The wireless LAN switch market is facing a major shakeout in 2004, so IT executives shopping for 802.11 gear need to take special care to pick an architecture that suits their long-term plans and a vendor with staying power. Expect to see start-up vendors dropping out of the market and those with an established wire presence surviving.
Sometimes I guess it pays to be overly optimistic. HP certainly hopes so after CEO Carly Fiorina Tuesday said that 20% percent profit growth for the company was achievable in 2004.
I guess there’s some room for optimism, after all HP posted a net income of $2.5 billion on revenue of $73.1 billion for its fiscal year, ended Oct. 31. Fiorina says she sees the economy getting better. And heck, the Dow even flirted with 10,000 on Tuesday.
Still, only a year ago, HP had a $928 million loss on $72.3 billion in revenue. And there are plenty of challenges ahead. IBM and Dell to name two of them. HP covets IBM’s service business. Big Blue rakes in some 50% of its revenue from services these days and HP – which gets about 17% of its revenue from services – would love a bite of that pie.
“I know it is popular these days to describe HP as stuck between IBM and Dell,” she said. “This is not a company stuck. This is a company that leads in virtually every category in which it competes.” Fiorina characterized Dell as “low tech, low cost,” and IBM as “high tech, high cost.“
Posturing aside, ultimately, it’s good to see a big company predicting happier days ahead.
Fortinet delves into data to search for intrusions
Fortinet is announcing software to supplement its traditional firewalls that inspects the content of individual packets and reconstructs data streams to look for intrusions.
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1209fortinet.html?net
First test of IPv6 network goes well
An early test of a multisite, next-generation Internet, powered by IPv6 went well, and the coalition of groups working on the so-called Moonv6 project said this week they will conduct more comprehensive tests starting in February.
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1209moon.html?net
Novell joins Linux consortium
Novell this week furthered its Linux initiative by joining the Open Source Development Labs, a consortium of companies that are accelerating Linux adoption.
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1209novellinux.html?net
Microsoft to stop offering host of older products
Microsoft will stop distributing several older products next week as a result of a legal settlement with Sun in a dispute over Java, Microsoft said.
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1208microtost.html?net
