GLG News by Hans van Rietschote

Implications: Google's team edition of Google apps seems like an IT worst nightmare: all the company documents on a public server. But is it really that bad? What about having all your sales leads on a public server, wouldn't that be even worse? Oh wait isn't that what salesforce.com is all about? Completely outsourced IT services will be the future. Why have your own data center if you can rent the services on a as needed basis? Companies do not have their own power generators so why have your own data center or your own IT staff? What needs to happen before we can get there?

Analysis: Google's team edition of Google apps seems like an IT worst nightmare: all the company documents on a public server. But is it really that bad? What about having all your sales leads on a public server, wouldn't that be even worse? Oh wait isn't that what salesforce.com is all about?

So we can argue that maybe salesforce.com's security model is better than Google's but how do we know this is true? It could only take one serious security audit of Google's service offering to convince companies to start using this new service. And for a lot of small companies or start-ups what Google has to offer is simply good enough (and cheap enough).

Once these small companies grow into big companies, Google will have some big company customers. And that is how it will happen: established big(ger) companies will not switch over from having their own data center and own IT staff overnight. It will take a lot of small companies to lead the way and maybe a few big companies will follow once they do the "math" and once new legislation comes about that forces data centers to be green. In other words once data centers are considered to be "bad" things will go online: Software and Storage as a (online) Service.

Completely outsourced IT services will be the future. Why have your own data center if you can rent the services on a as needed basis? Companies do not have their own power generators so why have your own data center or your own IT staff?

Can we really just turn off our company data centers and get rid of our IT staff? Think about it: right now the average office worker uses a desktop PC for email, web surfing, Instant messaging (if allowed inside the company), word, excel and powerpoints documents.  For all of these basic IT needs Google has you covered. Also once your email/data/documents are stored online you will no longer need to worry about backups, archiving, disaster recovery plans and compliance regulations. Because all of these things will be covered by the online service supplier you select.

The question remains who these online software and storage service providers will be, will it be Google? Microsoft live? Yahoo? Even though these 3 do a good-enough service for consumers they are by most not considered to be enterprise-class online service providers. Unless of course they want to be ...

Implications: So if even a MySpace has bugs that exposes private data of their users to anyone on the web, then what about all the other web sites where we enter our private data? How do we know that the banking web site or the credit card web site doesn't have the same kinds of "bugs"? Consumers are trusting more and more information to the "web" but is it really safe to do so?

Analysis: So if even a MySpace has bugs that exposes private data of their users to anyone on the web, then what about all the other web sites where we enter our private data? How do we know that the banking web site or the credit card web site doesn't have the same kinds of "bugs"? Consumers are trusting more and more information to the "web" but is it really safe to do so?

I am sure that MySpace (like a Yahoo and Google) use very senior engineers to create their websites, but how do you know your credit union did the same thing when they launched their website 10 years ago?

We all know that logging in to a website that is TOO secure is no fun. But if it is easy to login for the user then it probably is also easy to login for the hacker. So how do you provide an easy to use Internet identification system that is hard to crack for the bad guys. Yahoo just announced they are moving to the OpenId standard. Standardizing will help a lot: as soon as a lot of people are all using the same thing, then the bugs will become exposed and then they can be fixed.

Implications: Sun is buying MySQL for almost a billion dollars. This looks like a big gamble. Why are they doing this? Is MySQL worth that much?

Analysis: So why is Sun buying an open source database company and is it really worth 1 billion dollars?

Sun is buying MySQL (the most well known open source database company (think Oracle type of databases) because it adds to its strategy of becoming a software company that has all of its software be open source. (open source means that anyone with an Internet connection can get access to the source and make changes to it). They open sourced their own operating system Solaris, a few years ago they bought what is now known as Open Office (a Microsoft Office like set of applications) and they have also open sourced their new file system called ZFS. So that is the strategy, and with this strategy they are taking on companies like Red Hat and yes Microsoft and Oracle.

The second question is "Why is MySQL worth this much"? The answer is simple: most if not all Linux based systems out there (and there are quite a few) have something called the LAMP stack, which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (or Perl or Python). The so-called LAMP stack is what makes Linux such a hot "item" in the software/systems market. With the acquisition of MySQL Sun will own one of the four "letters" in LAMP. Off the other "letters" only A for Apache could be for sale as well eventually. The letters L for Linux and P for PHP/Perl/Python do not have any companies behind them that can be bought.

