Oracle takes the fight to Amazon, Salesforce.com with new cloud services

Oracle is offering a series of new services that position it as a one-stop shop for all things cloud and directly target the likes of Amazon Web Services and Salesforce.com.

While Oracle had already offered SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications, database-as-a-service and other products, it announced 10 additional cloud services at the OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

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They include Compute Cloud and Object Storage Cloud, both of which seem aimed at similar services from AWS. Oracle termed its own offerings as secure, "enterprise-grade" and "fully configurable." The services are currently in preview, according to Oracle's cloud services website.

Oracle also announced a new managed Database Cloud service that gives customers control over a dedicated instance of its database.

"We back it up nightly, we give you point-in-time recovery, we upgrade the software for it and we can also tune it for you if you need us to do so," Executive Vice President of Product Development Thomas Kurian said during a keynote address at OpenWorld on Tuesday.

Oracle is apparently offering the new database service in three tiers: Basic, Managed and Premium Managed. All three options were listed as being in preview stage on Tuesday.

That verbiage suggests Oracle wants to give customers the option of a higher-touch, and likely more expensive experience than they'd get from simply paying as they go for raw database capacity from the likes of AWS and Oracle itself.

Oracle also announced a Java Cloud that delivers clusters of Weblogic Server along with "full administrative control"; a BI (business intelligence) cloud that provides self-service tools for uploading data and generating dashboards; Documents Cloud, for file sharing and collaboration; Mobile Cloud, which includes tools for building secure mobile applications; and a database backup service. The latter three are also in preview mode.

In addition, Oracle announced a Billing and Revenue Management cloud service for companies that depend on subscription billing. This offering will directly compete with the likes of Zuora.

Finally, in a nod to Salesforce.com's AppExchange, Oracle is rolling out Cloud Marketplace, a site where partners can list applications that integrate with Oracle's own and customers can shop around.

Oracle apparently wants to present itself to customers as a company that can meet all of their cloud-related needs.

There's a benefit to this approach, said Senior Vice President of Applications Development Chris Leone, during a presentation earlier in the week.

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Hello from space! Kirobo takes huge step for robotics

Computerworld - A small robot says, "Good morning," and with that one phrase, takes a huge step forward in robot-human cooperation in space, as well as robotic companions.

Kirobo, a 13.4-in. tall, 2.2-pound humanoid robot, spoke its first words in space, while floating onboard the International Space Station last month. A newly released YouTube video shows the Japanese-built robot talking, in Japanese, in space.

"Good morning to everyone on Earth. This is Kirobo. I am the world's first talking robot astronaut. Nice to meet you," the robot said on Aug. 21. "A robot took one small step toward a brighter future for all."

The humanoid robot arrived at the space station last month aboard a Kounotori 4 cargo spacecraft that lifted off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center.

Kirobo is awaiting Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is scheduled to arrive on the space station in November to take part in a human-robotics experiment.

Wakata and the robot are expected to take part in what will be the first experiment on conversation in space between a human and a robot. While the experiment could go a long way to helping astronauts feel less disconnected while working in space, it also could further efforts to have astronauts and robots work together.

The effort also could speed the development of small companion robots that people could carry in their pockets like smartphones.

"This could be huge for robotics and for space research," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research. "Long term, I think the plan is to have robots co-exist with humans for long voyages so this would be a good proof point for that."

Whether orbiting Earth or in deep space, having a companion to talk with, even a robotic companion, could be essential.

"I would think a connection with anything, including a robot, is better than no connection," said Kerravala. "I imagine, over time, these will look more and more humanoid. Maybe not to the level of Data in Star Trek, but certainly they'll be able to act as part of a space team."

Wakata, a Japanese engineer and a veteran of four NASA space shuttle missions and a long-duration stay on the space station, is scheduled to launch onboard the Soyuz TMA-11M in November. During his mission, he will become Japan's first station commander.

