Pemda San Fransisco menerapkan eGov dan Open Government Movement menggunakan Open Source

Dengan menggunakan Open Source, Pemda San Fransisco telah berhasil menghemat biaya jutaan dollar,serta membuat sistem informasi yang dikembangkannya menjadi andal dan aman.

Berikut ini adalah Komite Teknologi Informasi yang dibentuk untuk mengawal penerapan Open Source di organisasi Pemerintahan ini.

Committee on Information Technology (COIT)

Under the provisions of the City and County San Francisco Administrative Code, information resources are the strategic assets of the City and County of San Francisco that will be managed at the direction of the Committee on Information Technology (COIT).  The COIT Software Evaluation Policy will require a standard, rigorous evaluation of the operational benefits and total cost of ownership of new software.   The Software Evaluation Policy will require departments to consider open source alternatives, when available, on an equal basis to commercial software, as these may reduce cost and speed the time needed to bring software applications to production.  (Open source software means that the underlying source code is not copyrighted and therefore available free of charge to read, modify, and build upon.)  This policy is part of the City’s “Open SF” project which is intended to engage our constituents in developing creative solutions to our shared challenges.

Purpose
The purpose of the COIT Software Evaluation policy is to ensure that all departments thoroughly and fairly evaluate software alternatives, including open source prior to acquiring new software.  New software means an additional software system or a complete replacement of an existing system, rather than an upgrade or modification to an existing system. COIT believes that a rigorous evaluation process will help departments make software choices that meet operational requirements, reduce costs, and possibly speed the time to bring software applications into production.  The intent is that this process occur concurrent with existing procurement process and not add additional time to the procurement process.

Policy
The Software Evaluation Method or equivalent method must be used for all new software purchases over $100,000.  COIT directs that the Software Evaluation Method or equivalent method be used for all new software purchases, including non-application software, such as databases, operating systems, web application servers.  The Software Evaluation Method shall be available on the COIT website and will be developed and maintained by the City’s Chief Information Officer.

• Departments are responsible for completing the Software Evaluation Method or equivalent method at two possible junctures:
  1. In cases where requirements have been established, but no software solution identified, the Software Evaluation Method or equivalent must be part of the evaluation of responses to a Request for Proposal or similar procurement vehicle; or
  2. In cases where a software solution has been identified, the Software Evaluation Method must be applied prior to commencing a request for bids through the Technology Store or similar procurement vehicle.

• The CIO will reject purchases that do not document that they have followed the COIT Software Evaluation Method or equivalent process.
• The CIO will determine whether a department has made a good faith effort to consider open source software alternatives, and may reject purchases that do not.
• The Performance and Planning and Budget Subcommittees will review each Software Evaluation as part of its oversight of IT projects.
• New enterprise agreements for existing software used by the City are not considered a new software acquisition.
• Exceptions to this standard can be granted by COIT upon request by department.

10 Kesalahan Strategi Microsoft selama 1-Dekade

Besok pagi kita akan memasuki Dekade baru Abad ke-21. Di awal dekade yang telah berlalu, Microsoft sebagai Raksasa Software ternyata telah membuat 10-kesalahan strategi yang mengakibatkan dominasinya dibidang software makin berkurang. Kesalahan2 itu adalah sbb:

1. Kesalahan Strategi Korporasi: Dalam memasuki milenium Abad-21, MS menganggap bahwa strategi lamanya akan tetap dapat dipakai untuk tetap menguasai pasar software.  Ternyata Ia keliru. Bila para pesaingnya dapat maju pesat dengan berbagai innovasi, MS tetap saja dengan strategi yang itu-itu saja, sehingga mengakibatkan keunggulannya menurun.
2. Kegagalan Windows Vista: Sebelum diluncurkan, produk ini dipromosikan sebagai operating system yang terbaik yang akan menggantikan Windows XP. Kenyataanya produk ini gagal, dan akhirnya digantikan oleh Windows 7.
3. MS follows the leader: Ketika Apple meluncurkan iPod, MS meluncurkan Zune. Ketika Google mendominasi Search Engine, MS meluncurkan Live Search dan kemudian Bing. Ketika Google mengembangkan pasar Online Advertising, MS ikut membuat platform Advertisingnya sendiri. Jadi MS adalah follower, bukan leader.
4. Kegagalan Windows Mobile: Pada awalnya memang OS ini menarik bagi Korporasi, namun ketika RIM memunculkan BlackBerry, Apple memunculkan iPhone dan Google memunculkan Android, maka terlihat bahwa Windows Mobile menjadi obsolete.
5. Gagal menjadi leader Web-based OS: Sebagai raksasa dunia software, secara logika seharusnya MS mempin pengembangan Operating System berbasis Web. Tetapi hal ini terjadi sebaliknya, Google yang menjadi leader-nya.
6. Gagal menjadi leader bisnis Online: Yang terjadi, Google berhasil memanfaatkan Search Engine-nya menjadi bisnis multi-billion Dollar.
7. Melawan Regulator: Kesalahan lainnya dari MS adalah perlawanannya terhadap regulator anti-monopoli di banyak negara, yang akhirnya MS terkena denda besar.
8. Kalah bersaing di Browser: MS Explorer kalah besaing dengan browser2 baru yang menampilkan berbagai feature, seperti Firefox dan Opera.
9. Keamanan sistem yang tidak terjamin: Masalah terbesar yang dihadapi oleh MS Windows sampai saat ini adalah sistemnya yang terus mendapat serangan karena sistem keamanannya yang masih longgar.
10. Pertempurannya dengan Open Source: Selama satu dekade MS terus saja melakukan pertempuran dengan komunitas Open Source yang merugikan citranya, walaupun pada akhir-akir ini MS berusaha untuk mendekati komunitasOS. Namun hal ini masih diterima dengan skeptisme.

