Thursday, June 28, 2012

Reno Agrees to Tax Breaks to Attract Apple Project


Sometimes you just have to give a company a tax break.  Regardless of size.  On Wednesday, the Reno City Council approved major tax breaks to coax Apple to open two facilities in northern Nevada as part of a $1 billion investment over 10 years.  In exchange for this, Apple will be building a 350-acre data center just east of Sparks for its cloud computing service.  The negotiations were done under the name “Project Jonathan” for the apple. 

Reno officials agreed to the city's portion of a deal that includes $89 million in county, city and state tax abatements.  Analysts say that's a 79 percent reduction in Apple's tax burden.  They predict the project will create about 500 temporary construction jobs and, once completed, generate $343 million in economic activity over the next decade.

The data center will eventually employ up to 41 full-time employees and 200 long-term contract employees.  Construction will create 580 temporary jobs, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, of the $105 million in tax revenue the project is expected to produce during a ten-year period, state, and local governments will see just $16 million.  First, the state can waive all but 2 percent of the sales tax rate for the server equipment Apple purchases for the data center.   

Then,by opening a second location in a special tourism improvement district in downtown Reno (Primarily to receive the servers. These  will then get trucked out to the actual data center) Apple will be eligible to be reimbursed 75 percent of the 2 percent sales tax it still owes.  The overall sales tax for the expected $1 billion in servers Apples buys will be   0.5% rather  than 7.5%.

This isn’t Apple’s only foray into Nevada.  By managing its investments through a subsidiary in Reno, Apple avoids California’s 8.84% tax rate.  In Nevada, there is neither state corporate income tax nor capital gains tax.  Major tax savings versus having this done in California. 
   
Sometimes you have to wonder who does the numbers on these deals.  Probably the same people who do justifications for cities and states to pay much of the cost of new sports  facilities.  The county commission’s endorsement in a hearing in a hearing that lasted   20 minutes, with no one testifying in opposition.  Overall, a sweet iDeal for Apple. 

Average daily high during the summer around Sparks.  90 degrees F. Average daily low during the winter. About 20 degrees F. There will  be some major power used for  at this facility, just for  heating and cooling.


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

270 Days into Meg Whitman’s Tenure as CEO of Hewlett Packard


270 days into Meg Whitman’s tenure as CEO of Hewlett Packard and battleship HP is listing.  When interviewed by the Wall Street Journal June 26  about Hewlett Packard’s situation, CEO Meg Whitman replied, "Most turnarounds in American industry are anywhere between four and five years.  And we're at the beginning of the journey, not the end of the journey.  Ultimately, you will see the sales decline slow and start to grow again, with the caveat that our services businesses may be a smaller but more profitable business." 

The stock hit a one-year low of $16.24 on June 26.  This is even a 7 year low. Hewlett Packard’s  52 week high of $37.70 occurred last June. June 28 update - A new low of $19.12 was hit.

Some Recent Occurrences   

In a memo sent to channel partners (obtained by CRN) and signed by "The HP Channel Leadership Team,"  the channel was told that executives Scott Dunshire and Mike Parrottino are switching the roles within HP that they were assigned to only two months ago. 
 
The lawsuit over Hurd’s payout of $40 million by Hewlett Packard  was dismissed (this was good!) http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/22/us-hp-hurd-lawsuit-idUSBRE85L0XE20120622
 
The Oracle - HP court case still has not been settled.  It should be decided shortly.  http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/HP-Oracle-Dispute-Over-Itanium-Now-in-Judges-Hands-473740/
 
HP announced that about 8,000 of the planned 9,000 of the layoffs  will be in the US.  Bad for the US.  She has announced that some of the cuts will be through attrition.  http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/258293/hp_to_trim_9000_jobs_in_us_as_part_of_costcutting_plan.html
 
Hewlett-Packard   released an open source version of WebOS that can be used on legacy TouchPad tablets on June 27.  This is good. Meg Whitman had talked about this soon after being named CEO.   http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228561/HP_releases_open_source_webOS_Community_Edition_for_TouchPads
 
"There is a lot of frustration and disappointment about what has happened" at HP, said J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, adding that the tech giant will have to demonstrate significant improvement within a year to reassure skittish shareholders.  http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_20908742/hp-hewlett-packard-long-term-turnaround-tests-investors-patience

There is not a lot of confidence within the channel or the marketplace.There has to be a rudder on this ship somewhere. Whitman has to explain how her actions fit into the big picture of a turnaround.  And the actions have to begin to affect positive change. Or she won't be around to celebrate her fifth or second anniversary of being named CEO.

