Doug Kass (bio)

McAfee Inc. said it will provide Facebook's 350 million users with a free, six-month subscription to a jointly-developed, custom suite of its security software.

The solution includes McAfee's security software, a special scanning and repair tool and education materials that Facebook will make available to its users.

The agreement spans a one-year time period. After the initial six-month offer expires, Facebook users will be able to purchase the McAfee software at a special discount rate.

Facebook said that it will not profit from its agreement with McAfee. The company said that it is "applying all financial incentives from this partnership to the benefit of its users and will not be taking a share of any revenue from user subscriptions."

Facebook has set up a series of steps its users must follow should their account be compromised, including re-securing the account and learning some best security practices, the companies said.

Custom McAfee technology to clean a user's infected system is included in the process.

A majority of developers plan to move at least a portion of their IT resources to the public cloud this year, according to a recent study by Evans Data Corp., a Santa Cruz, CA-based researcher.

Data from the researcher's Cloud Development Survey conducted at the close of 2009 revealed that 87 percent of the 400 participating developers will move up to half of their IT resources to the public cloud within the next 12 months.

The results, which signal developers' belief and hesitation with the public cloud, show that the "hybrid cloud is set to dominate the coming IT landscape," the researcher said.

Janet Garvin, Evans chief executive, said that the hybrid cloud, which retains elements of public and private cloud environments, addresses security and government compliance issues that act as impediments to public cloud adoption.

"The hybrid cloud presents a very reasonable model, which is easy to assimilate and provides a gateway to cloud computing without the need to commit all resources or surrender all control and security to an outside vendor," Garvin said.

The survey also revealed that most developers (55 percent) prefer MySQL as the database for use in the public cloud, and that 64 percent expect their cloud applications to extend to mobile devices.

The survey examined a variety of issues surrounding cloud development, including time lines for public and private cloud adoption, obstacles and perceived benefits of cloud computing, collaborating and developing in the cloud, tools and architectures for cloud development, and virtualization in the private data center.

Distributor Ingram Micro Inc. said that increased demand for memory and mobile storage prompted it to expand its relationship with Transcend Information Inc., a Taipei, Taiwan-headquartered maker of IT storage and multimedia gear, to include the U.S. market.

Ingram's prior distribution agreement with Transcend has been confined to Latin America and a portion of Asia Pacific.

Under terms of the agreement for the U.S. market, Ingram will carry Transcend's entire product portfolio, including its memory modules, flash memory cards, USB flash drives, MP3 players, portable solid state drives, multimedia products and accessories.

Tom Hogan, senior director of Ingram's components division, called worldwide demand for memory and mobile storage "virtually limitless," and said that the distributor's expanded deal with Transcend presented a "great opportunity for retailers, e-tailers and channel partners to drive incremental sales and enhance their support services."

MJ Cho, Transcend vice president, said that the memory maker has a "great relationship with Ingram Micro in other regions worldwide" and is "eager to replicate this success in the U.S."

On its website, Transcend lists 14 distributors for the U.S. market, including Synnex. The company said it also sells through online retailers TigerDirect.com, PC Connection and Buy.com as well as consumer chains Staples, Target and Crutchfield. 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cisco Systems Inc. is dropping some hints that extensions to its Easy Lease end user financing program currently running in Europe might soon be headed for the U.S. market.

In an online video posted last week, Maryann von Seggern, Cisco Capital director of worldwide channels development, said that an Easy Lease promotion in Europe--in which the vendor doubled the size of the offer and expanded the coverage, while eliminating limitations--might be headed to the U.S. shortly.

In describing that offer, von Seggern said, "Cisco has doubled down on its investment. It is now available across all segments, all products, up to 250,000 Euros."

The offer to which von Seggern refers is Cisco's zero percent, 36-month financing deal running through July 2010 that requires a minimum purchase of 1,000 Euros and a combination of the vendor's gear adding up to 70 percent of the total solution, with its hardware accounting for 10 percent of the installation.

"The uptick on it has been significant. In fact, we're going to see in short order something coming from the U.S.," von Seggern said.

Outside the U.S., Cisco channel financing is available to one-tier channel partners only. Service providers are not eligible to participate in the program.

Brian Wiser, Ingram Micro senior vice president, sales and marketing, carried the Olympic torch at a relay event at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, held in mid-December. The Olympic torch is being transported in relay events some 45,000 kilometers across Canada, a 106-day journey that began in Victoria, BC on October 30, 2009, concluding on February 12, 2010 in Vancouver, BC., opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Wiser, who was sponsored for the event by Acer, carried the Olympic Torch for about 300 meters, the equivalent of 328 yards or slightly less than one-fifth of a mile.

Sun Microsystems Inc.'s innovative 60-day try-and-buy program, which invited users to select and evaluate products and solutions ranging from servers and workstations to storage units and networking cards--including full product warranty and technical support--is set to expire on Friday, December 18.

 

The try-and-buy program, which the vendor initiated some three years ago, primarily was aimed at IT managers, developers and channel partners interesting in examining Sun's products or looking for additional demo units for their customers.

 

The vendor urged customers to apply online for the free equipment and to try it on for size for a 60-day period. Users could opt to purchase gear they wanted and return the remainder within the accepted window of time with no charge.

 

Sun said it will accept applications through this Friday.

Hewlett-Packard Co. has appointed Ron Coughlin to senior vice president of the vendor's LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions global business unit housed in its Imaging and Printing group.

