Articles about IBM

Year after year computers increase in power. Processors become faster and gain more cores, memory also speeds up and becomes more plentiful. But we're reaching the limits of what can be achieved with current technology -- a real sea change is needed to take things to the next level. Many futurists have set their sights on the possibilities encompassed in quantum computing.

Eschewing the binary states of 1 and 0, bits are replaced with qubits which can hold three states -- on, off, or both at the same time. This introduces the opportunity for much greater computing power, but also introduces more opportunities for errors to creep in. Now IBM engineers have found a new way to detect and correct errors, hopefully creating the building block on which future quantum computers may be built.

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Last week Amazon.com was the first of the large cloud service companies other than Rackspace to finally break out revenue and expenses for its cloud operation. The market was cheered by news that Amazon Web Services (AWS) last quarter made an operating profit of $265 million with an operating profit margin of 19.6 percent. AWS, which many thought was running at break-even or possibly at a loss, turns out to be for Amazon a $5 billion business generating a third of the company’s total profits. That’s good, right? Not if it establishes a benchmark for typical-to-good cloud service provider performance. In fact it suggests that some companies -- IBM especially -- are going to have a very difficult time finding success in the cloud.

First let’s look at the Amazon numbers and define a couple terms. The company announced total AWS sales, operating profit, and operating profit margins for the last four quarters. Sales are, well, sales, while operating profit is supposed to be sales minus all expenses except interest and taxes (called EBIT -- Earnings Before Interest and Taxes). Amazon does pay interest on debt, though it pays very little in taxes. Since tax rates, especially, vary a lot from country to country, EBIT is used to help normalize operating results for comparing one multinational business with another.

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Last week we reported on IBM's decision to open up its threat intelligence data in X-Force Exchange to help fend off cyber attacks.

Today the company is making its threat intelligence system QRadar available as a cloud service, giving companies the ability to quickly prioritize real threats and free up critical resources to fight cyber attacks.

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With cyber attacks often being driven by organized crime rings and the tools and expertise behind them widely shared, threat intelligence is more important than ever to fend them off.

Announcing today that it's opening up more than two decades' worth of cyber threat intelligence IBM is seeking to unite, mobilize and rally the private sector to defend itself against increasingly sophisticated and organized cyber threats.

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If you began your IT career in the 1980s or before you probably have fond memories of spooling up half-inch, nine-track magnetic tapes. You'd be forgiven for thinking that in the age of affordable large capacity hard disks and SSDs tape storage was now firmly confined to the past, but not so.

IBM scientists working with FUJIFILM of Japan, have demonstrated a recording density of 123 billion bits per square inch on tape, the equivalent of a palm-sized 220 TB tape cartridge.

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The Indiana Legislature is in the news for passing a state law considered by many to be anti-gay. It reminded me of the famous Pi Bill -- Bill #246 of the 1897 Indiana General Assembly. There’s a good account of the bill on Wikipedia, but the short story is a doctor and amateur mathematician wanted the state to codify his particular method of squaring the circle, a side effect of which would be officially declaring the value of π to be 3.2.

The bill was written by Representative Taylor I. Record, sent to the Education Committee where it passed, went back to the Indiana House of Representatives where it again passed, unopposed. Then the bill went to the Indiana Senate where Professor C.A. Waldo of the Indiana Academy of Science (now Purdue University) happened to be visiting that day to do a little lobbying for his school. Professor Waldo explained to the Senators the legislative dilemma they faced.

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A flaw in the Dropbox SDK for Android could potentially put large numbers of MS Office files stored in the cloud at risk.

IBM's X-Force Application Security Research team has discovered a severe vulnerability in Dropbox's software development kit (SDK) used by Android app developers to connect to Dropbox so users can tap into their files via an app.