Implications: Most if not every PC user knows they need some form of malware protection and most if not all PCs ship with some form of malware protection. So our PCs are pretty safe these days. But most people who use MySpace have no idea that they need protection when on MySpace (or FaceBook or any other "social" website).

Analysis: Most if not every PC user knows they need some form of malware protection. Most if not all PCs ship with some form of malware protection. So our PCs are pretty safe these days. But most people who use MySpace have no idea that they need protection when on MySpace (or FaceBook or any "social" networking site). And to make matters worse there is very little the individual user can do about online protection other than not providing any critical information whatsoever.

But not giving any information is simply not possible: you need at least a shipping address and a credit card number to order things online. So here we go again: a long time ago we thought that PCs were a safe place to store information and then we found out about viruses. Now that we are all protected on our PC, we need to worry about ALL of our online activities.

An easy-to-use bullet-proof form of online identity will solve these problems but although a lot of companies have tried to do this not one has emerged as the clear leader. Each of the larger online merchants and players such as Yahoo and AOL have some form of digital identity technology but in most cases it only works for their own site. There is no standardization and apparently no willingness to work together in this field. Oh yes: the bullet-proof technology exists, but the easy-to-use part is still wanting.

Also the what I call  Next generation PCs (smart phone, IPhone, connected PDA, internet tablet, etc.) are making things worse: just check out the number of iPhone specific sites that all urge me to enter my information "online" so I can retrieve it at any time with my iPhone (as long as I have data service). How do I know these sites are legit? How do I know they protect my data from attacks? At least on my PC I can run my own protection, but once I put my information "online" on some website I have no control on whether or not MY information is protected.

So the article is correct: the new security frontier is online and it is there now! (Just look at the staggering number of people with a FaceBook or MySpace page).

PS: and all of this also applies to your LinkedIn profile! Are you scared yet? If not you should be.

Implications: The online world Second Life (SL) and the similar World of Warcraft both seem to indicate that the Internet is no longer just for websites. Even Google is rumored to be working on its own online world. So are these just other ways of showing more online ads or is this something new?

Analysis: Second Life is hard to explain: on the outside it seems almost silly: you create an avatar (digital representation of yourself that can look like anything you choose) and then with simple mouse commands you move your avatar around in a virtual world with virtual houses, virtual landscapes and lots of other avatars (virtual people).

But once you actually experience it (it is free and will run on any modern PC or Apple) you start to realize that there is a lot more to it. Sun Microsystems did a product launch in Second Life instead of doing it in the "normal" fashion. Regular old fashioned brick and mortar banks are opening up virtual branches in Second Life. And oh yes, the virtual second life currency is convertible into real money. One person in Germany last year was the first to make a real world living inside of second life by selling virtual houses.

Second Life even has virtual sweat shops were people from low wage countries spend hours and hours online while building virtual goods that can then be sold for virtual dollars that can then be converted to real dollars. In other words there is a whole new economy out there. But this economy crosses all regular country boundaries and cultural boundaries. (Even though recently Second Life decided to try and outlaw gambling inside of the virtual world in order to comply with US legislation (the SL HQ is in San Francisco after all).

So Second Life and other virtual online worlds are a new "thing" and some even call it the new Internet.

Implications: If Apple does indeed allow for their MacOS to run inside a Virtual Machine then people will no longer have to buy Apple computers to run MacOS.  This could open the way for Apple's MacOS to be used inside corporations who normally do not want to spend too much money on "computers that look pretty". It also allows Apple to participate in the next wave of desktop virtualization. Are they starting to make their MacOS a separate business?

Analysis: If Apple does indeed allow for their MacOS to run inside a Virtual Machine then people will no longer have to buy Apple computers to run MacOS.  Just imagine: you buy any old laptop or desktop put on some free Linux, install VMware and run MacOS inside a virtual machine. Doing this will allow "the masses" to experience how much more user friendly MacOS is compared to Windows. This could open the way for Apple's MacOS to be used inside corporations who normally do not want to spend too much money on "computers that look pretty". It also allows Apple to participate in the next wave of desktop virtualization. Currently a lot of companies have one desktop per employee which for some creates a computer management nightmare much bigger than managing their data center. Typically a desktop starts out being nicely provisioned by an IT expert but then over time employees start adding things (wall papers, little browser add-ons etc). Then eventually the desktop will need to be fixed by having an IT guy come over and "touch" it. Being able to centrally manage all desktops because they are virtualized will be a great solution: no more IT guys running around "touching" desktops.  Just look at what a company like Qumranet is offering.  So is this move by Apple  a change in strategy? Will they make their MacOS a separate business? Maybe Apple is making enough money selling iPods and iPhones so that the sales of computers is no longer as interesting to them? Another thing to note is that Apple seems to be paying less attention to their latest operating system release: they delayed its release several times, the upgrade from the older version seems to have some issues and some people even complained of getting "blue screens" (something which Windows (the other operating system) got to be famous for). Things are changing in Cupertino.

