Al Senia: April 2008 Archives

May 1 represents the 15th anniversary of the day the Web's code was placed into the public domain. So this public birthday of the Internet raises the question of whether it's been a force for good or evil.

The latest quarterly financial reports from top channel distributors have been somewhat disappointing, unlike reports from channel vendors that show overseas sales are compensating for the economic slowdown in the U.S.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a smart political (if not business) move when he told a press conference in Europe that the company might rethink its plans to completely phase-out its XP operating system.

Tech companies with a strong channel presence seem to be doing well as the earnings season starts to unfold. Despite fears of a general economic slowdown, the tech sector seems to be hanging in well.

Please, don't pass any laws that require me to actually regulate anything, especially the Internet. That's the message FCC Chairman's Kevin Martin appears to be delivering to Congress this week.

The U.S. Senate this week considers an issue of critical importance to ISPs, developers and other channel partners: The future of the Internet.

Kevin Gilroy, who headed Arrow Electronics' Enterprise Computer Solutions Group for the past 15 months, is leaving for personal reasons. He's the fourth person to hold the top position in the last two years.

It's a good idea to develop a set of rights for Web peer-to-peer file sharers, but a proposal put forth by Comcast has generated its share of controversy and shows how tough it is to find common ground.

Isn't it about time to start boycotting the corporations that are outsourcing IT jobs to India? As the U.S. economy continues to tank, IT outsourcing to India is reaching an all-time high. You can thank Wall Street and corporate America for that.

Microsoft plans to stop selling the Windows XP operating system to retailers and manufacturers on June 30, but that hasn't stopped legions of supporters from using the Web to try to halt the inevitable move to Vista. More than 110,000 users have signed an online petition demanding XP be kept available.

So you like to "share" music, video and other possibly copyrighted information over the Web. Do you have a right to Web access. Yes, if you are a European Union citizen. No, if you live in the U.S.

The ongoing Cisco Partner Summit has provided an interesting look at the technologies the IT industry and the channel are starting to embrace. Videoconferencing, digital signage and physical security are three of the hottest areas. Dig a little, and there's no doubt that physical secuity is by far the scariest.

Cisco is holding its channel partner summit this week. A good deal of the discussion at the event has centered around the shortage of skilled IT workers and the need to do something about it. Well, the first thing that might be done is for these vendors to quit shipping so many technical IT jobs overseas to save money.

With the airline industry in a state of complete chaos, will someone tell me why video on the Web (the fancy name for plain old videoconferencing) fails to take off? Like everyone else, I dread the discomfort, humiliation and uncertainty of air travel in the United States. If any technology ever had an opportunity handed to it on a silver platter, this is it. I mean, let's face it, anything is better than getting on an airplane these days.

Michael Dell has talked with Wall Street analysts and performed the usual soft-shoe dance so common among CEOs whose companies face financial difficulties. First, more employees will get the boot (precise numbers not known) as part of the cost-cutting "mission," a dumb reflex-response designed to placate those fixated on short-term solutions that in the long term destroy the company and its brand.

F.C.C. Chairman Kevin Martin, a true believer in letting big business consolidate however and whenever it pleases, has delivered what history will judge to be one of the most disingenous speeches ever before the CTIA wireless industry group.Martin praised himself and his fellow fat cats for guaranteeing "openness" in the wireless business. Does this man live in the same country as the rest of us?

Dell, which has just announced $3 billion in cuts and has shed 3,200 workers during the last nine months, is making moves toward both managed services and the channel in an effort to bolster its business. The vendor faces the difficult challenge of redefining itselt amid a looming economic slowdown. The question is, what role will it have the channel play in its future plans?