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I haven’t been writing as much lately. This has been for several reasons, some of which may surprise you. It’s true I’ve had to spend a lot of time fending-off attacks from IBM corporate (more on that below) but I’ve mainly been at work on two secret projects. One is a new documentary series for PBS and the other a new technology startup I’m doing with a partner. The PBS series will be announced when PBS decides to announce it but most of the shooting is already done. The startup has taken the traditional VC route and looks, surprisingly, like it will actually be funded. Evidently if your idea is wild enough and your partner is smart enough it’s still possible for an idiot (that would be me) to make it in Silicon Valley. This project, too, will be announced when the money is dry, hopefully in a week or two.

In the meantime I’ve been working on several columns. One of these, about Yahoo, has been especially frustrating. There was a time when companies actually wanted reporters to write about them, but I guess those days are past. I e-mailed Yahoo corporate communications (twice) and have yet to hear back from [email protected]. I called (again twice) the number they give on Yahoo press releases, leaving messages both times but have yet to get a call back from 408-349-4040. For awhile the Yahoo press site was completely down.

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Tech giant IBM unveils IBM Spectrum Storage, a new storage software portfolio designed to address data storage inefficiencies. The portfolio is aimed to change the economics of storage with a "layer of intelligent software".

The software creates a "data footprint", which stores data at the optimal cost, thus maximizing performance and security. The Spectrum Storage incorporates more than 700 patents to help users move massive amounts of data fast and easy, from a single dashboard.

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Many of the things we do online require an ID and password, but typically whilst this makes things easier for the site it doesn't always do a lot to protect the user, who may be revealing more information than they need.

For example you may have to reveal your full date of birth and address to a video streaming service in order to verify your age and region, running a risk that the information may fall into the wrong hands.

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gad·fly (ˈɡadˌflī/) noun.  1. a fly that bites livestock, especially a horsefly, warble fly, or botfly. 2. an annoying person, especially one who provokes others into action by criticism.

Sometimes being a gadfly is exactly what’s required. That’s certainly the case with IBM and has been for the almost eight years I’ve been following this depressing story. Gadflies came up because IBM finally reacted today to my last column predicting a massive force reduction this week. They denied it, of course -- not the workforce reduction but its size, saying there won’t be even close to 110,000 workers laid off -- and they called me a gadfly, which was apparently intended as criticism, but I’m rather proud of it.

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IBM’s big layoff-cum-reorganization called Project Chrome kicks-off next week when 26 percent of IBM employees will get calls from their managers followed by thick envelopes on their doorsteps. By the end of February all 26 percent will be gone. I’m told this has been in the planning for months and I first heard about it back in November. This biggest reorganization in IBM history is going to be a nightmare for everyone and at first I expected it to be a failure for IBM management, too. But then I thought further and I think I’ve figured it out…

I don’t think IBM management actually cares. More on this later.

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There's an old computing joke that says the difference between software and hardware is that hardware is the bit you can kick.

To celebrate software's 60th birthday business package selection specialist Capterra has produced an infographic charting the history of the bit you can't kick. It'll provide a trip down memory lane for anyone involved in computing.

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There are now many names vying to control your inbox. It is not enough to have your email delivered to the inbox of your choice now the battle is to present email in the most understandable, the most accessible, and the least cluttered way possible. IBM Verse is the latest kid on the block, as it looks to divert attention away from Google Inbox and Microsoft Clutter.

Billed as a "new way to work", IBM Verse is more than just another inbox tool -- it is a combination tool that manages email, tasks, collaboration and more. It clearly has enterprise markets in its sights as it brings communication, tasks, sharing and social features under one roof. To further differentiate it from other comparable services, IBM Verse uses advanced analytics to completely tailor itself for individual users.

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Twitter provides a unique window into public thinking and that can be useful for businesses, not only to see what people are saying about them but also to get an insight into market trends.

In order to help enterprises understand their customers and markets, IBM and Twitter have announced a partnership that will allow Twitter data to be used in IBM's cloud-based analytics platforms.

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