Implications: VMware has first mover advantage, but they are not alone in this "new" space of server virtualization. When will Microsoft enter this space? And if they do how will it impact VMware? Is VMware doing enough to stay ahead of the game?

Analysis: VMware has first mover advantage (they created their first product back in 1999 long before AMD and Intel started shipping chipsets that allow for efficient virtualization). But they are not alone in this "new" space of server virtualization. Competitors are XenSource (now part of Citrix), SWsoft (a big name in the hosting space), Qumranet (a start-up created by Moshe Bar: they donated their virtualization software to the Linux open source so they can concentrate on their desktop virtualizaton product),  and of course ... Microsoft.

When will Microsoft enter this space? And if they do how will it impact VMware? Is VMware doing enough to stay ahead of the game? Microsoft bought Connectix a company that started with a product that allows Windows to run on a Mac computer (back before they used Intel chipsets). The acquisition by Microsoft was one year before EMC acquired VMware and ever since then Microsoft has been releasing beta versions of their server virtualization solution called viridian.

My prediction is that because the majority of virtual machines run Windows inside, that once Microsoft enters the market that most IT departments using virtualization will switch to "one-stop-shopping" and use Microsoft for their  physical machines, their virtual machines and all their management (read virtualization). That is unless VMware become well entrenched before then and solves all issues around virtual machines.

Implications: Data-at-rest encryption is easy: anyone who has a computer science degree can create one or better still download a free encryption source program from some open source website. The REAL problem is key management!

Analysis: Data-at-rest encryption is easy: anyone who has a computer science degree can create one or better still download a free encryption source program from some open source website. The REAL problem is key management! So what is key management? In order to decrypt a file (make it readable again) the user needs to provide the key to unlock the data. If you forget the key then your data will be lost forever. So what safe place do you keep the key? What if an employee who has the keys to important company documents leaves and takes the keys with them? Is there a master key to unlock those files? What if the employee simply looses the keys: how are you going to get the data back? What if 10 years from now an encrypted email needs to be decrypted (made readable) when the company goes through some legal procedures? Will the company be able to find the key after 10 years? Sure you can use one key for all your documents and emails but then if someone else who shouldn't , gets the key your whole security will be compromised. All off these problems of managing the keys and who has access to which keys when, is called key management. So the real battleground between encryption providers is who can you as an IT person trust most to provide you with a product to manage all your keys. Surely not a small company like Safeboot which explains why small companies get acquired by the big players like McAfee, Symantec, IBM and Microsoft.

Implications: The Personal Computer (PC) created a revolution, but the new generation (our kids) will not be using it. Instead they will use a Personal Communicator (PC): part phone, part instant messenger, part computer. What will happen when the consumer desktops and laptops will be replaced by the next PC? Will this change the desktop as we use it at our work? Why is the Google phone and the iPhone so important?

Analysis: The traditional desktop PC and even the laptop have a lot of limitations for the average consumer: they are complicated to use, require a lot of add-ons like Anti Virus software in order to run smoothly and they are too bulky to carry around (yes even laptops). Whereas the "older" or current generation uses the PC for home financing, email and web surfing, the younger or next generation (yes your kids) are using their PC's for different things: they no longer email each other instead they use either Instant Messaging (IM) or leave messages on each others myspace or facebook pages. They do web surfing but most of it is video oriented (youtube). They require almost 24x7 access to their computer (some even leave it on at night so it can wake them up in the morning). So no wonder that Apple's IPhone and their new iPod Touch will be a big hit (as soon as prices drop enough so the teens can afford them). This is where the Google phone comes in: it is rumored to be cheap, easy to use and provide the new generation with all the goodies they need (or not need but just want).  Once this generation goes to work they will bring their Personal Communicators (PC) to work and expect to use them there. Just like what happened years ago when people started wondering why they couldn't use desktops at work. All of this will have a big impact on not only consumer sales of traditional PC's (and all the software products for it) but also on how the enterprise data centers will deal with this set of devices that can not simply be "locked up" behind a corporate firewall. After all these new "PC's" are ultra portable so they will go everywhere and they are used for both personal and work activities. I call this the Next PC revolution. It will have a major impact and Google is smart to be part of that next revolution.

