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HP wins $2.5 billion contract with NASA

admin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 15:04:00 +0000

Hewlett-Packard has won a contract from NASA worth up to $2.5 billion.

The contract was awarded Monday and calls for Hewlett-Packard to provide and manage up to $2.5 billion worth of PCs, software, peripherals, and associated end-user and IT services for the space agency over 10 years, according to a NASA press release. Specifically, HP will offer services to support NASA personnel in business, science, research, and computation.

HP beat out longtime NASA contractor Lockheed Martin to pick up the lucrative project.

“Our team is disappointed that NASA selected another solution,” Sheila Collins, a spokeswoman for Lockheed, said in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg. “We submitted a ‘best-value’ solution based on our knowledge of the program and our understanding of NASA’s mission. We continue to serve NASA on other contracts.”

This isn’t HP’s first contract with the space agency. In 2007, the company took home a seven-year contract worth up to $5.6 billion to provide PCs, printers, and other hardware to any federal agency through NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement program.

Source

L.A. weighs plan to replace computer software with Google service

admin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:35:04 +0000

If OKd by the City Council, the plan would shift protection of internal data and public records from the city to the Internet giant. The LAPD has raised concerns about shielding arrest information.

Frustrated by a slow and antiquated computer system, the city of Los Angeles is weighing a plan to replace its e-mail and records retention software with a service provided by Google, a move that could allow the Internet giant to retain sensitive records transmitted by the police and other municipal agencies.

If approved by the City Council, responsibility for protecting the internal data and public records would be shifted from the city to Google, according to a report submitted this week to a council committee that will weigh the proposed $7.25-million contract.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa favors the effort to modernize the e-mail system, which his spokesman, Matt Szabo, described as “Pac-Man-era technology.”

The current system “has got to be the slowest, most inefficient, crash-prone e-mail system in the history of mankind,” Szabo added.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lt. John Romero said it would be inappropriate for his agency to comment while a contract is being negotiated. But acting City Administrative Officer Ray Ciranna, the city’s top financial advisor, said the LAPD has raised questions about Google’s ability to shield sensitive arrest information.

“Of all the city agencies, they certainly have been the one that’s the most concerned,” Ciranna said. “They don’t want any information that, for any reason, gets un-encrypted and you have sensitive information being leaked out.”

Washington, D.C., is the only major city using Google e-mail and office applications, but others are contemplating a switch, according to a Google official. The applications and data would be housed on Google servers, not on city property, and accessible via presumably secure Internet connections.

‘Cloud computing’

That system, known as “cloud computing,” would eliminate the need for the city to store programs or information on individual in-house computers. “Government agencies at all levels — federal, state and city — are looking to cloud computing as a way to advance innovation while decreasing costs,” Google spokeswoman Aviva Gilbert said.

The contract, which could cover a maximum of five years, would need approval from the full council and Villaraigosa’s signature. A high-level official with the city’s Information Technology Agency, which has handled the bidding process, said he expects the LAPD to join the Google e-mail system once it receives assurance from the state’s Department of Justice that arrest records will be protected.

“Until they get the full approval, they can’t join the e-mail system,” said Kevin Crawford, assistant general manager of the technology agency.

The contract will come up for review Tuesday before the council’s three-member Information Technology and General Services Committee.

Gilbert, the Google spokeswoman, said cloud computing has proved to be reliable and secure, with Motorola, Genentech and other companies adopting it.

Still, questions about such applications were raised by the media earlier this week after Twitter Inc.’s cloud-based computer system was broken into and confidential documents were copied. The hacker appears to have guessed the password for an employee’s personal e-mail account and worked from there to steal confidential company documents.

Internally, city officials also have asked whether Google, as keeper of the records, would be forced to respond to public information requests. “Release of this data by Google without appropriate review by the city attorney could compromise the city’s position regarding pending or potential litigation,” the report states.

City officials hope to have the Google system installed before Dec. 31. If the council misses that deadline, the city could be required to pay for continuing maintenance on the current GroupWise e-mail system. City workers have complained that the existing system crashes frequently and lacks sufficient memory, among other things.

Peter Scheer, director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said the switch to Google also could improve access to public information, especially by attorneys or reporters.

Google has “remarkably sophisticated” search capabilities and provides a huge amount of database storage at minimal cost, Scheer said. “If you’re asking for information, it’s more likely you’ll get a more complete and accurate response to your request, sooner rather than later.”

Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents the city’s police officers, said the LAPD has not discussed the proposed contract with his union and cautioned it to move in a “deliberate manner.”

‘Serious breach’

Last month, the league accused the LAPD of a “serious breach of privacy” involving officers in the 77th Street Division’s Gang Enforcement Unit. Officers in that unit who were being audited found that their names and serial numbers had been sent to recipients of the Police Commission’s meeting agenda, according to a letter to officers.

“If the department were to have their information compromised, it would seriously impact the public’s confidence in our department and impact our ability to police the city,” Weber said.

Scheer said it’s in Google’s own financial interest to ensure that data remain secure. If the company’s systems suffer any sort of breach, they could potentially lose billions of dollars of business. “The bigger Google is, the more careful they are going to be about protection of rights and privacy and rights of access,” he said.

