For maps, detail is king

Streetdirectory.com's edge lies in its detail, said Firdhaus Akber, Streetdirectory.com managing director.
Akber told ZDNet Asia in an interview, the Singaporean mapping site still holds its edge over competitors like Google Maps because of the level of information captured on its maps like bus stops and carpark locations.
The company has a stable of some 40 surveyors collecting street data, and spends about half its operating costs on data collection, as well as training these surveyors to provide usable data to the site.
Akber said this is necessary to keep the maps accurate, as well as frequently updated because "Singapore roads change so fast".
Unlike Google, the company appears to be launching cautiously into the territory of user-generated data.
Still trumping the accuracy card, Akber said Streetdirectory.com accepts user feedback, but sends surveyors out to verify information submitted before the site's editorial team includes it in the maps.
Google Maps, on the other hand, relies on user-submitted tags to demarcate locations. Akber said this has resulted in numerous inaccurately-tagged landmarks, on the search giant's maps service, which "can be confusing" to users. Landmarks are also often tagged multiple times but at slightly different spots on maps, leading to users having to guess which is the correct tag, he added.
This accuracy, said Akber, has allowed it to retain its audience of some 150,000 unique visitors a day, in spite of a six-month hiatus last year.
"No one has overtaken our traffic in the six months we were down," he said.
The site was rebuilt from scratch and relaunched last August, to avoid legal issues after its then-owner, Virtual Maps, lost a copyright infringement case to the Singapore Land Authority.
But the site is not cutting out user-generated content altogether. Its restaurant listings section, built around a site redesign launched Friday, allows users to submit reviews of restaurants which are "less policed"--scanned for offensive content but uncensored for negative reviews.
"Google Maps is about breadth, if you want to jump from [maps of] country to country. We're focusing on Asia," said Akber.
Streetdirectory.com plans to collect data on maps for Jakarta, the Philippines and the Malaysian states of Kuala Lumpur and Johor next.

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Data center survey: Storage appears to be CIOs' focus

Cisco's Unified Computing System is garnering interest, but storage appears to be the focus of CIOs as they ponder the next-gen data center, study reveals.

Cisco's Unified Computing System is garnering interest, but storage appears to be the focus of CIOs as they ponder the next generation data center and that's good news for EMC and NetApp, according to a Goldman Sachs survey.
Goldman Sachs surveyed 100 IT executives at Fortune 1000 companies to get a read on their data center plans two to three years from now.
Among the takeaways:
Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) has found "a surprisingly receptive ear", according to Goldman Sachs. Indeed, 18 percent are planning to evaluate Cisco's UCS in the next 12 months, an impressive figure for a product that was announced only in March. Another two-thirds of IT execs say that they expect Cisco have a larger server presence over the next 2 to 3 years.
Among those surveyed, 18 percent said they will evaluate UCS in the next 12 months, 44 percent said no and 38 percent were unsure.
Cisco, HP and Dell were vendors expected to increase data center share, according to respondents. Sun and IBM are seen decreasing.
These charts tell the tale:



Click images to enlarge.

The next-gen data center push is benefiting pure storage players. EMC and NetApp are seen gaining share in the next-gen data center. A key point: As tech giants try to further integrate hardware and software independent storage vendors NetApp and EMC are benefiting. Why? These vendors work with any architecture and they're ahead on storage virtualization.

Click image to enlarge.
VMware is seen as the most strategic software vendor, but Microsoft has a better-than-expected finish. Meanwhile, Oracle got a mention as being strategic on the virtualization front.
The standings:

Click image to enlarge.
Cisco and Juniper defend switching turf. Goldman Sachs notes:

Despite the heightened activity in data center networking, including the launch of Juniper's new high-end switching platform as well as HP's ProCurve partner ecosystem, Cisco is expected to further extend its already sizable lead in the long-term. This is consistent with our IT Survey's results pointing to share gains in the near term. Juniper also appears to be gaining traction in switching as our survey points to the company increasing its presence in the data center, with nearly 70 percent of the respondents citing share gains over next two to three years.

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Reviewing pandemic plans has just become job #1

With the Influenza A hitting over 60 countries, IT managers need to step up contingency planning. One CIO shares his organization's experience and plans.

As of June 1, the Influenza A, also known as H1N1, has infected over 17,000 worldwide and caused 115 deaths.
This most recent flu outbreak is of the same variety as that responsible for an estimated 40 to 50 million deaths worldwide in 1918. Although health officials have yet to determine a number of facts, including the origin of the disease and its virulence, the outbreak should spur renewed conversations regarding contingency plans in the event that the current outbreak turns into something more serious.
Many organizations have developed contingency plans based around concerns regarding the bird flu, so there is probably already at least a framework in place, if not a full plan.
A contingency plan put into motion for a pandemic is likely to be different from many other business continuity-type plans. For example, if headquarters is wiped out by a tornado, setting up operations at an alternate site makes a lot of sense. However, when it comes to something that, quite frankly, scares people away from the office, such as a virulent disease, the path isn't always as clear.
In cases like this, in order to maintain operations, the organization would need to maintain at least a skeleton staff and significantly enhance remote worker capabilities for those that need to work but that, for whatever reason, can't or won't make it to the office.
At Westminster College, we do have campus plans for what to do in the event of a pandemic or significant public health emergency. However, for the kind of campus we are--very traditional with no online classes and all courses taught on site--we don't maintain regular significant remote access capabilities so our normal operations don't include what we'd need in the event of, well, an event.
With the news continuing to come out regarding the spread of confirmed cases of H1N1, my staff and I are taking a few relatively minor steps in preparation for a possible problem:

