Users Want Answers on Oracle-Sun Future

When Oracle Corp. Analysts said the arrival of the jointly built package shows that engineers at Oracle and Sun Microsystems Inc. have started working together in advance of the closing of Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun , now expected in January. CEO Larry Ellison hosted a webcast last week to unveil the next generation of his company's Exadata appliance , a label reading "Oracle-Sun" was prominently displayed on the high-end database and storage system. But Ellison and webcast co-host John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun's systems business, only touted the joint engineering effort that created the Exadata Database Machine Version 2. They said nothing about the postmerger plans for the products of either company, keeping users mostly in the dark about the future of Oracle and Sun offerings.

Oracle did take an unusual step two weeks ago by running advertisements promising to spend more on Solaris software and UltraSparc hardware development than Sun does now. Oracle had hoped the deal would be closed by now, but it was held up earlier this month when the European Commission opened an in-depth investigation in response to what it called "serious concerns" that Oracle's ownership of Sun's MySQL database could blunt competition in the database market. The ads came in the midst of aggressive efforts by Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM to court Sun's customers. He also acknowledged that he has concerns about Oracle's plans for Sun's open-source offerings. "In the open-source community, Oracle doesn't have a particularly friendly reputation," he said. The ads somewhat reassured Richard Newman, president of Reliant Security Inc., which uses Solaris-based systems to deliver data security products and services to retail industry customers. "We're crossing our fingers that what [Oracle] stated in print is in fact going to happen," he said.

Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight64 in Saratoga, Calif., called Oracle's ad "a very unequivocal statement of support for the Sun hardware." However, Brookwood added that he doesn't expect the move to placate Sun's customers. "It's not time to stop biting your nails," he said. Richard Toeniskoetter, technology director at the W.A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, said he wants to know Oracle's plans for Sun's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure software and its Sun Ray thin clients. "We are already running a fairly mature VDI model, and we just want to see Oracle recognize that it's a viable platform," Toeniskoetter said, adding that NAU is also interested in Oracle's plans for MySQL. This version of this story originally ran in Computerworld 's print edition. Among the Sun customers most in need of quick answers are resellers, such as PetroSys Solutions Inc., which sells repackaged systems for the government and education markets. "A lot of our clients are nervous," said Irene Griffith, who owns PetroSys. "They want to know what's going to happen." Sun's sales representatives have been mum on the subject. "They're not talking to us, they're not reaching out to us," Griffith said. It's an edited version of an article that first appeared on Computerworld.com.

Skype Founders Sue eBay: What's Going On?

The founders of Skype are suing eBay for copyright infringement, a move that could block eBay's deal to sell a majority stake in Skype to a group of private investors for $1.9 billion. The sale was seen as a big failure because the company was not able to further monetize the potential of the VoIP service in the years to come. eBay purchased Skype back in 2005 for $2.6 billion, but failed to acquire Joltid, the company supplying the core technology behind Skype, also owned by the founders of the VoIP software.

So eBay sold a 65 percent stake in Skype two weeks ago to an investment group for $1.9 billion, managing to get back some of the money it invested initially. At the core of the suit is a peer-to-peer technology called "global index", which is used by Skype's software to route calls over the Internet instead of traditional phones lines. But it's not all good for Skype, as Skype's original founders are now suing eBay, seeking damages for copyright infringement. This technology is owned by Joltid, which is still owned by the founders of Skype. Now moving to the U.S. courts, Joltid is seeking an injunction against Skype, which could affect Skype's operation.

As if it wasn't complicated enough, eBay licensed "global index" from Joltid for continued use in Skype, but Joltid terminated the license in March and have been battling eBay in U.K. courts ever since. The trial could jeopardise the closing of the Skype sale to the private investors, who are also named as defendants by Joltid. What's even more ironic is that that the money Joltid is using to sue eBay is probably the money they got from eBay when they sold Skype. While eBay is working on its own technology to replace Joltid's, Skype could be forced to close down its operation if Joltid wins the trial.

Microsoft greasing Windows 7 skids with early release of desktop tools

With the hope of sparking Windows 7 upgrades, Microsoft is planning an early release of its suite of desktop deployment tools.  The tools were originally slated to ship in early 2010, but Microsoft hopes to give customers the software in late October for use in rollouts of Windows 7 across corporate desktops. The news of the early release was announced by Ran Oelgiesser, senior product manager for MED-V, on the MDOP blog. The catch is that the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) R2 2009 is only available to volume licensing customers with Software Assurance contracts.

Slideshow: Snow Leopard vs. All the tools in MDOP R2 2009 will include support for Windows 7 except MED-V. Support for the new OS in MED-V 1.0 SP1 will come early in 2010, wrote Oelgiesser. Windows 7 Windows 7 is slated to ship to commercial customers on Oct. 22, but corporate users with volume licensing contracts have had access to Windows 7 since last month. MED-V runs multiple versions of Windows or applications concurrently without having to open multiple virtual machine sessions. The suite is a major part of Microsoft 's Optimized Desktop strategy, which addresses centralized management and deployment of physical and virtual resources.

The software complements another MDOP tool called App-V, which is used for managing and deploying virtual PCs. The MDOP lineup also includes Asset Inventory Service; System Center Desktop Error Monitoring; Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) for change management via group policy objects; and the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset, which helps in recovering a crashed PC. MDOP is composed of software from Microsoft's purchases of Softricity, Kidaro, AssetMetrix, Winternals Software and DesktopStandard. According to Oelgiesser, App-V 4.5 SP1 will have various integration points with 32-bit versions of Windows 7, including with the AppLocker, Branch Cache and BitLocker ToGo features. The 64-bit version, App-V 4.6 will be available in the first half of 2010. Advanced Group Policy Management 4.0 features two new capabilities targeted at Windows 7. One allows users to manage group policies across different domains, and the other provides new search and filtering to ease tracking of group policy objects. In addition, the software will support 32-bit version of XP, Vista and Windows Server. Follow John Fontana on Twitter 

China's Alibaba expects India joint venture this year

Top Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba.com aims to announce an Indian joint venture this year as the company expands its global footprint, it said Friday. A deal in India, where Alibaba.com recently surpassed 1 million registered members, would be the latest in the site's efforts to grow abroad. "I've got a lot of confidence in India," said Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba Group, the parent company of Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com is in talks with an Indian reseller about forming a joint venture, CEO David Wei told reporters at a briefing. Alibaba.com is a platform for small and medium businesses to trade everything from lumber and clothes to iPods and PC components.

Alibaba.com already works with Indian publishing company Infomedia 18, its likely joint venture partner, to promote its platform in the country. Its main member base is in China, but the site also has 9.5 million registered users in other countries and facilitates many cross-border trades. The site also has a joint venture in Japan and recently launched a major U.S. advertising campaign to attract more users there. Ma said Alibaba knows it needs to "do something" in Latin America as well. Ma and other top Alibaba executives visited the U.S. early this year for meetings with potential partners including Amazon.com, eBay and Google.

When asked if the company would also seek to expand in Eastern Europe, Ma said, "I will be there." Alibaba will not hold a majority stake in joint ventures it forms, instead taking a share similar to the 35 percent it has in its Japan operation. "Our global strategy means partner with local people," Ma said. "We want partners and we want partners to control their business." Users place total orders of more than US$200 million each day on the Alibaba.com international platform, Wei said. About 50 percent of those orders go to Chinese exporters, he said.