Berita lengkapnya terlampr dibawah ini:

News Analysis: Microsoft has had a rough 10 years. The company entered the 2000s with big expectations. It is leaving the decade fighting competitive and regulatory battles on multiple fronts. We take a look at the mistakes Microsoft has made over the past decade that has caused it to get to where it is today.

As the end of the decade nears, quite a few things have changed. Ten years ago, Bing, Chrome, Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist. Windows 7 didn’t exist. Not even the iPhone, the iPod Touch or the netbook were around. It was an exciting decade. But one thing that has remained relatively constant over that period is Microsoft’s position in the marketplace.

The software giant that entered the 2000s is still a software giant. But over the past decade, its grip on the industry has slipped somewhat. It’s no longer the invincible leader that some users expected it to be going into the 2010s. Today, Microsoft is less powerful than it once was.

That’s mainly due to the mistakes the company has made over the past 10 years. Unfortunately, Microsoft believed that it could coast, easily dominating any market that it competed in. The company also failed to see the future, forcing it to play “catch up.” Worst of all, Windows Vista severely affected brand loyalty. Suffice it to say that it has been a tough 10 years for Microsoft.

Let’s take a look at the mistakes Microsoft has made to cause those problems.

1. Corporate lethargy

Microsoft walked into the new millennium on top of the tech world. The company had enjoyed unbridled success with Windows. Internet Explorer reigned supreme. It was a great time for the company. But over the course of the past 10 years, it quickly became clear that Microsoft believed that it could perform just as well without much worry of the competition or regulators. In fact, Microsoft engaged in the same strategies. In the meantime, the competition was innovating. It quickly put Microsoft back on its heels. But the damage was done. Microsoft believed the 2000s would be just like the 1990s. How wrong it was.

2. Windows Vista

Arguably one of Microsoft’s biggest blunders, Windows Vista was everything a Windows operating system shouldn’t have been. It was overrun with compatibility issues. Security was a major concern. And worst of all, companies thought better of deploying it in their operations. It was no small problem. With Windows XP, Microsoft was solidifying its presence as the dominant force in the operating-system market. But Windows Vista made vendors, consumers, and the enterprise think twice about the software giant. It has yet to repair the relationships with those stakeholders.

3. Follow the leader

When Apple released the iPod, Microsoft released the Zune. Once Google dominated the market with Search, Microsoft released Live Search and, more recently, Bing. As Google cornered the online-advertising market, Microsoft shot back with its own advertising platform. And that’s just the tip of a very big iceberg. Microsoft did very little innovating over the past decade. For the most part, the competition did special things, while Redmond came up with a less-successful alternative. It can’t make those same mistakes going forward.

4. Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile is another source of regret for Microsoft. The platform that once appealed quite well to the enterprise is now an afterthought. Both RIM’s BlackBerry and the iPhone have made Windows Mobile devices obsolete. Worst of all, Microsoft’s arch nemesis, Google, developed the Android mobile platform, which also stands above Microsoft’s platform.

5. Web-based OS

As the top software maker in the OS space, just about anyone would expect Microsoft to be first to the online-OS market, right? Think again. Google beat Microsoft to the Web. And in the process, it firmly cemented itself as a major competitor going forward. Microsoft had the opportunity to lead the way to the next decade. Instead, it’s forced to follow Google. It can still turn things around in the 2010s, but it better hurry up.

6. Google’s online dominance

The Web is Google’s domain. But with a little more foresight, it could have been Microsoft’s. Over the past decade, Google has consistently innovated. The company realized what people really wanted out of Search. They knew what online services users were asking for. Google even understood how to turn Web advertising into a multi-billion dollar business. Microsoft didn’t. And now, the company is trying desperately to catch up. If Microsoft started sooner in the decade, it wouldn’t be in this position today.