Seminal Moment for Meg Whitman and Hewlett Packard http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/05/seminal-moment-for-hewlett-packard-and.html

 
 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

AV-Comparatives.org Performance Test (Suite Products) - Impact of Internet Security Suites on System Performance (May 2012)


AV-Comparatives.org has released their Performance Test (Suite Products) -  Impact of Internet Security Suites on System Performance . They make  clear that the results are intended to give an indication of the respective internet security suites’ impact on system performance.  The table below has the top five from the test, Webroot, Avira, Avast, Eset, and Sophos.  Also included are the bottom two in the test, Fortinet and PC Tools. 
 
The second through fourth columns are all tests by AV-Comparatives.org.  The second column is a subset of the results from their performance test.  Test cases for this involved file copying,  archiving/unarchiving,  encoding/transcoding, installing, uninstalling, and launching applications, and downloading files.

The rankings  from AV-Comparatives'  May  2012 Whole Product Dynamic Test, and overall results from their March On Demand Detection Test are in the next two columns.  BitDefender came in a five-way tie for first in the Whole Product Dynamic test with 99.1% blocked.  G Data took top honors on the On Demand Detection Test.

The last column is from AV-Test.org   and their March/April testing on consumer internet security suites.  They scored the products on Protection, Repair, and Usability.  BitDefender Internet Security Suite was the top product with 17 out of 18 points.  www.av-test.org













As you would expect, performance, as in speed/impact on system performance,  means little when it comes to how well a product stops malware (though it does give a company some bragging rights).   In looking at the other columns, it shows that to  make an informed decision, you should look at multiple tests (not a lot of correlation between the three columns).  However, given the double-digit rankings for the products that were the “fastest” in the other tests, you should look to see which products topped the testing. 

About AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. Go to the AV-comparatives website for complete details about the organization, the many tests they perform, and to download copies of test reports.


Friday, June 15, 2012

Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – May 2012


AV-Comparatives.org has released their latest Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – May 2012.  An informative document that will be updated multiple times over the course of the year.  What’s even more interesting than the results alphabetically by vendor is going online and sorting by performance.  Isn’t that what it’s all about?  The numbers below are "percent captured".

May Real World Protection Results from AV-Comparatives.org

Four  of the companies that were in the top five in April remained in May.  BullGuard dropped out of the to five.  BitDefender was in a 6-way tie with ESET, F-Secure,   G Data, Kaspersky, and Qihoo for the lead position.  Yes, all the companies listed below had the same capture rate.

99.1 - BitDefender
99.1 - ESET
99.1 - F-Secure
99.1 - G Data
99.1 – Kaspersky
99.1 - Qihoo

The top rated free product was Avira.  They placed twelfth.  Ahnlab and Webroot were in   twenty-first and twentieth    positions, respectively, with 93.3 and 93.8.  Webroot moved up one.  All products captured over 90% in May testing.  This wasn’t the case in April.

April Real World Protection Results from AV-Comparatives.org

99.8 – BitDefender
99.4 – G Data
99.2 – Kaspersky
99.2 – BullGuard
98.4 – Qihoo

As always, this is just one test.  Individuals or companies evaluating the ability of products to detect and capture malware should visit www.av-comparatives.org , www.virusbtn.com and www.av-test.org to view the results of other tests.  The nice thing about these organizations is that they tend to use relatively large samples in testing, which improves the legitimacy of the results.    There is more to product quality than a number of "likes" on a Facebook fan page.

To learn more about testing in general, there are a number of informative (and free) white papers on the Ant-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) web site www.amtso.org .

About AV-comparatives     www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which is providing independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.  Go to their website to view all the great comparative reports and surveys they publish.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

June 2012 OPSWAT Report on Worldwide Security Industry Market Share Analysis

OPSWAT Inc. has released  their June 2012 report,  “Security Industry Market Share Analysis”.  The data OPSWAT used was collected between May 16, 2011 and May 15, 2012.  It's worthwhile to check out the detailed report.  You can also learn a bit more about OPSWAT, their reports, products  and some free  tools they have available

There were some major changes in  the order of the top five over the last several months.  Avira fell out of the top five.  Microsoft and ESET moved up.  Symantec entered the top five and AVG Technologies dropped from third to fifth.  Globally, over the last six months, AVG Technologies had the largest loss in market share with about 2%, and ESET the largest gain, with about 2%.  A couple of nice graphics illustrate market share and gain/loss for both global and North America.  The detailed report has a listing of the top 10.  These top 10 have 89% of the market, according to OPSWAT.

