Briefs: October 3, 2005

MOCA SUPPORTS OPTERON, STORAGE
Opteron

The MOCA Vantage program includes dedicated technical resources, demand generation programs, demonstration units, proof of concept systems and advanced sales support for solution providers selling Opteron servers to SMB customers. "This is trying to call attention to a type of Sun partner that is not going upstream into large-scale Unix Solaris enterprise-class systems," said Rich Severa, president of MOCA.

The MOCA Accelerated Storage System program also includes proof of concept, technical services, pre-sales support and information life-cycle management marketing activities for sales of storage solutions. Severa expects Sun storage sales to increase now that Sun has StorageTek products in addition to its legacy lines. "Resellers have been surrounding themselves with EMC and Network Appliance in their own install base. Now Sun products compete really well," he said.

SUN FOUNDER PREDICTS GOOGLE WILL REPLACE MICROSOFT
The rise of Google, mobile devices and wireless networks will spell the end to Microsoft's dominance in the software market, Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy predicted last week.

Speaking at MIT Technology Review's annual emerging technologies conference, Joy said the emergence of the new technologies and the "near" and "here" Web ushers in a new era of user interfaces that will replace Windows and "nomadic" computing.

Users increasingly type and click to access "near Web" experiences such as Google and Yahoo, and mobile devices and wireless networks to enjoy the "here" Web in real time.

"This is ultimately what replaces the PC way," Joy said at MIT's Kresge Auditorium last Thursday. "Google replaces Microsoft as the source of innovation."

Joy, a partner at venture capital kingpin Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, said advances in processors, battery technology and lower power consumption will drive a decade of innovation beyond the PC and laptop era. He claimed innovative Web service startups and Java will dominate over Microsoft, even though the software giant has its own batch of Web services and Windows Mobile 5.0 platform readied for battle.

Joy claims the smartphone will not be the key form factor and said the only question remaining is where the user wants the display.

During the two-day conference, established vendors like IBM and startups Nantero, ThingMagic and S5 Wireless showed off new technologies that will exploit this next-generation mobile and wireless world.

N-ABLE ADDS VOIP MONITORING TO ITS N-CENTRAL PLATFORM
MSP platform vendor N-able Technologies has added a VoIP add-on module to its N-central MSP product. VoIP Service Manager gives the modular N-central platform the added capability of monitoring and maintaining Cisco CallManager VoIP networks, according to N-able. VoIP hardware, application availability, connectivity status and VoIP traffic volume each can be monitored using the new module. VoIP Service Manager is a free upgrade to the vendor's Platinum partners. Gold partners can purchase the new service module for $3,500, according to N-able.

SYNNEX CITES HIGHER COSTS FOR DECREASE IN 3Q EARNINGS
Higher costs led distributor Synnex to report a 21-percent decrease in earnings for the third quarter ended Aug. 31, despite a 7 percent increase in sales, according to the company.

Synnex's earnings fell to $9 million, or 29 cents per share, from $11.4 million, or 38 cents per share, for the year-ago period. Sales in the quarter were $1.39 billion, compared to $1.30 billion last year.

Excluding charges related to the company's Canadian operations and a non-operating loss on its equity investment in MCJ Company, Synnex reported income of $10.5 million, or 34 cents per share, beating Thomson Financial/First Call's estimate of 32 cents per share.

"In a generally stable demand environment in the North American IT channel marketplace, we are pleased with our results and execution for the third quarter of fiscal 2005," said Synnex CEO Bob Huang during the earnings call.

For the current quarter ending Nov. 30, Synnex expects revenue between $1.48 billion and $1.53 billion, with earnings in the range of $11.5 million to $12.2 million, or 37 cents per share to 39 cents per share.

MICROSOFT, PALM JOIN TO BRING WINDOWS MOBILE TO PALM TREO
Former rivals Microsoft and Palm announced an historic accord last week that will bring Windows Mobile 5.0 to Palm's Treo device in early 2006. Partner Verizon will hold exclusive distribution rights that will enable the Treo-on-Windows smartphone to run on Verizon Wireless' EVDO wireless broadband network through mid-2006. Pricing was not announced. Palm said it will continue to support and develop its proprietary Palm OS but observers view the accord as a dual attack against Nokia-based Symbian OS and Linux variants.

3COM PROMISES $10 MILLION FOR CHANNEL MARKETING PLAN
3Com this week is unveiling a new marketing campaign that aims to boost its profile and create more sales opportunities for its channel partners. The vendor is spending "north of $10 million" on the branding effort, said James Fieger, senior vice president of worldwide sales and service at the Marlborough, Mass.-based networking vendor. "It's meant to wake up demand with end users of all kinds and was designed from the get-go to be channel-friendly," he said.

Through the campaign, Fieger expects 3Com to pass more leads on to channel partners. In addition, 3Com is creating a more flexible market development funds program with improved tools and more ways for partners to spend marketing dollars, he said.

ZIMBRA UNVEILS OPEN-SOURCE COLLABORATION SUITE
Zimbra has introduced its open-source e-mail/collaboration software. The Zimbra Collaboration Suite targets both ISPs and hosting companies as well as SMBs, according to the company.

The suite is available in a free open-source version or an enhanced commercial edition costing $30 per user/per year. The Commercial or Network Edition adds cross-mailbox search and discovery and indexing of attachments above and beyond what the open-source version offers.

Zimbra, formerly known as Liquid Systems, hopes to win over customers on Exchange 5.5 who may not want to upgrade to the full Microsoft stack.

The company was founded by Satish Dharmaraj. Also aboard are Scott Dietzen, former CTO of BEA Systems, as president and CTO. Eric Hahn, founder of Collabra and former CTO of Netscape Communications, is on the company's board.