Broadband Developments

Efraim Schwartz over at ComputerWorld reported back in July the results of various studies that indicate that IT jobs will drop in 2009.  Contractors, projects, overall spending down.  The news is dire: “Almost no investment in cloud computing”.

Well, I don’t have any studies to refer to just gut predictions.
Like that old sly cop with the corduroy jacket on your favorite TV show, I got some hunches.

Shining up my crystal ball:

YES…….
Economy is kinda clouding things up, but yes, a few things seem clear..

1. Yahoo – Microsoft will scoop them up
2. Windows 7 – Unfortunately for Microsoft, this will probably dud, too many factors against it.
3. Ipod Touch Tablet – An internet-capable touch screen tablet –March or June
4. Chrome 2 – will run on cell platform and desktop, instant browser sync
5. Digg – Google property
6. Giants win the Super Bowl – not a tech prediction-that just popped in there.

Again, 1-5 are based on nothing but hunches here people.  #6 is something else entirely.  (We make no claims to the validity of any of these predictions, however)

Side note – Gizmodo posted this rumor about Steve Jobs on their website.  Nothing that wasn’t said before, but there are alleged reliable sources here.  Jobs is the Walt Disney of Computing™, let’s hope this rumor is not true.  Long live Jobs and I will take one of those Touch Tablets please…

Have a good 2009..

I just read Mitchell Ashley’s Network World blog from last Friday. He cautions that feature limitations won’t slow Hyper-V in its march to the data center. He also predicts that VMware will be quick to point out feature deficiencies.

I agree with Mitchell that Microsoft is poised to make inroads despite having a lighter feature set. Yet I think VMware would be remiss to focus on Microsoft shortcomings. Instead they should get more aggressive from a vision and feature standpoint; articulating what they will do even better in the near future.

As I blogged yesterday, the new battlefield between Microsoft and VMware is taking shape. VMware needs to focus on accelerating its presence in the data center and not on trying to slow Microsoft down. The machine is coming with fewer features and a much lower price, obviously initially aimed at smaller deployments. VMware can win by making new features strategic to the data center and articulating even more for the days ahead.

Tackling I/O, virtualization security and other data center relevant issues will create more opportunity than a vain effort to slow Microsoft’s Server 2008 bundling and extension strategy.