Implications: VMware acquired Dunes Technology, so now they have virtual machine management not just for their own platform but for all the virtualization solutions. Microsoft announced just recently they will support all the different flavors of virtualization as well. Is the race heating up?

Analysis: Yes the race is heating up in the virtual server world. Microsoft announced that their virtual machine management solution will support all flavors of virtualization, Citrix buys XenSource so it can add to its server management capabilities and now VMware acquired Dunes Technology a company that specializes in virtual machine (life cycle) management and support all flavors of virtualization. But the race is not over yet: in order to have a real virtual data center all aspects need to be virtualized such as server, storage and networking. And what about security, such as firewalls around virtual machines?

Implications: If your company computers are sending out SPAM then you should be very worried. If your personal computer is sending out SPAM then you probably don't know about it and you will not care about (or do you?). So does it have a virus? What kind of malware is there?

Analysis: First let's define malware. Malware is any software running on a computer that is not there to serve you the user of that computer. This includes such things as virusses (malware that replicates itself), spyware (malware that collects information about your computer or its users) and remotely controllable software that can make your computer do anything it wants (by remote control).

There are 3 types of malware. The first type is created by the lonely teenage boy who does this because he can and because he has nothing better to do. This kind of malware is mostly amateuristic and easy to protect against. The second kind is malware written by professionals who do this to make money. This kind of malware typically does not hurt the individual computer but rather uses a tiny bit of the computer to do bad things like sending out SPAM or participating in denial of service attacks. (Looks like Pfizer is having this type).  The interesting thing with this type of malware is that the average consumer might not care to pay the annual $50 fee to the anti malware companies to get rid of something that does not impact them. But this type of malware does impact the internet as a whole. The third kind of malware is the kind that steals your digital identity, it will record your user name and passwords for your bank accounts or will sit between you and your online bank account and do bad things. Interesting enough some of the "smarter" malware of this kind only takes a small amount of money from your credit card account, labels it as Starbucks (or something else you wouldn't look at twice) and you will never realize you got any money stolen. Multiply this by 10,000 computers and you have an interesting sum of (illegal) money. So Pfizer if your machines are sending out SPAM then please check your systems, next time around they might be remotely controlled to do something much much worse ...

Implications: Why is Google providing online software like spreadsheets, word documents, emails and more? Are they competing with Microsoft office or what is going on? What are the advantages of the so called Google apps?

Analysis: Google's only "ambition" is to show you their online ads. The advertisers pay them money for every ad shown, so all that Google has to do is make sure that the ads get seen by as many people as possible. So how do you keep a person "glued" to your website? At first Google provided a great (some say the best) search engine: need to find something on the web? then just Google it. But once people have found what they are looking for they leave the Google web site (and then Google can't show them any more ads). So they added Gmail: now you have to be on the Google web site to read and compose your emails, so they can show you more ads. This approach of Google to make sure the consumer spends as much time as possible on the site explains everything they are doing: Google maps, Youtube, Gmail, Google desktop and yes also the Google apps (where you can create and store spreadsheets and word documents online on Google). Google does compete with Microsoft but not on the Office front, they are competing for the eyeballs: Google wants the consumer to be in the browser on the Google owned websites, while Microsoft wants the consumer running Microsoft programs like Outlook, Office and maybe MSN search. So what are the advantages of having your document or spreadsheet on Google apps? First of all when your document is stored on Google you can access it from any computer anywhere. So if you create the spreadsheet on your work computer then you can go home at night and continue working on it from your home computer: nothing to sync, nothing to copy no messy USB thumb drives. Second advantage of storing a document on Google apps: the storage on Google is probably much more reliable then the hard disk in your computer, although Google gives no guarantees. Lastly: you can share the document on Google apps with other people anywhere on the Internet so you can collaborate. Doing this the "normal" way is just too painful: one person creates a spreadsheet, sends it to 2 other people, who all make changes and send it back to the other two people who then make changes ... pretty soon nobody knows which one is the "final" version. Having only a single document online that everyone works on is so much simpler. And bonus when two or more people are looking at the same document online at the same time then automatically a message window will pop open so you can chat about the document in real time.

