Vodafone 'considers' offer for Cable & Wireless

Mobile phone giant Vodafone said on Monday it was considering an offer for Cable & Wireless Worldwide, the global telecoms company set up in the 1860s to run the British empire's communications network.

In a regulatory statement issued in response to press speculation about a deal, Vodafone said it "regularly reviews opportunities in the sector and confirms that it is in the very early stages of evaluating the merits of a potential offer for CWW".

Vodafone, with operations around the world, said there was "no certainty that an offer will be made nor as to the terms on which any offer might be made".

"Any offer, if made, will be in cash but Vodafone reserves the right to change the (terms) ... A further announcement will be made in due course, if appropriate."

Under British regulations, Vodafone must make its intentions clear as to an offer by March 13.

Press reports at the weekend said the deal could be worth some £700 million (836 million euros, $1.14 billion).

Cable & Wireless was involved from the start in the laying of submarine cables around the world which linked the outposts of the British empire as it expanded in the 19th century.

5 Storage Predictions for 2012

2011 was quite a year for the storage industry. From the billion dollar acquisitions to the disruptive flooding in Thailand, it was a year to remember. As we look forward, here are 5 storage predictions for the new year.

1. Users continue to generate piles of unstructured dataBack in 2009, Gartner estimated that data growth would happen at a rate of 650% over the next 5 years with 80% of this growth coming from unstructured data. We can get lost in the weeds with facts and figures but most IT managers I’ve spoken with have all said the same thing: their users are storing more and deleting less. The cloud will play an important role in offering an easy to deploy tier for this growing primary data. Deduplication will also help curb some of this data growth as will the perpetual move of core applications to the “datacenter in the sky”. Ultimately, strategies involving multiple technologies will help IT relieve the pressure felt by skyrocketing data growth.

2. Consumerization of IT generates massive headaches for ITThe use of smartphones, tablets, and consumer cloud storage services will cause even bigger headaches for IT. Employees are using more technology and cloud services at home than ever before – and now they expect them to work on the corporate network. Not only does this introduce headaches in trying to support these rogue devices, but major security challenges as well. IT will spend much of this year trying to determine how best to handle this onslaught of personal devices and consumer cloud services.

3. Flash, flash and more flashFlash production in the consumer market has been ramping up since the first iPhone rolled off the assembly line. However, over the past 18 months it has been gaining significant traction in the enterprise storage space, and for good reason. The SSD brings a unique component to the enterprise storage controller and with it IOPS that were previously unthinkable. Like the traditional hard disk drive and the cloud, SSD fills another piece of the puzzle toward creating the most effective enterprise storage controller. Costs will continue to fall, endurance/reliability will improve, and the proliferation of the SSD in the enterprise will spiral upward.

4. The cloud is used as a component inside the storage controllerSending off data directly to a public or private cloud has never been a practical solution for primary storage. Issues with latency, eventual consistency and overall access speeds have held the cloud back from all but the smallest of backups. However, put the cloud inside the storage controller and you have something special. Functioning alongside traditional enterprise hard disk drives, the cloud brings unique functionality to the storage controller and makes storage as a service possible. The hassle of backups is rendered a non-issue, consistent, pain-free access to data across multiple locations is made possible and the ability to recover from a complete disaster in less than 15-minutes becomes a reality.

5. Cloud SLAs get seriousCloud providers have been backing their services with service level agreements since the very beginning. But did they even matter? The actual numbers associated with downtime are astronomical. Let’s say 100 of your users lose access to their data for a mere 5 minutes - you’ve just lost an entire days worth of productivity. A few pennies from a service provider aren’t going to begin to make up for that loss. In order for the enterprise to take cloud services seriously (and sell the decision makers) the service level agreements will shed their meaningless penalties and grow some teeth.

Google and Bing accused of directing users to illegal copies of music

Josh Halliday

Entertainment groups want Google to 'effectively screen' mobile apps on Android smartphones in an effort to combat illicit sharing. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Google and other search engines "overwhelmingly" direct music fans to illegal copies of copyrighted tracks online, a coalition of entertainment industry groups has told the government.

In a confidential document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, lobbying groups for the major rights holders claimed Google and Microsoft's Bing are making it "much more difficult" for people to find legal music and films online.

