IBM Embraces Java
A Bruised Apple
Just one week before the company was to announce its third fiscal quarter results for 1997, Apple Computer made headlines with the news that Gil Amelio, the company's chief executive officer and chairman of the board, resigned. While Apple initiates a search for a CEO, Apple's chief financial officer Fred Anderson will assume responsibilities for daily operations, working closely with the board and the executive management team. During the interim period, Apple's cofounder and strategic advisor, Steve Jobs, will assume an expanded role as a key advisor to Apple's board and executive management team. Apple's executive VP of technology, Ellen Hancock, also announced her resignation.
It is only inevitable that rumors and speculation should surface after such news. Apple claims that Amelio chose to leave the company because the board was unhappy with the company's financial performance. Meanwhile, the San Jose Mercury News hinted that Jobs -- who had Amelio to thank for Apple's buyout of Next and his subsequent return to Apple -- took an active role in Amelio's departure.
Nobody will deny that Jobs has been staking out territory at Apple since his return. He has filled several key Apple positions with his former Next employees. He has also made several business suggestions that the board gladly implemented. The company is failing and needs guidance, which Jobs is more than willing to offer. How much of a crime is that? Nevertheless, sources say that Jobs is not expected to be named CEO of the company, although he will serve on the committee that will select the new CEO. In my mind, the real question is not who will Apple choose to be Amelio's successor but, rather, who will accept such a high-profile, high-risk, and potentially doomed position.
Compaq Attack
Compaq Computer Corp. made a surprise entry into the high-end computing arena when it announced plans to acquire Tandem, effectively making Compaq the number one server supplier in the world. Under the terms of the U.S. $3 billion agreement, Tandem will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Compaq. Earlier, Compaq came extremely close to merging with Gateway 2000 Inc. Gateway founder and CEO, Ted Watt, called off the proceedings at the last minute when he suspected that his company and employees would become subordinates -- rather than equals -- of Compaq.
Compaq stands to benefit from Tandem's high-end servers, reseller channel, and field force of systems integrators, giving Compaq an ideal Trojan horse to penetrate the high-end computing marketplace and compete directly with giants IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Moving forward, the newly fattened Compaq intends to strengthen its server clustering, OLTP, e-commerce, messaging, security encryption, database, and SmartCard technology efforts.
Benchmark Pressing
Arbor Software and Hewlett-Packard announced the first result for the Analytical Processing Benchmark-1 (APB-1), a new industry-standard online analytical processing (OLAP) benchmark designed by the OLAP Council. The benchmark was created to measure overall system performance and scalability for a realistic sales and marketing analysis OLAP application and was run on an Intel architecture-based server. According to the audited results, an Intel Pentium Pro processor-based HP NetServer and Arbor Essbase OLAP Server can deliver more than one million complex OLAP queries per day to hundreds of concurrent users; the cost per query was $0.00029.
Anyone Want to Go Bean Dipping?
IBM made several Java-related announcements, including the release of Java-based development tools, ready-to-integrate JavaBean components, and "Bean Dipping" technology. Among the new products are VisualAge for Java, a fully integrated Java development environment; and VisualAge WebRunner, a subscription-based toolkit of Java productivity technologies to complement and extend VisualAge to the Java development environment. The Bean Dipping technology will be included in Bean Extender, an add-on to VisualAge WebRunner. Using IBM's Bean Dipping technology, you will be able to customize existing JavaBeans by adding functions -- such as security licensing and systems management -- without reprogramming or recompiling code.
Redmond Update
Microsoft recently shipped the latest addition to its BackOffice family, Microsoft Site Server 2.0. Built on NT and Microsoft Internet Information Server, Site Server helps you enhance, deploy, and manage Internet and intranet Web sites. Version 2.0 will ship with Microsoft's Visual InterDev tool as well as with server personalization software from the Microsoft Commercial Internet System, site-usage analysis software, and site-mapping technology.
Microsoft also announced that it acquired LinkAge Software Inc., a Toronto-based developer of email connectivity and directory synchronization software. By adding this new technology to its arsenal, Microsoft hopes to offer customers a smooth migration path from legacy messaging systems to Microsoft Exchange Server.
White Out
Just as this issue went to press, Informix Software Inc. announced that Robert J. "Bob" Finocchio Jr. was to replace Phil White as president and CEO of Informix. Finocchio will also join the company's board of directors, and White will continue his role as chairman of the board. Expect more news on this announcement, as well as from the Informix Worldwide User Conference and Exhibition, next month.
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Updated Friday, August 8, 1997