 

With the appointment, which HP said is effectively immediately, Coughlin will report to Vyomesh Joshi, IPG executive vice president.

 

Coughlin is tasked with leading teams responsible for HP's LaserJet business, the portfolio of which includes devices, supplies, software and solutions targeted at small- and medium-sized businesses, enterprise customers and consumers.

 

He joined HP more than two years ago as senior vice president of worldwide strategy and marketing for the IPG. Before joining HP, he was a senior vice president and chief marketing officer at PepsiCo. Coughlin is based in San Diego, CA.

 

He succeeds David Murphy, who is leaving HP to pursue other professional interests.

Avnet Technology Solutions said that Lisa Friesenhahn, the distributor's vice president of SMB solutions, has been presented a prestigious award from IBM Global Services for developing innovative approaches to improving the channel and fostering the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

 

Friesenhahn is only the second recipient of the IBM Global Services Marguerite Butterworth Lifetime Achievement award since its inception in 1997. Butterworth, an IBM vice president, developed processes to help grow the Global Services business into the channel.

 

"Throughout her career at Avnet, Lisa has dedicated herself to helping our suppliers and reseller business partners pursue new opportunities to accelerate their growth," said Jeff Bawol, Avnet president.

 

Friesenhahn has worked in technology channels for 23 years and is credited with leading projects-- such as developing an automated order processing system and constructing a program to help partners navigate the maze of solutions-based sales--to advance IBM's Global Services business in the channel.

 

Avnet said that Friesenhahn is a key factor driving its ranking as the top distributor selling IBM Global Services in eight out of the past 10 years.

 

Prior to her current position, Friesenhahn served as the distributor's vice president of leasing, services and remarketing sales.

 

"IBM Global Services Marguerite Butterworth Lifetime Achievement award is an incredibly rare honor reserved for executives who have played significant roles in transforming our channel and the way we conduct business," said Archie James, IBM Global Services director of channel services.

 

"Lisa has been instrumental in helping us shape our product and services strategy for the channel and she has been a driving force in creating programs that make it easier for our partners to do business and profitably target new market opportunities."

A study commissioned by Cisco Systems Inc., entitled Securing the Mobile Workforce, revealed that a majority of organizations may be unprepared to enable their remote and mobile workforce in the event of a disruption such as a natural disaster or a transportation failure.

 

The study, which was conducted by InsightExpress, a Stamford, CT-based researcher, consisted of interviews of 502 IT decision makers from all sizes of businesses in the health care, financial and retail industries, as well as the government and education sectors.

 

The survey's findings suggested that without the proper infrastructure to support remote work by a significant percentage of employees, many businesses risk not being able to conduct operations as usual should an event hinder people from going to work.

 

Research findings indicated that enabling a remote workforce is not a high priority for IT executives. Some 53 percent of those interviewed in the survey said that less than half of their employees were set up to work remotely and 21 percent said that none of their workers did so.

 

Slightly less than 40 percent said that their business did not dictate having to enable employees from remote locations. Moreover, only 22 percent felt confident that their current remote access solutions prepared them to continue operations in a disaster situation. Only a small percentage (15 percent) believed that disaster preparation was a sufficient reason to provide remote access to employees.

 

The study did point to the high value that IT executives placed on employee productivity and, of those that had adopted mobility and remote access, most (62 percent) said that it had resulted in higher productivity among their workers, with the associated benefits of boosting employee satisfaction and reducing overhead costs.

 

Cisco said the survey results varied somewhat by industry, with the health care and financial industries better prepared for disaster than the retail, education or government segments.

 

The vendor observed from the survey's results that companies perhaps are not sufficiently heeding the call to enable remote access solutions to prepare for unexpected business interruptions.

 

"IT departments should take note--secure remote access and business continuity go hand-in-hand," said Fred Kost, Cisco director of security solutions marketing.

 

"Technology that lets workers outside the office securely connect to the corporate network is a win for employees and employers. Preparing your network now in the event of unforeseen events is good business practice but as this survey shows, many enterprises today have a long way to go."

A research study commissioned by Fujitsu indicated that industry hype is turning CIOs away from the benefits of desktop virtualization and hampering moves toward a virtualized desktop infrastructure.

 

The survey, conducted by Vanson Bourne, a U.K.-based researcher, consisted of interviews with 100 CIOs in private sector organizations in the U.K. featuring more than 1,000 desktops.

 

Some 49 percent of the survey participants said that desktop virtualization technologies promised more than they can deliver.

 

Among companies with 1,000 to 3,000 desktops, 60 percent said that desktop virtualization's hype exceeds its delivery. Larger organizations with more than 3,000 desktops were less critical of the technology, with only 38 percent questioning it.

 

In specific industries, manufacturing organizations (64 percent) are most skeptical about desktop virtualization when compared to more optimistic businesses in retail, financial services and other sectors.

 

Fujitsu officials noted that CIOs in the study seemed to dismiss the proven cost savings and energy efficiencies of server virtualization technologies when considering its impact on a hosted virtual desktop infrastructure. More than 75 percent have no plan to move to desktop virtualization.

 

"What's clear from the research is that the IT industry is doing its usual job of over-hyping the benefits of a technology without showing the real and tangible benefits it can bring," said Ian Bradbury, Fujitsu UK and Ireland solution design director.

 

"The industry has been talking about desktop virtualization in some form for over 15 years--from server-based computing to thin client and blade PCs. Our belief is that desktop virtualization is coming of age, with the next three years being the time CIOs will really challenge the way they manage and deliver their desktop environment."