EMC Strengthens Services with Internosis Purchase
By Joyce
Tompsett Becknell
This week EMC purchased Internosis, a North American
professional services organization specializing in Microsoft integration.
Internosis provides EMC with over 235 billable consultants focused on
Microsoft environments which EMC
can use for Microsoft and Exchange migration. According to EMC, Internosis’s location in Washington, DC will
provide them increased Federal business capabilities as well. EMC also believes that Internosis brings
capabilities for additional Microsoft Messaging and Database services.
Most companies that
have grown out of the storage space have begun moving away from a uniquely
hardware focus to incorporating either enhanced software or new services. EMC is one of the organizations who have chosen to
pursue both directions aggressively through a series of acquisitions and organic
growth. Most of the press EMC
has received has been for its acquisitions in software over the last few years
as it has expanded the company’s focus and capabilities. At the same time, EMC has been more quietly expanding its services
focus to both meet customer needs and to give EMC a broader strategic positioning to meet
corporate goals. EMC continues to see itself expand from being a
storage company to an information infrastructure company. Bolstering the
Microsoft focus and service offerings within EMC builds its credibility both as a services
organization, and as an overall provider of evolving information
infrastructure. This is also a necessary skills infusion to EMC. Evolving compliance and governance, tiered
storage based on application needs, vertical industry requirements, and backup
and disaster recovery implementations are making storage needs more specific
company to company, and application to application. EMC needs to have specialists for different
environments. By adding staff with Microsoft-specific capabilities, EMC is building its credibility. This is
particularly important when competing with IBM, whose internal global services and partner
services capabilities are extensive. EMC should be able to use these additional services
offerings to attract new customers who may not have considered EMC in the past, or who may only be using them as a
storage equipment provider.
The tricky bit of this
movement is that about half of all Microsoft work right now is fulfilled by EMC’s partners. This is a nice revenue stream for
those partners, and could lead to channel conflict in theory. In practice, the
consultants EMC has absorbed already have clients, about half
of which are public sector. EMC
has also worked out a go-to-market plan for overlapping accounts that should
minimize any potential conflict. The net/net should be exposure of EMC to new accounts and a richer solution set for EMC’s portfolio. Now if we can just get them to
expand in Europe as well.
Big
Blue Seeks to Improve the Patent Process
By Clay Ryder
IBM has announced an initiative it is undertaking
with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Open Source Development Labs
(OSDL), members of the open source software community, and academia that is
focused on improving U.S. patent quality. The goal of this partnership is to
improve patent quality and help accelerate innovation in the U.S. There are
three elements of the initiative. First is the Open Patent Review program that seeks to establish an open,
collaborative community review within the patenting process to encourage
communities to review pending patent applications and to provide feedback to
the patent office on existing prior art that may not have been discovered by
the applicant or examiner. Second is the Open
Source Software as Prior Art project that will establish open source
software as potential prior art against patent applications. OSDL, IBM, Novell, Red Hat, and VA Software’s
SourceForge.net will develop a system that stores source code in an
electronically searchable format, satisfying legal requirements to qualify as
prior art. Third is the Patent Quality
Index (patentqualityindex.org)
an initiative that will create a unified, numeric index to assess the quality
of patent applications. The effort will be directed by the University of
Pennsylvania with support from IBM
and others in order to create an index constructed with extensive community
input, backed by statistical research in order to become a dynamic, evolving
tool with broad applicability for inventors, participants in the marketplace
and the USPTO. The three initiatives are open to all who are interested, and
broad participation is encouraged. The USPTO has planned a public meeting to
further the projects at its offices in Alexandria, VA on February
16, 2006.
As the single largest
generator of patents each year, IBM
would certainly benefit from an enhanced patenting process. However, we believe
that the initiatives proposed by the Armonk Company are more than self-serving
and are genuinely in the best interest of developers, vendors, and the patent
process as a whole. Back when innovation and thus patents were much simpler and
more concrete, and akin to building the better mousetrap, the amount of time
and expertise required in order to process patents was less. However, in
today’s reality the patent process has become burdened by an onslaught of new
innovations, some mired in deep technological black magic, some contested, and
some flat-out silly. (Remember BT trying to patent the hyperlink?) Patent
Examiners, and the economy as whole, need new tools to assist in providing the
valuable service of patent registration and examination.
We believe that the
move to document open source code as prior art is one of the most important
aspects of these initiatives. As the sheer amount of open source continues to
grow, and businesses are increasingly being eager to deploy such code, the
legal ownership and patentability of said code must be firmly understood. When
recognized as prior art, patents descendent from innovation developed on top of
open source can be clearly delineated from the works that have already been
created. To us, this would simplify the process for patent examiners, especially
when equipped with the ability to search existing open source code easily. In
addition, encouraging the broader community to comment on the patent process
could assist examiners when it comes to deeply technical or mind-numbing
abstractions, and thus help move the process along. The Patent Quality Index
likewise could provide a very valuable resource in helping prioritize the
review process by separating the wheat from the chaff, as it were. Overall, we
are quite pleased to see the discussion of the patenting process being
championed by several key players in the IT space and will watch with keen
interest as to how these initiatives unfold in the months to come.
Microsoft
Wins: Free Software Foundation Gears Up
By Susan Dietz
Microsoft has won its
case to enforce is patent of File Allocation Table software through the
reversal of two non-final rulings. The FAT file system, originally developed
for DOS, is employed in Windows as well as on removable storage memory cards
such as those used in digital cameras and other devices. FAT is also supported
by some Linux- and UNIX-related products in order to facilitate data exchange
with Windows-based machines. The Patent Office had agreed to re-examine two
patents covering the FAT system at the request of the Public Patent Foundation
in April 2004 based on the organization’s claim there was prior art that proved
Microsoft was not the inventor. PPF also was concerned that Microsoft would
seek royalties from Linux companies which could harm the free software
community as the Free Software Foundation's General Public License prohibits
distribution of software that requires royalty payments. Winning the patent
case will enable Microsoft to require companies to either pay a licensing fee
or quit using FAT in their works. Microsoft has previously licensed FAT, and
indicates that it intends to continue doing so. Meanwhile, the Free Software
Foundation has redrafted its General Public License for release next week. The
GPL is aimed at protecting the interests of free software and open source
distributors.
While we believe that
the U.S. Patent Office has more legal precedent and authority than the Free
Software Foundation, the GPL still has some clout, and it will be interesting
to see how any skirmishes that may occur between the two change
the current landscape.
As of press time,
Microsoft had not posted any comments on its web site concerning the win. It
may be that Microsoft is waiting for the release of the GPL and the results of
any dust-ups between the Patent Office and Free Software Foundation before
deciding whether to pursue any action. Some possible future moves by Microsoft
could include enforcing its rights either on companies that were in direct
competition while using FAT, companies that would be attractive to Microsoft in
a mutual licensing agreement deal, or government organizations using FAT as
part of their open-source software. Since the JDA (Japan Defense Agency) and
the Japanese Cabinet are both currently looking at the way the United States
government is using open source, any moves that Microsoft makes in that
direction could have unintentional ripples of consequences that reach across
the Pacific. If major government-backed open source initiatives ultimately
decided to abandon FAT support, it would cause an unfortunate schism that could
once again serve to separate as oppose to integrate computer systems. But
perhaps a more likely outcome of all of this is that Microsoft was seeking to
protect itself and its deep pockets from some other company in the future
patenting FAT and then demanding steep payments from the Redmond Giant. We
shall see.