Source: LA Times

Gartner: Four disruptions to transform the software industry

admin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:45:01 +0000

Change is not just a political hot topic these days. According to a Gartner analyst, four emerging software solutions are reshaping software as we know it and will likely cause major disruptions to vendors and how the software industry delivers its products and services.

“Four overarching trends are reshaping how IT is used in the workplace. Each of these megatrends or disrupters must be evaluated to determine if it will have an effect on the business,” said Yvonne Genovese, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla.

These software solutions are “changing to be user-centric, Web-centric, service-oriented and utilized through new delivery models, such as cloud and software as a service,” noted Genovese, in a press release from the event.

Here are the four major disruptions to the software industry that Genovese has identified:

Disrupter No. 1: Rise in New Technologies and Convergence of Existing Technologies. “The IT market has reached a period of accelerated change and innovation in how IT is applied and delivered to businesses and consumers,” states the release. “Technology changes that have been centered on SOA migration have now been augmented to include business process management, device portability and mashup-capable content.”

By 2010, for example, Genovese predicts that Web mashups will be the “dominant model” for the creation of composite enterprise applications. (To read about Oracle’s efforts on its next-gen applications, see “Oracle Fusion Applications: Is 2010 Delivery Too Little, Too Late, or Smart Strategy?”)
“Mashup popularity stems from the ease with which mashups can be created. Because mashup applications can be created on the fly, they open up possibilities for a new class of more short-term or disposable applications that could never meet the criteria for corporate investment,” says Genovese. “Another benefit is that users can easily personalize mashup content displays. Mashups can resolve issues such as content aggregation and the needs of business users to have the personal flexibility to do different things by combining data from within and outside the enterprise.”

Disrupter No. 2: Change in Software User and Support Demographics. Changes in how, where and when everyone works, as well as innovative methods in how companies obtain their software using the Internet, are fundamentally altering the structure of business. By 2015, Genovese says, no company will be able to build or sustain a competitive advantage unless “it capitalizes on the combined power of individualized behaviors, social dynamics and collaboration.”

“Most current software is focused on general enterprise needs rather than user-specific needs,” Genovese says. “The opportunity for business and IT leaders is to understand how the individualization of work will affect businesses, critical processes, innovation and inter-enterprise collaboration. End-user preferences will decide as much as half of all software, hardware and service acquisitions made by IT.” (See “P&G Flirts with Google Apps and Scares the Bejesus Out of Microsoft” for an inside account of why P&G users wanted to use Google Apps.)

Disrupter No. 3: Revolutionary Changes in Software and How it is Consumed. Genovese predicts that by 2010, SOA will be used, at least in part, in more than 80 percent of new, mission-critical applications and business processes. “The resulting future application environment will be more granular, inclusive and fluid to enable rapid composition, integration, orchestration and reuse,” according to Gartner.

During 2008 and 2009, Genovese states that businesses must “radically re-engineer their processes, governance and disciplines to initiate and manage this transition” as well as evaluate and manage external and off-premises delivery of applications.

“Market excitement over Web platforms, SaaS and other IT utility services will only intensify, and this will increase business buyers’ appetites for these new options and services,” says Genovese. “This period will see huge changes in all facets of the IT market including clients, providers, investors, business and IT professionals and consumers.”

Disrupter No. 4: Software Market Moves to Megavendors Supporting Large Ecosystems. Software megavendors (SAP and Oracle, for example) have proven their impact and influence over customer spending across a range of markets, Genovese notes. “Megavendors seek to dominate enterprise architecture and the terms of integration in multivendor portfolios,” she adds. However, focused vendors (a.k.a., best of breed) must coexist with other applications and with enterprise architecture.

“As the transformation to SOA for packaged applications and the exposing and manipulation of process metadata become minimum requirements for the next generation, it is megavendors that will have the resources, and focused vendors that will have the incentive,” Genovese added. Unfortunately, she stated that focused, best-of-breed vendors face a long time before a next generation of open, composite applications drives the market and opens it to a wider range of vendors.

“We see rapidly changing technology in an industry that seems to be maturing. Vendors are focusing more on the ‘business of software’ rather than solely on product competition,” Genovese says. “Users faced with increased vendor power and lower price flexibility are looking for alternatives, containment strategies and ways to lower vendor switch costs. How the vendors react to these changes and pressures will be the basis for changes in their competition over the next five years.”

Oracle buys maker of 3D retail software

admin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:47:11 +0000

Oracle is adding to its retail software lineup by acquiring Advanced Visual Technology, a maker of 3D space planning software for retailers.

AVT, based in Hertfordshire, England, sells a product called Retail Focus, which lets retailers plan store floors and shelf space. An add-on product, called Retail Focus Merchandiser, gives retail planners a three-dimensional view of retail space that they can “walk” through virtually.

No terms were disclosed. Oracle said the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2008.

Oracle plans to add AVT’s employees and management to its Retail Global business unit. AVT’s products will be combined with Oracle Retail’s application suite. The company said it expects the combination will help retailers to increase their profits through better space allocation and monitoring of sales.

Source: CNET