Kirobo, which can move its head and arms, stand up and balance on one leg, is expected to help keep Wakata company, having conversations with him and possibly relaying information to him from the control room or ground engineers.

In an interview with the Agence-France Press news service, a French-based news agency, Kirobo's creator, Tomotaka Takahashi, a roboticist and a leader in the Kirobo project, said he wanted to create a tiny robot that users could carry in their pocket like a smartphone.

"By bringing a robot into space, the development of a symbiotic robot is expected to move along much faster," Takahashi said.

Though Kirobo is the first robot to talk on the space station, it is not the first robot to "live" and work there.

The space station, which uses several robotic arms to lift bulky cargo and maneuver equipment and spacewalking astronauts (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141196/NASA_Astronaut_rides_robotic_arm_in_successful_spacewalk ) outside the station, also is home to Robonaut 2 , which also is known as R2.

Robonaut 2 is a 300-pound robot designed to use its arms and hands to manipulate tools and to perform cleaning and maintenance jobs on the space station. The humanoid robot, which arrived on the space station in 2011, is expected to one day work outside the orbiter so astronauts won't have to make as many dangerous spacewalks.

This article, Hello from space! Kirobo takes huge step for robotics, was originally published at Computerworld.com.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

See more by Sharon Gaudin on Computerworld.com.

Read more about Emerging Technologies in Computerworld's Emerging Technologies Topic Center.

Small and midsize businesses are moving to the cloud to host their communications capabilities. Learn how enterprise-quality phone benefits, online management, conferencing, auto attendant, and ease of use are built into a system that is half the cost of a PBX.

Read now.

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Toshiba takes step toward 3D flash memory chips

IDG News Service - Toshiba kicked off a project Friday that is the first step toward a new type of memory chip that could provide vastly greater capacity at a lower cost for digital gadgets such as cameras, smartphones and tablets.

The company held a groundbreaking ceremony to begin expansion of its number-five chip fabrication building (fab 5) in Yokkaichi, a state-of-the-art chip production facility in central Japan operated by Toshiba and SanDisk under a joint venture.

The construction, which is scheduled to last a year, will see the production line expanded to accommodate additional chip fabrication capacity for NAND flash memory, including more advanced conventional manufacturing processes and early generation 3D production techniques.

3D chips are tipped to be the next big thing in the memory market and provide greater data storage capacity by stacking memory cells in layers. Using this method, greatly higher storage capacity can be realized while keeping the chips small enough to fit inside flash memory cards and the cramped insides of modern gadgets.

The project also indicates Toshiba's intention to remain a leader in the competitive flash memory market and also the company's belief that the market will continue to expand.

"After giving careful consideration to the balance of product supply and demand, and noting a recovery driven by growing demand for smartphones, tablets, SSD for enterprise servers, Toshiba now anticipates further medium- to long-term market expansion," the company said in a statement.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Toshiba takes step toward 3D flash memory chips

Toshiba kicked off a project Friday that is the first step toward a new type of memory chip that could provide vastly greater capacity at a lower cost for digital gadgets such as cameras, smartphones and tablets.

The company held a groundbreaking ceremony to begin expansion of its number-five chip fabrication building (fab 5) in Yokkaichi, a state-of-the-art chip production facility in central Japan operated by Toshiba and SanDisk under a joint venture.

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The construction, which is scheduled to last a year, will see the production line expanded to accommodate additional chip fabrication capacity for NAND flash memory, including more advanced conventional manufacturing processes and early generation 3D production techniques.

3D chips are tipped to be the next big thing in the memory market and provide greater data storage capacity by stacking memory cells in layers. Using this method, greatly higher storage capacity can be realized while keeping the chips small enough to fit inside flash memory cards and the cramped insides of modern gadgets.

The project also indicates Toshiba's intention to remain a leader in the competitive flash memory market and also the company's belief that the market will continue to expand.