Implications: What are the advantages of Office 2.0 (also knows as Software as a Service)? Why is everyone talking about it? What impact could it have on the software industry? What are the challenges for this new everything-online world? Will Office 2.0 work on the iPhone or the iPod Touch?

Analysis: The vision of Office 2.0 is that you have a totally empty desktop (or laptop) which is only running enough software so you can start an Internet browser and do ALL of your work from inside this browser. (The iPhone and the iPod Touch are perfect examples). So you will use your browser to create, edit, view word documents, spreadsheets, presentations and emails. And you will use your browser to do anything else your job currently has you using a computer for. On the home front this will also include editing and viewing your photo, video and music collections. All of your documents, spreadsheets, photo's, videos, music and anything else you currently store as a file on your computer will simply be stored "on the Internet". Thus your PC will be an empty PC. So what are some of the advantages of the "empty PC"? First of all since all of the applications and files are stored on the Internet you can access all of your data from any PC in the world. Secondly the online storage is much more reliable then the local hard disk in your computer which only has a guaranteed lifetime of 3-5 years (after which it will soon stop working and take all your files with it). Thirdly, now that everything is online and accessible from anywhere you can more easily share and collaborate on any document. What impact could it have on the software industry? The empty PC will only need a rudimentary operating system, just enough to run a browser, so no need for a new  version of Windows VISTA. The empty PC has no applications on it, so no need for Microsoft Office. Since no files are stored on the computer there is no need for backup and there is no need for virus scanning: there is nothing on the PC anymore! IT departments around the world would love to have a desktop that requires no updates, no maintenance and that can be the same for every person in the company (all the customizations can be done in your online version). There will be no need to provision a new version of the application to every desktop anymore: when a new version of the application arrives simply replace the one and only version running online and immediately everyone will be using the latest version). But the empty PC will also create new challenges: when everything runs in the browser, the browser will become the weak spot (as today the Windows operating system is): malware writers will attack the browser and make it do things the user didn't intend. So a new need will arrive to have a fully secured browser that is fully secure and at the same time fully usable to run all these Office 2.0 applications. Will somebody please step up to the plate?

Implications: Citrix now owns Xen. Microsoft owns Connectix and VMware has the first mover advantage in server virtualization. How will this play out? Why is server virtualization so important? My prediction: management of virtual machines will be the next hot thing!

Analysis: Why is server virtualization so important? Well it is all about TCO (total cost of ownership (all the costs related to keep an application up and running serving its users/customers). A virtualized server (also known as virtual machine (VM)) can basically run on any piece of hardware that is either Intel or AMD based. So no longer do the IT people have to allocate a fixed piece of hardware to running one and only one application. With virtualization they put the application inside a Virtual Machine and then they can run this VM on any piece of hardware. This flexibility alone is a great cost saver. Additionally they can run more than one VM on the same piece of hardware and thus lower their costs even more.

VMware does have first mover advantage, but once Microsoft (finally) comes out with their Viridian server virtualization product things will change. As of now most virtual machines run Windows inside so who better to get full one stop support from then Microsoft? Especially if the Viridian product is included for "free" in the operating system you just bought.

That will leave VMware and Citrix/XenSource to fight over the remaining virtual machines running Linux. Or maybe not? My money is on the management of virtual machines. The main problem is with VM sprawl: it is almost too easy to create a virtual machine so before you know it your data center has too many VM's running and now you need a solution to manage them.

Implications: What most people do not realize is that iTunes is turning into a complete Apple software platform that runs on iPhones, iPod touch, Macs (of course) as well as any Windows PC so basically anywhere. iTunes can control your photo's, your music, your video's, your ring tones, allows you to activate your iPhone, see what is playing at Starbucks and what more is being planned for iTunes?

Analysis: Let's face it: the Apple iTunes program now runs on every consumer device: the Windows desktop or laptop, the Mac, the iPhone and now even on the iPod touch device. iTunes can be used to control your photo's, your music, your video's, your ring tones, allows you to activate your iPhone, see what is playing at Starbucks and who knows what else? Apple can very easily take iTunes and use it to transfer money between consumers for example (so compete with paypal). They can make iTunes into a store where one consumer gives a copy (via WiFi) of a song to another consumer, once the receiving end pays for the song the sender gets a small "kick back". Why not turn the iTunes store into another Amazon like experience. Remember Amazon started with just books and now you can buy almost anything there. Same could happen with the iTunes store ....