions in Malaysia, and Jardine OneSolution in Hong Kong to distribute Echo2. Established in 1999, Cavu is an IBM reseller in Singapore and it peddles the iSeries, pSeries, and xSeries lines. Intelli Computer is an iSeries reseller in Indonesia that was founded in 1997. Hong Kong's Jardine is a much larger IT services company, which stands to reason given the relative modernity of that city and that it is the center of banking and finance for the region. Malaysia's Integrated Global Solutions is also a reseller of IBM server products.

With the Asia/Pacific IT market growing at a healthy clip and the iSeries often seeing better growth there than in the North American and European markets, the reseller agreements should help iTera better establish itself in this new market.

SOX Is Driving Small Banks Crazy

According to TowerGroup, a consulting company headquartered in the Boston suburbs that specializes in the financial services industry, the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations that are supposed to hold public companies accountable for their accounting are having a disproportionately harsh impact on small financial institutions.

So who cares, right? Well, as it turns out, the iSeries is a popular platform among the small and community banks that TowerGroup is talking about. The company says that small, publicly traded banks are paying hefty fees to outside auditors for compliance and are working on permanent applications and practices that will get them and keep them compliant with SOX regulations. However, they are eating up their profits doing so.