The private document, obtained by the free speech campaigners Open Rights Group and shared with the Guardian, urges the government to introduce a voluntary body that would remove rogue websites from internet search results.

The proposals were made to the culture minister Ed Vaizey as part of a series of consultations on internet piracy between rights holders, search giants and the government in November last year. The nine-page document was submitted on behalf of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the UK body for the music majors, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the Premier League, the Publishers Association and the Pact, the film and TV independent producers' trade body.

Privately, rights holders said there is a "spirit of optimism" between the entertainment groups and search engines as they attempt to usher in more legal media sites, including Google's own fledgling music service.

Google has in the past year stepped up efforts to remove copyright-infringing content, launching a fast-track removal requests form and filtering terms "associated with infringement". However, the rights holders claim in the document that "as time goes on, the situation is getting worse rather than better".

"Consumers rely on search engines to find and access entertainment content and they play a vital role in the UK digital economy," the rights holders state.

"At present, consumer searching for digital copies of copyright entertainment content are directed overwhelmingly to illegal sites and services."

The entertainment groups want Google to "continuously review key search words" and "effectively screen" mobile apps on Android smartphones in an effort to combat illicit sharing.

The document claims that 16 of the first 20 Google search results for chart singles link to "known illegal sites", according to searches by the BPI in September. In an attempt to persuade the government to clamp down on search engines, the groups claim that 41% of Google's first-page results for bestselling books in April last year were "non-legal links" to websites.

"Much of the illegal activity in the digital economy is facilitated and encouraged by money-making rogue sites," the document claimed.

"Intermediaries, unwittingly or by wilfully turning a blind eye (or in some cases, by encouraging such activity), play a key role in enabling content theft and often even profit from it. Only a comprehensive approach can address this issue."

The entertainment bodies call for search engines to:

• Assign lower rankings to sites that "repeatedly" make available copyright-infringing material

• Prioritise sites that "obtain certification as a licensed site" for music and film downloading

• Stop indexing sites that are subject to court orders

• Stop indexing "substantially infringing websites"

• Improve "notice and takedown" system

• Ensure that users are not directed to illicit filesharing sites through suggested search

• Ensure search engines do not advertise around unlawful sites or sell keywords associated with piracy or sell mobile apps "which facilitate infringement"

The chief executive of BPI, Geoff Taylor, said on Thursday: "The vast majority of consumers want search engines to direct them to legal sources of entertainment rather than the online black market.

"As search engines roll out high-quality content services, like Google Music, we want to build a constructive partnership that supports a legal online economy. We hope that Google and other search engines will respond positively."

A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association added: "If you look for film or music via a search engine you usually find websites providing access to pirated films or music at the top of the list of results.

"This is confusing for consumers, damages the legal market and legitimises copyright theft. We are in dialogue with search engines, ISPs [internet service providers], advertising networks and payment processors about a code to deal with the escalating problem of online copyright theft which threatens the growth of the entire creative industries sector. This paper is a result of that dialogue and we appreciate government's continuing efforts to help bring about a more responsible internet".

A spokesman for Google said: "Google takes the fight against online piracy very seriously. Last year, we removed over five million infringing items from Google Search. We have made industry-leading efforts in this field, investing over $50m (£32m) in fighting bad advertisements and over $30m on Content ID software, giving rights holders control over their YouTube content.

"We continue to work in close partnership with rights holders to help them combat piracy and protect their property."

Peter Bradwell, campaigner for the Open Rights Group, said the proposal contained "some dangerous ideas". He said: "It's another plan to take on far too much power over what we're allowed to look at and do online."

Major rights holders claim search engines make it 'difficult' for people to find legal music and films online

The major rights holders' document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act

IBM partners with NEC for OpenFlow switch, software-defined networking

Shamus McGillicuddy, News Director

IBM announced a new OpenFlow switch that it is co-marketing with NEC’s OpenFlow controller. The combined products represent the first end-to-end software-defined networking solution from a leading North American IT vendor and could establish IBM  as a major competitor to Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and other vendors in the hotly contested data center networking market.