"After giving careful consideration to the balance of product supply and demand, and noting a recovery driven by growing demand for smartphones, tablets, SSD for enterprise servers, Toshiba now anticipates further medium- to long-term market expansion," the company said in a statement.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com

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Internet Explorer takes the lead -- as most error-prone browser

There is good news and bad news for Microsoft in a report by Sauce Labs about browser reliability. The bad news is that Microsoft Internet Explorer has fared the worst overall in recent years. The good news is, Internet Explorer keeps getting better and better with each release.

Sauce found Internet Explorer's overall error rate to be 0.25 percent, with an error defined as a browser failing to start. While this is still a lot less than even 1 percent, the number is significant for application testers who may have to perform thousands of tests, notes Santiago Suarez Ordonez, lead back-end engineer at Sauce. The study, released Tuesday, was based on tallies of errors recorded in Sauce's Selenium, a browser behavior automation tool available in the cloud. More than 55 million tests over several years were gauged.

Findings courtesy of Sauce Labs

In Microsoft's case, errors have been reduced from IE7's rate of 0.29 percent to just 0.05 percent in IE10. "They've gotten their act together," Ordonez says. This positive trend for Microsoft could be the result of improvements in both the browser and the accompanying Windows OS, he adds. IE7, for example, was run on Windows XP, while IE10 was tested on Windows 8, Microsoft's latest version of Windows. Microsoft declined to comment on Sauce's findings.

Ordonez emphasizes that failing browsers could serve to complicate application testing if not factored in during development; tests should be prepared with this variable in mind. "The problem with browser crashes is they give you flakey results" with application failures caused by the browser rather than the application itself, he says.

For other browsers, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have had the best overall error rates, with Firefox coming it at 0.11 percent and Chrome at 0.12 percent, for the life of the study. "Firefox and Chrome have proved to be extremely reliable," says Ordonez. Safari, meanwhile ranked behind IE, with a rate of 0.15 percent, while Opera registered at about 0.125 percent. Sauce said the study was not sponsored by any vendor.

This story, "Internet Explorer takes the lead -- as most error-prone browser," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

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SAP takes the fight to Salesforce.com, Oracle with social intelligence app

Many companies have begun using specialized software to analyze what people are saying about their products and services on social media, and now SAP says it can help them match up individuals' social profiles with customer history data from CRM (customer relationship management) systems.

Dubbed Social Contact Intelligence, the application can help sales and marketing staff find better leads for sales as well as gain more knowledge about their actual customers' likes and dislikes, according to SAP.

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Social Contact Intelligence is built on top of and dependent on HANA, SAP's in-memory database platform. It's part of a broader suite, Customer Engagement Intelligence, that is now in "ramp-up," SAP's term for an initial release with a small set of customers. Currently it's only offered on-premises, but SAP is considering cloud-based deployments for the future, according to a spokeswoman.

Core CRM software is "such a commodity it's almost relegated to a system of record," said Jamie Anderson, vice president of customer solution marketing. Thanks to the rise of social media and resulting changes to the way customers interact with companies and make buying decisions, "we've realized the CRM market is evolving faster than CRM products on their own."

SAP had already been reselling software from Netbase for social media analytics, but now the Contact Intelligence product brings internal customer data to the equation, he said.

The three other elements of SAP's Customer Intelligence Engagement suite include Audience Discovery and Targeting, for running segmented marketing campaigns; Customer Value Intelligence, which gives recommendations on ways to cross and up-sell products to clients; and Account Intelligence, a mobile application for sales representatives.

Tuesday's announcement comes after SAP's unveiling in November of yet another social CRM-themed product set called 360 Customer, which ties together HANA, CRM, social analytics from Netbase and the Jam social network.

Oracle, Salesforce.com and other vendors are also moving quickly to build out social software portfolios, seeing the market as a major opportunity to sell existing customers more software when they have little interest or need to expand their core CRM system.

The competitive climate can put customers at a disadvantage, according to a recent Forrester Research report.

