Integration and Services: Features

Our running list of buyouts and mergers in IT for the year.

CA this week is set to unveil a slew of security, management and automation products that have industry watchers and IT managers speculating the embattled software vendor may succeed at making its technology better integrated and easier to use.

On the Web site of mega research firm Gartner lives a section titled IT Budget Optimization, which, among other things, offers for sale 20 research papers on strategies for cutting IT expenses.

IT research firms service two separate groups of clients -- technology vendors, which constitute the "sell" side of the market, and organizations seeking advice on technology purchases, the "buy" side of the equation.

HP Tuesday announced its plans to acquire EDS for US$13.9 billion in a deal that would double HP's services business and revive EDS' position as a leader in global technology services. The acquisition will catapult HP's annual revenue for services from less than $20 billion to nearly $40 billion and position HP as the second largest services provider in the world. Here is a look at what is happening and why now.

Once confined to marketing departments and media companies, the Mac is spilling over into a wider array of business environments, thanks to the confluence of a number of computing trends, not the least among them a rising tide of end-user affinity for the Apple experience.

Establishing a brand name is a task that few companies do well. And, according to those that have, if there's one thing that's harder it's sustaining a brand.

Software-as-a-service may have come into the enterprise through "the bathroom window," but it's definitely becoming part of the mainstream, says SAAS expert Mike West, vice president at Saugatuck Technology Inc., a boutique management consulting and subscription research company focused on disruptive technologies.

For consumers, the Macintosh's hip quotient is being hammered home with one of the largest and most memorable advertising campaigns in Apple history. But the enterprise isn't getting any of that attention.

A recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers says a majority of senior operating executives will continue to outsource IT, HR and R&D functions, demonstrating that outsourcing remains a top strategy among companies looking to lower costs and optimize services

While vendors are trumpeting the UC message, it's the systems integrators who are helping customers get a grasp on the benefits of converged networks. Local players chat about their impressions of VoIP and the consolidated communications push.