To date, OpenFlow and software-defined networking have been the provenance of startups and smaller vendors like NEC, which released its ProgrammableFlow OpenFlow products last summer. The major networking vendors have dabbled in OpenFlow, making it available on some select switches, but none have stepped forward and embraced the technology fully. While IBM is not a dominant networking vendor, but it is one of the largest IT vendors in the world and has a long networking history.

“With the brand and marketing of IBM and NEC, it’s going to make customers take a second look at OpenFlow and say, ‘Hey if IBM is behind this, then I can almost take the leap.’ You know IBM isn’t going to leave you stranded,” said Lucinda Borovick, program vice president for enterprise and data center networks at IDC.

The IBM/NEC solution consists of NEC’s ProgrammableFlow controller and IBM’s 1.28 Tbps RackSwitch G8264 top-of-rack switch. The switch features 48 SFP/SFP+ 10 GbE ports and four QSFP 40 GbE ports that can be split out to an additional 16 10 GbE ports. It supports OpenFlow 1.0.0 and it can handle a maximum of 97,000 flow entries.

Theoretically an enterprise can build an entire data center network with IBM’s OpenFlow switches and NEC’s controllers.

“With OpenFlow you don’t need core and aggregation equipment anymore,” said Jon Oltsik, principal analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group. “You can create a fabric out of access switches.”

With OpenFlow switches will hype turn into reality?

Network engineers remain intrigued by OpenFlow and software-defined networking, but the technology is still emerging from its “science project” status.

OpenFlow is an open source protocol that allows enterprises to transform their networks from a distributed system where switches and routers make individual forwarding decisions to a centrally controlled system where an OpenFlow controller makes forwarding decisions.

OpenFlow controllers can also host applications that make networks more programmable. By using the centralized view of the network, developers can write applications that replace  functionality on advanced switches and routers or specialized network appliances like firewalls and load balancers.

Enterprises can also use the OpenFlow controller to make rapid configuration changes to their networks and to provision and dedicate network resources quickly for specific applications and services. This is especially important as enterprises consolidate into larger data centers and start to build private and hyrbid clouds.

IBM’s OpenFlow switch intrigues engineers, but not for rip and replace

Selerity, a provider of low-latency, real-time financial data to financial services companies, has been trialing the IBM/NEC OpenFlow network, according to Andrew Brook, Selerity’s CTO. His company uses proprietary algorithms to extract financial information from unstructured data, such as press releases, and send that data to its clients via a dedicated networks collocated with trading venues in Chicago, New Jersey and Frankfurt.

“Competition in this space is measured at the sub-microsecond level. Our clients are making trading decisions on a scale of 1 to 10 microseconds after getting data delivered by us.”

What's more, Selerity’s customers don’t receive uniform sets of data. Based on the services they pay for, Selerity customers are entitled to receive certain subsets of the data. The best way to meet these dual requirements is by multicasting over a low-latency switch. But in a multicast environment , Selerity struggles to send selective data sets to customers in real time. The programmability and rapid configurability of an OpenFlow network offers some promising solutions to this problem. Brook has determined that the IBM OpenFlow switches and the NEC controllers enable low-latency and real-time policy-driven content distribution.

“I don’t want to send that data out in separately addressed datagrams because it has to be sequenced and someone gets it first and someone gets it last,” he said. “I want to send it out as multicast, but what I want to change is which of the outgoing switch ports are going to participate in a particular multicast.”

Engineers can direct the forwarding on traditional switches but not in real time.

“There are some things we can do with OpenFlow to change the rules implemented on the switches in close to real time and get very nice, deterministic behavior by the switch. Right now, we are looking to do that functionality in the controller, but the speed at which we can do that is an open question. For what we’re doing today it’s acceptable.”

Brook is still evaluating IBM’s OpenFlow switch and NEC’s controller and if he adopts them, it won’t be a wholesale replacement of his existing network.

“In the short-term, it would be us identifying specific applications,” he said. “For example the edge switch that sits between our content delivery network and our clients.”

Tervela Corp., a provider of distributed data fabric appliances for global trading, risk analysis and ecommerce, is also evaluating the technology. Tervela customers typically deploy the company’s products on their own local network; however, Tervela engineers often consult with customers on the best network configurations to support its technology.

