Real Science Guide

Friday, January 3, 2014

Windows 8 regains uptake mojo, XP restarts death slide

Windows 8 surged in December to end the year with almost 12% of the user share of all Windows personal computers, while the destined-for-retirement Windows XP restarted its decline after a two-month pause, a Web analytics company said Thursday.

Both were good signs for Microsoft, which has bet its future on Windows 8 and implored customers to abandon the aged Windows XP.

According to Net Applications, Windows XP fell 2.2 percentage points in December to 29% of all desktop and notebook computers worldwide, the first time it breached that 30-percent barrier. But the 12-year-old operating system still accounted for nearly a third -- 32% -- of Windows-powered PCs.

Computerworld - Windows 8 surged in December to end the year with almost 12% of the user share of all Windows personal computers, while the destined-for-retirement Windows XP restarted its decline after a two-month pause, a Web analytics company said Thursday.

Both were good signs for Microsoft, which has bet its future on Windows 8 and implored customers to abandon the aged Windows XP.

Meanwhile, Windows 8's and 8.1's combined user share of all computers reached 10.5%. Of the systems running Microsoft's OS, Windows 8/8.1 owned a user share of 11.6%.

Both operating systems had taken a break in October and November from earlier trends: Windows XP's gradual decline and Windows 8's deliberate growth.

Their December changes were the largest since September, Net Applications data showed.

The gain by Windows 8 and 8.1 was likely due to new PC purchases in the last month of 2013: Most consumer systems come equipped with the newest version, Windows 8.1, which accounted for 34% of the combined total, up from November's 28%.

Windows 8's increase put some more distance between it and Windows Vista, the 2007 OS bust: The gap between it and Windows 8 increased by seven-tenths of a percentage point in December.

But Windows 8 remained far behind Windows 7's adoption. Fourteen months after its debut, Windows 7 powered 23.1% of all Windows systems, nearly twice that of Windows 8. In fact, Windows 7 grew its user share last month, adding nine-tenths of a percentage point to end December at 47.5% of all computer operating systems, and at 52.4% of those running a flavor of Windows. Both were records for the 2009 operating system, hinting that it will remain a standard for years to come.

The decline in Windows XP may have contributed to the increase of Windows 7 as well as Windows 8 and 8.1, as some users migrated from the 2001 OS to Windows 7 as a way to forestall trying the radically-redesigned Windows 8. Most businesses, analysts have said, will stick with Windows 7 as long as possible rather than incur the costs of another migration.

Microsoft must be smiling at the revival of Windows XP's downturn: The company has been aggressive in its efforts to convince customers to ditch Windows XP before it's retired from security support on April 8, 2014. For the most part, those messages have been received, even if Microsoft would prefer a faster rate of desertion: In the last 12 months, XP's user share has dropped 10 percentage points, representing a 26% decline.

Using XP's average changes over the last 12 months, Computerworld now forecasts that Windows XP will power between 25% and 26% of all personal computers at the end of April.

Net Applications measures operating system user share by tracking unique visitors to approximately 40,000 sites that rely on its analytics software.

View the original article here

Undaunted by major Snapchat leak, Stanford marching band pays homage to homegrown app at Rose Bowl

Network World - The Stanford marching band, known for its creative and sometimes controversial musical extravaganzas, geeked out during halftime of the 100th Rose Bowl football game on New Year’s Day by collectively forming themselves into the ghostly shape of the Snapchat logo on the field.

The Stanford marching band formation is the Snapchat logo. #RoseBowl100 pic.twitter.com/Mbn5pfFvno
— Daniel Brusilovsky (@danielbru) January 1, 2014

Photo-sharing app Snapchat, which was started by a pair of Stanford students in 2011, boasts a friendly ghost called “Ghostface Chillah” as its logo. Though the spookiest thing about Snapchat this week was the revelation of a major leak of the iPhone/Android program by a computer security group that said phone numbers and user names of 4.6 million users was exposed.

The security hole is a big blow to Snapchat, for discretion and privacy have been big selling points. It has gained popularity because of users’ ability to share photos that are only visible for a few seconds to specific recipients.

The Stanford marching band’s tribute to the Snapchat logo seemed to baffle the game’s halftime commentators on TV, and also probably puzzled many in the audience. As one woman tweeted:

Um the band in the rose bowl halftime show just made the snapchat logo and my dad is adamant that its a tree. He's 67 he doesn't even KNOW.
— Jay T (@OtherJuliette) January 1, 2014

One recent validation of Snapchat’s popularity were reports that the company turned down a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook, which is said to be losing some users to the service, along with other social offerings such as Twitter and Instagram.

