Server Sales Decline for the Second Straight Quarter
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In the server market, it is not called a semester but rather a quarter, and it isn't a report card but rather a slice of the revenue and shipment pie. But, nonetheless, every quarter when the analysts at Gartner and IDC hand down their market share statistics for server sales, it feels a bit like report card day, complete with its joy and loathing. Last week was report card week for the first quarter of 2006, and the grades are mixed. Depending on who you ask, server sales are either flat or down. READ MORE >

IBM to Buy SAP? Why Not?
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If IBM were to acquire companies founded by disgruntled employees who went on to create IT players large and small of their own, it would be a massive company of great wealth and power that had all of the other players except those who left Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Intel, Microsoft, and a few other industry giants. That company would be the dominant supplier in the data center, spanning from servers up through operating systems, middleware, and applications software, as well as services. READ MORE >

Business Continuity Planning Part 2: Disaster Without Warning
by Mary Lou Roberts

April 18th marked the 100th anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake, which was by far the most devastating earthquake ever to occur in North America and which resulted in approximately 3,000 deaths. Compared with that event, the 1994 Northridge, California, quake that claimed 60 lives looked like child's play. And you might be thinking that earthquakes are not your problem, that they are something that happens in mostly in California or in the Pacific Ocean. You would be wrong about that. READ MORE >

As I See It: Net Reality
by Victor Rozek

There is a tug-of-war going on between giants. On one end of the rope, telephone and cable companies like AT&T and Comcast; on the other, software and search engine providers like Microsoft and Google. Both ends of the rope are manned by armies of lobbyists with pockets laden with cash. The venue is Congress; the issue is whether to maintain or dismantle what is popularly known as "net neutrality." The prize is control of the Internet. READ MORE >