Michael Matatia, director of Software Engineering for Tervela, said his engineers are trialing the IBM/NEC OpenFlow network because he anticipates that customers will start using OpenFlow as an alternative to their traditional Layer 2 and Layer 3 networks.

“As OpenFlow has more traction, I anticipate that our customers will have OpenFlow deployments,” he said. “We need to be up and ready with the technology so we can talk intelligently about the advantages of OpenFlow and when to use it.”

Despite IBM’s involvement, OpenFlow doubts remain

IBM's involvement in OpenFlow has its appeal, but some question whether OpenFlow will really change networking

An ecosystem of developers will need to emerge to offer enterprises that programmability. OpenFlow startup Big Switch Networks recently made its OpenFlow controller available as an open source project expressly to promote the growth of such a developer community.

Selerity’s Brook is mindful of OpenFlow’s place on the adoption curve.

“It’s still not clear to me that pure OpenFlow allows them to do anything differently. Most of the things you can do with software-defined networking, there are other ways to do it. Cisco lets you do it [with FabricPath], Arista lets you do it. I haven’t been convinced that OpenFlow is the right way to solve this problem,” said Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst of ZK Research.

Brook said his company has specific niche needs or “severe technical requirements” that require the adoption of emerging technologies like OpenFlow, but in other parts of his infrastructure he still prefers to use established industry standards.

“OpenFlow seems to have some mindshare and some motion behind it. We’ll have to watch and see how rapidly it gets adopted before we assess how much we deploy it. This particular solution that IBM and NEC have put forward is nice, because the actual switching devices from IBM, even if you ignore the OpenFlow capabilities, are very nice switches. I’m not too worried about making investments because even if OpenFlow doesn’t catch on, it’s still very capable switch,” he said.

T-Mobile's 'secret menu': Extra goodies you need to ask for

T-Mobile USA's stores may not offer the Double-Double burger, but they do have their own secret menu a la In-N-Out.

Starting January 25, existing and new customers who sign up for a T-Mobile premium data plan--which consists of signing up for 5 gigabytes to 10GB of data each month--can get the mobile hot-spot capability for free--as long as they ask for it. TMoNews first reported the news, noting that customers could also ask for a mobile album feature, which provides 10GB of cloud storage for media.

That's $19.98 in additional value for signing up for the higher end plans. The features, however, won't be widely promoted in the store, so customers will need to ask for them, just as customers have had to learn from word of mouth about the items on In-N-Out's now not-so-secret menu. The offer is only available for a limited time.

The promotions are just the latest move for T-Mobile, which is attempting to win back customers and re-establish itself as an independent competitor after its deal with AT&T fell through. At the Consumer Electronics Show, T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm struck a defiant tone, gleefully pointing out the "gifts" that AT&T had left it ($3 billion in a break-up fee, plus roaming agreements and spectrum), and declaring that it was back on course as the industry's disruptive force.

Indeed, the window appears to be opening for T-Mobile to potentially nab some market share from the bigger players. AT&T, despite its push for more affordable service, decided to hike the prices for its data plans, which some believe could lead to a defection to lower priced options. Over the past few months, the company has stepped up its aggressive offers in an effort to win over new customers. It is also offering more affordable phones such as the well-reviewed Nokia Lumia 710 for $50.

T-Mobile still has an uphill battle. It's now the only major carrier without the iPhone, a gap it hopes to fill eventually, but hasn't had much luck with yet. The carrier said recently, however, that it could technically happen with the next version of Apple's smartphone. It's also the only major carrier not yet moving to LTE, instead relying on its HSPA+ network, which it calls 4G.

Still, these special discounts and promotions help. A T-Mobile representative said the carrier will offer such promotions from time to time without any national advertising, but will get the word out through digital advertising, its Web site, or in-store posters or brochures. Many are available when you call into customer care lines too.

T-Mobile's mobile hot spot and album offer comes with the purchase of a 5GB plan, which costs $89.99 a month, or a 10GB plan, which costs $119.99 a month.

For prepaid customers, T-Mobile plans to offer a $50 mail-in rebate card for the Samsung Exhibit II or the Sidekick with the purchase of two months on a $50 Monthly4G plan. The offer starts on February 1.