Though it appears Snapchat is not all-powerful: Even its logo’s appearance at halftime of the Rose Bowl game couldn’t help Stanford beat Michigan State, much to the delight of some:

Stanford should lose the Rose Bowl because their marching band performance was a salute to snapchat.
— Adrienne (@_heyadrienne) January 2, 2014

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.

View the original article here

Virtualization, security advances on tap for ADCs

The application delivery controller has been more than a simple accelerator and load balancer for some time now, becoming an increasingly important component of enterprise network infrastructures over the past couple of years.

This growth in importance is illustrated by a recent Infonetics research study, which found that ADC revenues in the second quarter grew by 4% year over year, while WAN optimization, a related network management technology, saw an 11% decline over the same period.

Network World - The application delivery controller has been more than a simple accelerator and load balancer for some time now, becoming an increasingly important component of enterprise network infrastructures over the past couple of years.

As 2014 kicks off, two of the main issues for the growing ADC market are security and virtualization – the technology has several features that have implications for denial-of-service protection, and the trend toward SDN and network virtualization has many people looking for software-only application delivery.

But the technology isn’t going to turn into a cloudified, all-inclusive network management panacea overnight – experts say there is still some way to go.

+ALSO ON NETWORKWORLD: ABC's of ADCs in the cloud | ADC: It's a platform, not a product | How to shop for ADCs+

F5 Director of Technical Marketing Alan Murphy says that modern ADCs are a natural fit for the security role, particularly in light of the fact that most of today’s denial-of-service attacks target the application layer to begin with.

“The network tools that protect network perimeters from security attacks are great at network-level stuff – knowing what IP address it’s coming from, going to, source, and then protocol,” he says. “But once the attacker moves over to the application, manipulating what’s going on over the protocol … issuing a million DNS requests, for example – that’s going over the network, but the attack is actually against the DNS application infrastructure.”

ADCs, adds F5 Senior Product Marketing Manager Lori MacVittie, are better-suited than traditional firewalls to identify and defend against this type of attack, particularly where detection and classification are concerned.

“As we continue to evolve into the next year, it really becomes more important to start analyzing the behavior of the interaction with the application, and that’s something that application delivery is well-suited to do,” she says.

So will 2014 be the year to ditch your enterprise firewall and entrust everything to the ADC? Not entirely. Citrix Senior Product Management Director Steve Shah acknowledges that the issue is a hot one in the ADC market.

+ MORE ON NETWORK WORLD Read the entire list of our Outlook 2014 articles +

“Right now, the ADC landscape is getting a little conflated with the whole firewall landscape,” he says. “Do ADCs take on firewall responsibilities or don’t they? Or do we maintain separation of responsibilities? And this is where I actually believe that [in] 2014, we’re going to see further clarification of that, and I believe that separation of duties is going to win out here.”

View the original article here

FireEye snaps up cyber forensics firm Mandiant for $1 billion cash-stock deal

Security vendor FireEye today announced it has acquired privately-held endpoint security incident response vendor Mandiant for $1 billion with $106.5 million in cash.

FireEye and Mandiant said they intend to integrate Mandiant’s portfolio of products with FireEye’s to develop new enterprise and cloud products and services. For one thing, FireEye said Mandiant’s endpoint threat detection and response products will be incorporated as a core element of the FireEye Oculus platform. FireEye’s CEO Dave DeWalt says the goal is to develop comprehensive products aimed at combating advanced threats that are stealthy attacks on organizations.

+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD What to expect of Internet of Things in 2014 | Washington Post reports servers attacked, Chinese espionage suspected+

Network World - Security vendor FireEye today announced it has acquired privately-held endpoint security incident response vendor Mandiant for $1 billion with $106.5 million in cash.

+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD What to expect of Internet of Things in 2014 | Washington Post reports servers attacked, Chinese espionage suspected+

Mandiant has become known for forensic work it has done to assist a wide variety of companies, including large media organizations such as the Washington Post, determine how their networks have been attacked, often for purposes of cyber-espionage. Kevin Mandia, Mandiant’s founder and CEO, has been appointed by the FireEye board of directors to the position of senior vice president and chief operating office at FireEye. FireEye indicated it now provides its threat-protection software to more than 1,500 government, enterprise and small to mid-sized customers.

Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG website, where she covers news and technology trends related to information security. Twitter: MessmerE. E-mail: emessmer@nww.com

Read more about security in Network World's Security section.

View the original article here

Predictions gone wrong: Losing bets analysts made for 2013

Cast your mind back to the late 2000s -- when the iPhone 3G beguiled consumers and the iTunes App Store began shifting users' ideas about how they bought and used software, when Microsoft pros saw nothing but clear skies after Windows 7 cleared out the Windows Vista storm, when green technology was touted as a transformative force in IT.

In 2008 and 2009, professional tech forecasters made their best guesses about what IT would look like in 2013. These forecasts are often meant to help IT professionals figure out where they'll get the most bang for the buck in the historical three- to five-year timelines for IT planning.

[ Bob Violino and Robert Scheier show how businesses today are successfully taking advantage of mobile tech, in InfoWorld's Mobile Enablement Digital Spotlight PDF special report. | For quick, smart takes on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. ]

InfoWorld - Cast your mind back to the late 2000s -- when the iPhone 3G beguiled consumers and the iTunes App Store began shifting users' ideas about how they bought and used software, when Microsoft pros saw nothing but clear skies after Windows 7 cleared out the Windows Vista storm, when green technology was touted as a transformative force in IT.

No company wants to sink a substantial percentage of its IT budget into a flash-in-the-pan technology -- and everyone wants to be a low-cost fast follower. Established analysts' predictions are part of how IT avoids the first fate and achieves the second.

Now that future has arrived. If IT pros had listened to the forecasts in 2008, would they have spent their money wisely or well? We plumbed the InfoWorld archive for some of the forecasts made about 2013, then tried to see how they held up in a world that's since seen the iPad and the spread of mobile working, plus the explosion of cloud computing.

Prediction No. 1: The overall market for green IT services will peak at $4.8 billion in 2013

What happened: The recession happened, and "our technology is green" went from being a goal to being a side benefit. Public cloud computing providers like Apple, Google, and Facebook may be building clean-energy facilities, but they're doing so with an eye toward reducing the bottom lines on energy consumption. In the United States, "green IT" has retreated as a market.

On the bright side, however, it looks like there's still a green IT market in India. This year, Gartner is expecting Indian companies to spend $29.2 billion on technologies like advanced metering infrastructure, carbon capture, and solar energy technology.

Prediction No. 2: PC shipments will record double-digit growth from 2009 to 2013, buoyed by growing demand for laptops and netbooks

What happened: The iPad happened in 2010, and individuals have been shifting their technology dollars to tablet technologies ever since. IDC, which made the original forecast, has tracked PC sales for this year, and the news isn't good: Worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall by 10.1 percent in 2013, below the previous projection of a 9.7 percent drop.

It's the most severe yearly contraction on record and reflects a truth in IT budgets: Any sales and growth in personal computers is fueled by replacement sales. The market isn't growing. Worldwide, an estimated 314 million PCs were sold this year -- far below the 444 million PCs predicted back in 2009. People are buying iPads and other tablets instead.

Prediction No. 3: Mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web-access device worldwide by 2013

What happened: Although the originator of this prediction, Gartner, didn't respond to inquiries, other firms have been tracking Web access and have shared their findings. In March 2013, Adobe released its analysis of Web traffic to more than 1,000 websites and found that 84 percent of all Web traffic came from users on desktop or laptop computers, 8 percent from tablet users, and 7 percent from smartphone users. StatCounter, which tracks visits to websites via ad network data, found that desktop usage still dominates, at 76.1 percent.

Prediction No. 4: Windows Mobile will claim 15 percent of the global smartphone market, second to the Symbian OS's 47 percent market share

What happened: Nokia got killed by iOS and Android, that's what happened. Since IHS iSuppli made this prediction in 2009, the once-dominant force in the mobile phone market was overtaken by device makers who understood the basic truth that users care more about smartphone software than they do the hardware. When Nokia began its death spiral, it took Symbian with it, which explains why the OS has a 0.1 percent market share today.

iSuppli now says Android is the leader in the smartphone OS market with a 76.5 percent share, with Apple's iOS a distant second with 14.9 percent. As for Windows Phone, Windows Mobile's successor? It's an even more distant third with 3.9 percent of the market.

Prediction No. 5: By 2013, the enterprise mashup market will reach $700 million

What happened: Enterprise mashups, which were once defined as the integration of digital data from multiple sources for business purposes, have since been rebranded. You may know them now as part of the API and big data phenomena.