Avast must be pleased where they are in the rankings as they prepare   for their IPO (Initial Public Offering).  They claim an installed base of over 189 million end points. Market share is important. That's where the revenue comes from. A  party may be in order. Live music by the Czech band Monkey Business, perhaps.

Antivirus Worldwide Vendor Market Share June 2012 - OPSWAT
  1. 17.4% - Avast
  2. 13.2% - Microsoft
  3. 11.1% - Eset
  4. 10.3% - Symantec
  5. 10.1% - AVG Technologies
Worldwide Security Industry Market Share Leaders March 2012
  1. 16.3% - Avast
  2. 11.7% - Avira
  3. 11.0% - AVG Technologies
  4. 10.1% - Microsoft
  5. 10.1% - Eset
AV Products Worldwide Market Share

Microsoft Security Essentials has a dominant percent of the market in this with 21.3%, followed by Avast Free Antivirus and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition with 8.2%, and 7.7%, respectively.  Again, the OPSWAT report lists the top ten.

You’ll also want to check out the Security Industry Market Share Analysis report for Worldwide and North America Operating System market share.

As always, the market share leaders aren’t always the top rated ones in testing.  From the AV-Comparatives March 2012 report,  “On-demand Detection of Malicious Software”,    G Data and Avira were first and second correspondingly, with 3 stars.  Symantec didn’t participate.  Twenty vendors are in this report.  For the vendors listed above, where they ranked on the award levels table and the number of stars awarded:

10. Avast - 3 stars
11. ESET – 3 stars
16. AVG Technologies - 1 star
17. Microsoft – 1star (had the fewest false positives)

Go to AV-Comparatives'  Report "On Demand Detection of Malicious Software" (On demand comparative) - March 2012 for details.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/en/comparativesreviews/retrospective-test 


Also, BitDefender scored higher than all the other vendors tested in a March/April report published by AV-Test.org.  BitDefender scored with 17 out of 18 possible points.  With respect to OPSWAT market share, though, they are in “Other”.

The OPSWAT report also contains information about Windows Operating System Deployments, and Backup (client and vendor) market share.  A nice, free (!) report.  Well worth checking out.  The AV-comparatives report mentioned above is free, as well.
 
About OPSWAT 
www.opswat.com

Founded in 2002, OPSWAT is the industry leader in soft¬ware management SDKs, interoperability certification, and multiple-engine scanning solutions. 

OPSWAT market share reports are available at http://www.opswat.com/media/reports 

AV-Comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.  www.av-comparatives.org


http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-2012-opswat-report-on-worldwide.html

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

AV-Test Product Review and Certification Report – March and April - 2012, Top Products from AV-comparatives.org



During March and April, AV-Test (www.AV-Test.org  ) tested twenty-two  consumer   internet security products in the areas of protection, repair, and usability.  The highest score possible in each category was 6.0.  The test was on Windows 7.  The top 10 products, and  total scores  are contained in the table below.  You’ll have to go to the av-test.org web site for the individual scores and to download free one-page reports on each of the companies.  The web site doesn’t total and rank the results.  Two products failed certification.  These were from AhnLab and ESET.

The top internet security products in order were -  BitDefender Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security, F-Secure Internet Security, G Data Internet Security, AVG Free, AVG Internet Security, BullGuard Internet Security, Norton Internet Security, Panda Cloud Antivirus, and Avira Internet Security.















Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 was AV-comparatives.org Product of the Year, with BitDefender Internet Security 2012, F-Secure Internet Security, and Avira Internet Security 2012 receiving  Top Rated recognition.



For the January/February results on Windows XP:
 
There are many test groups out there.  You should also look at test results from Virus Bulletin  www.virusbtn.com  and AV-comparatives  as well. 

About AV-Test.org  http://www.av-test.org

The AV-TEST Institute is a leading international and independent service provider in the fields of IT security and anti-virus research.  The aim of the research work carried out by AV-TEST is to directly detect the latest malware, to analyze it using state-of-the-art methods and to inform their customers of the top-quality results obtained.

About AV-Comparatives  www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.