A T-Mobile representative said the company plans to offer more promotions throughout the year.

Windows revenue falls 6%

Microsoft Q2 2012 by the numbers: Windows revenue falls 6%
By Joe Wilcox

Late this afternoon, Microsoft answered a question oft-asked by investors this month: What about Windows?   Near the end of his Consumer Electronics Show keynote last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer boomed: "There's nothing more important at Microsoft than Windows".  But at the same event, Tami Reller, Windows & Windows Live  CFO,  warned that the division's fourth-quarter results could fall below analysts' estimates, because of weak PC sales. Today's fiscal second quarter 2012 earnings results answered by just how much.

For Q2, ended December 31, Microsoft revenue was $20.89 billion, up 5 percent year over year. Operating income: $7.99 billion, a 2 percent decrease. Net income was $6.62 billion, or 78 cents a share. Both were flat year over year.

Average analyst consensus was $20.93 billion revenue and 76 cents earnings per share, for the quarter. Revenue estimates ranged from $20.20 billion to $21.35 billion, with estimated year-over-year growth of 4.9 percent -- modest for a holiday quarter.

"We delivered solid financial results, even as we prepare for a launch year that will accelerate many of our key products and services", Ballmer contends. "Coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show, we’re seeing very positive reviews for our new phones and PCs, and a strong response to our new Metro style design that will unify consumer experiences across our phones, PCs, tablets and television in 2012".

Microsoft's PC Problem
Because Windows is so important to Microsoft -- it's not just Ballmer boasting -- slowing PC sales's effects reach far beyond the operating system. But nowhere are they more apparent than the Windows & Windows Live division, which dragged down Microsoft operating and net profits. The division's revenue fell 6 percent year over year.

Last week, Gartner and IDC released preliminary calendar fourth-quarter and all-2011 PC shipments; growth was tepid globally and retracted in the United States. IDC called 2011 the "second worst year in history" for US PC shipments - with 2001 claiming the unwanted crown. Despite a global, temporary hard drive shortage, Gartner and IDC say the declines they observed -- 1.4 percent and 0.2 percent globally, respectively -- were in line with their forecasts. US declines were substantially greater, 5.9 percent by Gartner's reckoning and 6.71 percent by IDC's.

Besides the hard drive shortage, several troubling trends have emerged. Simply put: Consumers aren't buying Windows PCs like they used to. Their spending goes to other stuff, with tablets -- and that really means iPad -- ripping away sales. We just finished the holiday quarter, one of the two seasons of typically strong sales (back to school is the other). "Continuously low consumer PC demand resulted in weak holiday PC shipments", Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner principal analyst, says.

This consumer infection -- infatuation with iPad, some other tablets and smartphones -- is spreading. According to an IDG Connect study released this week, IT and business professionals are rapidly adopting iPads as partial or complement laptop replacements; remember these people make technology purchase decisions for entire corporations -- Microsoft's core market. Sixteen percent have replaced their laptop with an iPad and 54 percent supplement it. The data suggests that iPads are significantly starting to cannibalize PC sales -- and not just among consumers -- and it's consistent with recent global PC buying trends.

Earth to Windows & Windows Live president Steven Sinofksy: You can't ship Windows 8 soon enough. The new operating system, which runs on ARM as well as x86 processors, is optimized for tablets as well as PCs. Microsoft can fill an important niche in the PC sales-cannibalizing tablet marketing -- offer a truly desktop operating system that runs the same applications and supports enterprise services as those on PCs. Windows 8 public beta is currently slated to be available late next month, which, based on previous versions, puts public availability around October.

Q2 2012 Revenue by Division
 •Windows & Windows Live: $4.74 billion, down 6 percent from $5.06 billion a year earlier.
 •Server & Tools: $4.77 billion, up 11 percent from $4.29  billion a year earlier.
 •Business: $6.28 billion, up 3 percent from $6.11 billion a year earlier.
 •Online Services Business: $784 million, up 10 percent from $713 million a year earlier.
 •Entertainment & Devices: $4.24 billion, up 15 percent from $3.7 billion a year earlier.