Asking analyst firms about estimated market sizes for enterprise mashups in 2013 gets you a lot of "We don't measure that market" responses. However, Gartner estimates that big data will be a $34 billion market in 2014. That's 48 times greater than the original forecast for mashups. Maybe this one will be true.

This story, "Predictions gone wrong: Losing bets analysts made for 2013," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in key and emerging technologies at InfoWorld.com. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

View the original article here

5G Wireless: Reality looks to catch up with hype

Don't feel bad if you don't really know anything about 5G wireless networking – because, by most standards, it doesn't actually exist yet. The cross-pollination of codified specifications, new products, and technological innovation required hasn't yet brought 5G to fruition.

What there has been, however, is a lot of hype. Samsung grabbed attention in May with its announcement of a 1Gbps wireless connection it referred to as “5G,” saying it would bring the capability to its production smartphones by 2020.

Network World - Don't feel bad if you don't really know anything about 5G wireless networking – because, by most standards, it doesn't actually exist yet. The cross-pollination of codified specifications, new products, and technological innovation required hasn't yet brought 5G to fruition.

+ Also on NetworkWorld: A brief history of mobile networks | A first look at gigabit Wi-Fi adapters | Blazing Samsungs, or how not to handle a product return +

The European Commission’s Horizon 2020 plan, announced this month, includes roughly $172 million for 5G research and development, and South Korea’s Yonhap News announced that country’s government would spend $475 million on developing a national 5G network, to be completed by 2020. Both proposals cite the transformative effects and massive economic benefits of 5G technology.

The problem, however, is that no one seems to agree on precisely what the term 5G even means. Sathya Atreyam, a research manager at IDC, says that it’s become a buzzword at this point.

“There are many players right now who are claiming that they are investing a lot of dollars in 5G research, [but] they’re all investing in different areas of 5G … somebody’s focused on increasing data speeds, somebody’s focused on better coverage,” he says.

“It reminds me of a story which is often heard,” Atreyam adds. “There are six blind men feeling and touching an elephant and giving their definition of the elephant. Every one is true, but it’s only part of the puzzle.”

Standards bodies like the International Telecommunication Union, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project are all tracking the various technological developments. The ITU officially recognized the IMT-Advanced standard in January 2012, though it did not use the term 5G in describing the technologies, which include the next generations of the successful LTE and the less-successful WiMAX.

It’s important to remember, of course, that even when a particular “G” term is fairly stable and commonly understood – 3G, for example, is generally agreed to refer to the ITU’s IMT-2000 standard – it isn’t a hard-and-fast official definition. Refinements in WCDMA technology produced HSPA and HSPA+, which are often referred to as “3.5G” or “3.75G,” without fundamentally changing the underlying hardware.

Indeed, those technologies were even more ambitiously titled in the recent past, according to Forrester principal analyst Frank Gillett.
“With 4G, we saw versions of 3G – HSPA+ - called 4G, and then we had to say LTE to mean true 4G,” he says. “I’m expecting to see a lot of silly marketing junk later in the decade, as the 5G stuff ramps up.”

So what might 5G technology actually look like? That’s not known for sure, but experts like Craig Mathias, a well-known wireless consultant and Network World blogger, think there are clues out there.

View the original article here

Android invades the enterprise

As the little green robot known as Android wends its way into the enterprise, it's teaching useful lessons that are reshaping corporate attitudes toward the BYOD movement.

Analysts and CIOs say the multifaceted nature of the mobile operating system is forcing companies to make key decisions about what they will, and won't, control in bring-your-own-device programs -- and those decisions are in turn cascading across all operating systems and devices.

+ Also at NetworkWorld: 2014 Tech Industry Outlook +

While Google's operating system has far surpassed Apple's iOS in worldwide mobile market share -- Android had more than 79% of the smartphone market in the second quarter of 2013, while iOS fell to 13%, according to IDC -- Apple still dominates the enterprise. According to a June 2013 activation report from mobile software maker Good Technology, 75% of the mobile activations at Good's Fortune 500 clients were for iOS devices.

Computerworld - As the little green robot known as Android wends its way into the enterprise, it's teaching useful lessons that are reshaping corporate attitudes toward the BYOD movement.

+ Also at NetworkWorld: 2014 Tech Industry Outlook +

To continue reading, register here to become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

View the original article here