The usually secretive Google has a sudden change of heart when it comes to data centres-- with "On Where the Internet Lives," an online gallery providing a tour of the insides of the Google server halls. 

"Today, for the first time, you can see inside our data centers and pay them a virtual visit," technical infrastructure VP Urs Hölzle writes on the Google Official Blog. 

The extensive photo set, with photography by Connie Zhou, covers not only the Google facilities in the US, but also the server halls (and innovative water cooling systems) in Hamina, Finland and St. Ghislain, Belgium. The pictures reveal not only racks of server equipment, but also brightly coloured piping, a guard or three, yellow Google bicycles (for employees to traverse massive floors) and dramatic vistas outside the halls.  Read more...

IBM blames the drop in income during Q3 2012 on tighter IT budgets, as businesses and governments continue to hold back on spending as economic uncertainty persists over Europe and beyond. 

Total Q3 2012 IBM sales drop by -5.4% Y-o-Y (exceeding Wall Street expectations of losses reaching -3%) to $24.75 billion, with every company segment taking a hit in revenues. EMEA revenues for Q3 2012 drop by -9% to $7.2bn. 

The company also admits a number of big software deals in emerging markets slipped into Q4 2012, while hardware sales declined due to the Read more...

Intel beats internal forecasts even if Q3 2012 revenues drop by -5% Y-o-Y to $13.5 billion, a decline CEO Paul Otellini attributes to "a continuing tough economic environment."

Operating income for Q3 2012 totals $3.8bn.

The PC Client Group is the worst performing Intel business unit, with revenues reaching $8.6bn with an -8% Y-o-Y decline. On the other hand the Data Centre Group is more positive as revenues grow by 6% Y-o-Y to $2.7bn.

Other Architecture group revenue drops by 14% Y-o-Y to $1.2bn.

When it comes to the future, Intel has one Read more...

Anyone who wants to know where Microsoft is heading just needs to check the 2012 Steve Ballmer letter to shareholders-- one pointing to a future of hardware and online services.

Perhaps taking a page or two from the Apple playbook, Ballmer talks of Microsoft building "specific devices for specific purposes" with the Xbox and Surface tablet acting as examples... all while continuing to work with its "vast ecosystem of partners" (Dell, Samsung, HTC et al).

The company will also continue the development of "new form factors" making use of touch-, Read more...

HP CEO Meg Whitman tells investors company recovery will only become visible in fiscal 2014, once investments start paying off-- blaming a lack of clear strategy and heavy executive turnover for the company's troubles.

As a result HP will continue to struggle throughout fiscal 2013, if not beyond... Operating profits for the fiscal July quarter are down by -22%, while PCs are down by -28%.

"The single biggest challenge facing Hewlett-Packard has been changes in CEOs and executive leadership, which has caused multiple inconsistent strategic choices, and frankly some significant executional miscues," Whitman remarks. Which is more than fair enough-- over the past few years HP saw a number of CEO changes (chiefly Mark Hurd and Leo Apotheker) as well as expensive shifts in company strategy (such as the Palm and webOS purchase and dismantling).

Oracle admits defeat in the bitter legal fight against HP-- following the decision of the California Superior Court, Itanium-based servers will soon get a version of Oracle database 12c. 

“Oracle will continue building the latest versions of its database and other software covered by the judge’s ruling to HP Itanium computers,” the company says. “Oracle software on HP’s Itanium computers will be released on approximately the same schedule as Oracle software on IBM’s Power systems.”

Back on August 2012 the California court decided Oracle has to support Read more...