• First, we're verifying our VPN services to make sure that we have enough licenses and capacity for increased volume. We don't currently have many VPN users. Again, we're a very traditional, very residential campus, with VPN used primarily by those that travel on college business.
• We're also going to prep a couple of additional servers as terminal servers. Through this and VPN, users will be able to continue to easily run their normal applications from anywhere.
• A part of a campus-wide plan calls for staff that will stay on site for long periods of time in the event of a pandemic. Given that my staff has endured a lot of turnover since the campus pandemic plan was developed, we'll have conversations regarding this point.
• We will verify with our service providers, including Internet and electrical service providers, our points of contact in the event of a pandemic. Although we have this information in our campus pandemic plan, periodic review is essential to keep the information current.

At this point, we won't go overboard in preparing for what could turn out to be a whole lot of nothing. Even if the whole thing fizzles out right now--and I hope it does--it's a valuable reminder that we need to stay vigilant with regard to our disaster and pandemic planning and make sure that we're ready for whatever comes our way.
Scott Lowe has spent 15 years in the IT world and is currently the chief information officer for Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. Scott is also a regular contributor to TechRepublic and has authored one book, Home Networking: The Missing Manual (O’Reilly) and coauthored the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Companion (MS Press).

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IDC: Biggest quarterly drop in 12 years for servers

First-quarter server revenue dropped by 24.5 percent year-over-year, as economic turmoil bit ever deeper into companies' IT budgets, according to IDC.


Worldwide revenue in the first three months of 2009 fell to US$9.9 billion, according to figures released by the market-research firm last week. The totals mark the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue decline, and the lowest quarterly server revenue since IDC began tracking the market on a quarterly basis 12 years ago, IDC said.

In the same period, server-unit shipments decreased by 26.5 percent year-over-year, compared with a 12 percent fall in the fourth quarter of 2008. The quarterly total is the lowest in five years, and represents the largest ever year-on-year drop in quarterly server unit shipments recorded by the firm.
Shipments fell in all geographic regions, as buyers of all sizes pulled back both on new strategic IT projects and on refreshing existing infrastructure, according to IDC.

However, the research firm believes demand will begin to improve in the second half of this year.

"Most enterprise organizations are deferring new IT procurements and instead focusing on extending server lifecycles and improving existing asset utilization," Matt Eastwood, IDC group vice president of enterprise platforms, said in a statement. "IDC believes that while these strategies are effective in the near term, server demand will begin to improve in the second half of the year, as customers begin to rebuild their IT capabilities in advance of a meaningful economic recovery in 2010."

Volume systems showed the sharpest decrease, with year-over-year revenue down 30.5 percent. The x86 server segment specifically dropped 28.8 percent, to US$5.1 billion on shipments of 1.4 million servers.

IDC noted that x86 servers have historically driven the growth of the overall server market, and the company expects this trend to return.

"While it may be easier for IT departments to suspend purchases of commodity boxes as opposed to more mission-critical RISC- or CISC-based servers, IDC expects x86 systems to rebound faster than the overall market in the coming quarters," analyst Dan Harrington said in a statement.

Midrange servers dropped by 13.6 percent, while the high-end enterprise segment fell by 19.5 percent.
IDC noted that this is the second consecutive quarter, and only the second time since 2002, that all three server segments experienced a year-over-year revenue decline in the same quarter.

Overall, HP and IBM tied for the top position in the market, each holding 29.3 percent of overall revenue, with IBM's sales driven by System z and System p sales. These vendors were followed by Sun and Dell in joint third place, with Dell taking an 11 percent revenue share and Sun taking 10.3 percent. Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens held the fifth place in revenue, with 6.7 percent.

Unix servers decreased by 17.5 percent in revenue terms, compared with the same quarter a year earlier. However, the company showed resilience in the midrange enterprise segment and increased its share of overall revenue, IDC noted. IBM led this segment.

Windows server revenue stood at US$3.7 billion, down 28.9 percent and comprising 37.3 percent of all server revenue in the quarter. Linux revenues fell 24.8 percent to US$1.4 billion, making up 13.8 percent of all revenue.

The relatively new blade server segment showed its first decline, with revenues down 14.4 percent year on year and shipments down 18.1 percent. However, the segment still increased its share of revenue in the overall server market, IDC said.

"Customers are seeking IT solutions that reduce expenses and improve efficiencies. The integrated nature of the blade platforms is adept to deliver a dynamic IT infrastructure," analyst Jed Scaramella said in a statement.

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