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Jeff Miller Jumps From IBM To Layer 7

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Former IBM exec Jeff Miller has joined Layer 7‘s executive management team as vice president of sales, the company announced this morning.

Layer 7 Technologies boasts a portfolio of SOA and cloud security products, essentially helping organizations secure and govern integrations that span the Internet and cloud.

Miller brings more than 15 years of sales and marketing experience to Layer 7, with expertise in building direct and indirect sales teams for technology companies where SOA, cloud and security have been the focal point.

Most recently, Jeff was a business unit executive at IBM responsible for DataPower, Cast Iron and SOA Appliances in North America. He was a vice president of sales for DataPower before its acquisition by IBM.

Previously, he held sales leadership positions at SOA, cloud and SaaS startups such as Actional and Grand Central Communications.

Says Paul Rochester, CEO of Layer 7 Technologies:

“Jeff has the breadth and depth of experience, coupled with specific domain expertise in Layer 7’s sweet spot, that makes him a perfect fit for taking our sales and market presence to a new level.

He joins the company following a blockbuster year that saw triple-digit growth, strong global customer acquisition and industry recognition of our innovative solutions. Jeff will strengthen our management team as we build on these successes.”

Release: IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud

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IBM today announced the availability of the industry’s first public desktop cloud.

The new IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud subscription service helps clients virtualize desktop computing resources, and provide a logical, rather than a physical, method of access to data, computing power, storage capacity and other resources.  This service requires no up front capital or one time expense and will provide the highest levels of security, resiliency, reliability, and quality for virtual desktops.  The service offers flexible delivery models, including three standard cloud-based offerings, dedicated infrastructure, and customer premise solutions, while providing the necessary safeguards to minimize the risk of data theft and loss, centralize data protection, and eliminate unauthorized access.

Through key technology and business partnerships with Citrix, Desktone, VMware and Wyse, along with IBM tools for customer assessment and strategic planning, IBM is helping financial organizations, public sector and academic institutions around the world address PC replacement dilemmas, deliver resilience and reliability for critical information, and resolve Internet access parity problems, all at competitive subscription service pricing.

Supported by government funding, the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network is partnering with IBM on a grass roots project called CBO Connect to provide desktop computing to over 200 sites nationwide.  The CBO Connect is a coalition of community based organizations consisting of non-profits, schools and libraries where visitors have access to 21st century classrooms that offer desktop cloud computing, interactive video conferencing for distance learning, video distribution system with digital signage, and other classroom and administrative services.

The IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud service will be available in the Americas and Europe starting October 2009.

IBM Walks Away From Talks Over Potential Sun Acquisition

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IBM has withdrawn its $7 billion bid for Sun Microsystems today (Sunday), reports the NY Times, who confirmed the collapse of the talks based on a statement from an unnamed source while several other media, including the Wall Street Journal and ZDNet, were still speculating. The New York Times correctly points out this leaves Sun free to pursue other opportunities for selling itself.

Since last year, Sun executives had been meeting with potential buyers. I.B.M. stepped up, seeing an opportunity to add to its large software business, acquire valuable researchers and consolidate the market for larger, so-called server computers that corporations use in their data centers.

In their talks, I.B.M. and Sun had a contract to deal with each other exclusively. Now, Sun is free to pursue other suitors, including I.B.M. rivals like Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems. Cisco recently entered the market for server computers.

It will be interesting to watch the market react to this on Monday morning.

Sun Microsystems Reportedly A $7 Billion Acquisition Target For IBM

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It’s all over Techmeme: the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times report that IBM is in talks with Sun Microsystems to acquire the fledgling technology giant. Larry Dignan over at ZDnet says it makes sense, Dana Garder over at … also ZDnet calls it a red herring. Om Malik says it would make more sense for Cisco Systems to buy Sun, CNET’s Matt Asay says a deal would be good for open source. Meanwhile, Sun’s stock soars.

But Computerworld may have the best commentary we’ve read about the rumored acquisition. Lucas Mearian writes:

“If it purchased Sun, IBM would bolster its storage customer base and eliminate competition, but such a move would also create significant storage product overlap. Rather than boosting its existing product sales, IBM would likely gain more in the form of intellectual property and human resources talent.

While Sun and IBM both sell in the high-end storage market, IBM holds three times the market share of Sun.

Neither Sun nor IBM does well in the midrange storage market, and enterprise-class systems is an area some believe is tanking as a result of an uptick in more-modular, flexible storage platforms based on high-capacity, lower-performance disk drives and commodity hardware.”

To be continued beyond any shred of doubt.

Cisco Plans Bold Move Into Server Business, Enters Arena With HP And IBM

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According to the NY Times, Cisco Systems is planning a big push into the server market, essentially entering into competition with its historical partners HP and IBM (who declined to comment on the story).

A risky move for Cisco, but a very interesting one.

The product — a server computer equipped with sophisticated virtualization software — is a bold but risky move by Cisco into an unfamiliar, intensely competitive market that typically produces far lower profits than Cisco makes from network gear. But it reflects the company’s ambition to grow beyond its roots as the so-called plumber of the Internet to offer everything from instant messaging software to digital stereos.

As The Register points out, VMware technology is likely the foundation of the virtualization part, since Cisco still owns part of the company (about 2%). Cisco is not disclosing any specifics though, but the NY Times learned that Cisco could show off the first of its new systems as early as March.

Acquisition rumors between Cisco Systems and VMware (and even EMC in full) are sure to flare up again.

A good follow-up article was published on Forbes.

IBM Releases Virtual Desktop To Rival VMware View

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IBM is working with Virtual Bridges and its VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) product to ship a virtual Canonical Ubuntu Linux desktop, with Lotus email, word processing, spreadsheets, unified communication, and social networking software included, to a variety of end-point devices. Virtual printing is also included. Wall Street Journal calls it a ‘Microsoft-free’ desktop.

This comes off the heels of VMware’s release of View 3.

None of the pieces of the IBM bundle, available immediately, are new, but the bundled solution makes it easier and cheaper for companies to deploy a complete VDI solution on Linux, IBM maintains. IBM’s OCCS includes Lotus Symphony, its implementation of the ODF-based OpenOffice, as well as Lotus Notes and other applications.

Virtual Bridges’ Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment runs about $49 per seat, while Canonical is about $50 per seat. IBM Lotus Symphony is free but the Notes and other applications are priced separately.