Q2 2012 Income by Division •Windows & Windows Live: $2.85 billion, down 11 percent from $3.21 billion a year earlier.
 •Server & Tools: $1.97 billion, up 17 percent from $1.7 billion a year earlier.
 •Business: $4.15 billion, up 2 percent from $4.09 billion a year earlier.
 •Online Services Business: Loss of $458 million, up 18 percent from $559 million loss a year earlier.
 •Entertainment & Devices: $528 million, down 21 percent from $666 million a year earlier.

Division Highlights

Microsoft reports revenue and earnings results for five divisons: Windows & Windows Live, Server & Tools, Business, Online Services and Entertainment & Devices.

Windows & Windows Live. Weaker than-expected PC demand hurt the division during fiscal second quarter. Revenue fell 6 percent year over year, which is simply stunning during the holiday quarter. Worse: Operating income declined by 11 percent.

Microsoft estimates that global PC sales fell between 2 percent and 4 percent, greatly contributing to Windows revenue decline. Consumer PC sales fell by 6 percent, while those to businesses actually rose -- by 2 percent. Netbooks fell 2 percent.

OEM revenue fell by 7 percent, which reflects weakness in PC shipments identified by Gartner and IDC. Three-quarters of Windows divisional revenues comes from OEM sales.

To date, Microsoft has sold 525 million Windows 7 licenses. One-third of enterprise desktops run Windows 7, the company claims.

Server & Tools. Revenue rose 11 percent year over year and operating income by 17 percent. The division is insulated against economic maladies, because about 50 percent of revenues come from contractual volume-licensing agreements.

"Product revenue increased $328 million or 10%, driven primarily by growth in SQL Server, Windows Server, Enterprise CAL Suites, and System Center, reflecting continued adoption of Windows platform applications", according to the company.

Business. The division was the quarter's big overall performer (again), but grew modestly, with revenue up 3 percent and income each up 2 percent year over year. However, adjusting for the tech-revenue guarantee a year earlier, related to the Office 2010 launch, revenue grew by 7 percent. Revenue topped a whopping $6.2 billion.

Annuity licensing grew a stunning 12 percent. Lync revenue grew by 30 percent.  "Microsoft Office system. Business revenue increased $420 million or 9 percent, primarily reflecting growth in multi-year volume licensing revenue, licensing of the 2010 Microsoft Office system to transactional business customers, and an 11 percent increase in Microsoft Dynamics revenue", according to the company.

Like Server & Tools, Business division is largely insulated against sluggish PC sales. Sixty percent of revenue comes from annuity licensing to businesses.

Online Services Business. Online services revenue rose by 10 percent. Search and display ads drove up online advertising revenue by 13 percent -- $81 million to $713 million. "OSD operating loss decreased due primarily to higher revenue and lower sales and marketing expenses, offset in part by increased cost of revenue", according to Microsoft's financial release. The change: 18 percent.

Entertainment & Devices.  Revenue rose by 15 percent, but losses increased by 21 percent year over year. Microsoft shipped 8.2 million Xboxes during the quarter. Xbox Live subscriptions rose 33 percent to 40 million. Kinect install base: 18 million.

"Xbox 360 platform revenue grew $322 million or 9%, led by increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles sold and higher Xbox Live revenue, offset in part by lower volumes of standalone Kinect sensors sold", according to the company.

Microsoft now reports on Skype, which has 200 million active users globally.

Cooking tablet

Some 70 companies were selected to take part in the "sneak peek" preview ahead of the show's official launch.

Among them is Qooq - a French company that has designed a tablet computer for the kitchen.

The Linux-based device is splash-proof, is held off the ground by feet that allow spilled liquids to run underneath, and can shrug off temperatures of up to 60C (140F).

Qooq - pronounced like cook - is designed to be messy kitchen-friendly
For a subscription fee users are offered access to a multimedia library of thousands of recipes by French chefs which can be customised to suit the user's kitchen skills and dietary habits.

The device is already on sale in France and the firm is at CES to announce an English language version due for release in September.

"We know that people bring hi-tech devices to the kitchen - with ours there is no risk," says Hubert Bloch, the firm's chief marketing officer.

"In the future we think people will have multiple tablets. The Qooq can be splashed, used with dirty hands and it's not a problem - just sponge it and it's clean again."