"Decoding and navigating the crowded social technology vendor landscape isn't easy," wrote analysts Nate Elliott and Zach Hofer-Shall. "Most vendors offer a unique range of social technologies, but no single vendor covers the entire value chain. Meanwhile, buzzword-packed marketing materials make it difficult to differentiate the players and find the right fit."

The level of emphasis and investment that companies should place on social software investments depends on their size, according to another recent Forrester report.

Immature companies should start small, analysts Allison Smith and Carlton Doty wrote: "Track down a high-impact use case, find a listening platform partner who can guide you, and experiment. This is an iterative, test-and-learn kind of process."

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SAP takes fight to Salesforce.com, Oracle with social intelligence app

IDG News Service - Many companies have begun using specialized software to analyze what people are saying about their products and services on social media, and now SAP says it can help them match up individuals' social profiles with customer history data from CRM (customer relationship management) systems.

Dubbed Social Contact Intelligence, the application can help sales and marketing staff find better leads for sales as well as gain more knowledge about their actual customers' likes and dislikes, according to SAP.

Social Contact Intelligence is built on top of and dependent on HANA, SAP's in-memory database platform. It's now in "ramp-up," SAP's term for an initial release with a small set of customers, and also part of a broader suite called Customer Engagement Intelligence. Currently it's only offered on-premises, but SAP is considering cloud-based deployments for the future, according to a spokeswoman.

Core CRM software is "such a commodity it's almost relegated to a system of record," said Jamie Anderson, vice president of customer solution marketing. Thanks to the rise of social media and resulting changes to the way customers interact with companies and make buying decisions, "we've realized the CRM market is evolving faster than CRM products on their own."

SAP had already been reselling software from Netbase for social media analytics, but now the Contact Intelligence product brings internal customer data to the equation, he said.

The three other elements of SAP's Customer Intelligence Engagement suite are generally available, Anderson said. They include Audience Discovery and Targeting, for running segmented marketing campaigns; Customer Value Intelligence, which gives recommendations on ways to cross and up-sell products to clients; and Account Intelligence, a mobile application for sales representatives.

Tuesday's announcement comes after SAP's unveiling in November of yet another social CRM-themed product set called 360 Customer, which ties together HANA, CRM, social analytics from Netbase and the Jam social network.

Oracle, Salesforce.com and other vendors are also moving quickly to build out social software portfolios, seeing the market as a major opportunity to sell existing customers more software when they have little interest or need to expand their core CRM system.

The competitive climate can put customers at a disadvantage, according to a recent Forrester Research report.

"Decoding and navigating the crowded social technology vendor landscape isn't easy," wrote analysts Nate Elliott and Zach Hofer-Shall. "Most vendors offer a unique range of social technologies, but no single vendor covers the entire value chain. Meanwhile, buzzword-packed marketing materials make it difficult to differentiate the players and find the right fit."

The level of emphasis and investment that companies should place on social software investments depends on their size, according to another recent Forrester report.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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CareerCoach Dr Joyce Russell takes your jobs questions live tomorrow 6/12 at 1 pm (EDT)

The most recent Career Coach column I wrote for the Post (June 10) was on this very topic.  That column was also for people without a college degree. But some of the tips might be helpful.

But, in your specific case, I would definitely make sure you spend some time updating your resume. Get someone to review it to make sure you have highlighted all of your major responsibilities for people, budgets, etc. Make sure your training, degrees, certifications and honors are all noted. Also, make sure it starts with a summary of your qualifications since you probably have a number of years of experiences  you can highlight in the first paragraph. This is important to distinguish yourself from others. So, the resume is the most important first step to update. 

Meet with someone about your interviewing skills. If you have not been in the marketplace for a while, you may not have had to interview in a while. So, get someone to practice with you - behavioral questions, case-based questions, etc. 

Also, make sure your social media self is current. Get on LinkedIn or some other site to make sure it has all of your current information. Get others to endorse you for various skills. Spend some time networking with others using this platform.

So, the most important things to do first - resume, social media site for yourself, and practice interviewing. Those are the most critical first steps if you have been out of the market for a while.

Best of luck!

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