7. Regulator scuffles

Microsoft shouldn’t have fought government regulators nearly as much as it did over the past 10 years. The company spent a large portion of its time battling it out with regulators, all the while making it a bigger target for those same governing bodies going forward. And in the end, the government won several of those battles. Microsoft’s tangles with regulators turned out to be more trouble than they were worth.

8. Internet Explorer

When Microsoft entered the past decade, the company’s Internet Explorer easily ruled all others. Today, it still does, but to a much lesser extent. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera are viable alternatives that have attracted customer attention through neat ideas that Internet Explorer was slow to adopt. Granted, Microsoft’s browser is still the market leader. But as it continues to lose market share with each passing year, it might only be a matter of time before Internet Explorer loses its standing in the market.

9. Security missteps

Windows security has been the subject of much debate over the past decade. Some have said that it has improved. Others have said that it has only gotten worse. In either case, one thing is certain: Windows security continues to be a thorn in Microsoft’s side. There are more malicious hackers than ever. There are more threats to data security than ever. It’s a bad time for OS security. And so far, Microsoft has done little to turn the tide.

10. The battle against open source

For the past 10 years, Microsoft has engaged in a battle with the open-source community that has only further divided the two camps. It should be noted that in recent months, Microsoft has made strides to reach out to the open-source community, but for now, that group is still skeptical of the software giant’s intentions. By turning its back on open source for so long, Microsoft has found itself on an island as the market, led by Google, moves to open source and others, led by Microsoft, attempt to keep software closed.

Once again, Microsoft was on the wrong side of history. (sumber: eWEEK)

Regulator Eropa khawatirkan akuisisi SUN oleh Oracle membahayakan kelanjutan MySQL sebagai Open Source

Komisi Eropa mengkhawatirkan akuisisi SUN Microsystem oleh Rumah Software Database Proprietary Oracle dapat menyebabkan rumah software Open Source MySQL yang sangat populer di seluruh dunia akan tidak lagi dikembangkan, sebab produk ini sejenis dengan produk utama Oracle, yaitu Database. Seperti diketahui, software MySQL sebelumnya telah dibeli oleh SUN Microsystem seharga 10 kali lipat Pendapatan tahunannya.

Namun manajemen Oracle membantah tentang kemungkinan ini, sebab tujuan Oracle adalah untuk mematahkan domnasi software SQL dari Microsoft di pasar menengah kebawah, dengan tetap mengembangkan MySQL yang Open Source.

Pengembangan software Open Source umumnya dilakukan oleh para pengembang independen diseluruh dunia secara sukarela. Namun sering kali juga software-software Open Source yang populer dibantu pengembangannya oleh software besar Propritary untuk mengimbangi dominasi pesaingnya seperti contoh Oracle tersebut diatas.

Saat ini perusahaan software yang sukses mengembangkan model bisnis murni berbasis Open Source adalah RedHat, dimana Ia menggunakan dua jalur produk, yaitu operating  system RedHat di jalur proprietary untuk mendapatkan penghasilan yang besar, dan jalur open source dengan produk Fedora untuk pengembangan yang didukung para pengembang independen dari seluruh dunia. Berikut ini adalah berita lengkapnya.

——————-

SAN FRANCISCO — In many ways, MySQL embodies the ideals of the populist software movement known as open source, in which a program’s creator releases it to the world free of charge, and legions of volunteers contribute improvements that are also freely shared.

The start-up company came out of nowhere, building a database application beloved by vibrant, young Internet companies. Logging in from homes scattered around the globe, its workers seemed more a part of a virtual commune than a corporate monolith, and they relished taking on proprietary software giants like Microsoft.

But like most open-source companies, MySQL’s sales, tied to support deals, never matched the astronomical number of downloads for its product, about 60,000 a day. In January 2008, the founders decided to sell the company for $1 billion to Sun Microsystems. And this year, Sun agreed to sell itself to Oracle, which makes database software aimed at larger companies and tougher jobs, for $7.4 billion.

Now, disagreement over the value of MySQL — both as a stand-alone entity and as part of a big company — lies at the heart of a bitter public battle between Oracle and the European Union over the Sun acquisition. The fight illuminates a larger truth about open-source companies: their societal and strategic importance far exceeds their financial value as operating businesses.

European regulators view MySQL as sort of a database of the people, a low-cost alternative to Oracle’s costly proprietary products. The regulators worry that Oracle may stop improving MySQL in favor of protecting its core traditional products, and customers will lose an important option in the database market.

“In the current economic context, all companies are looking for cost-effective I.T. solutions, and systems based on open-source software are increasingly emerging as viable alternatives to proprietary solutions,” said the European Commission’s competition chief, Neelie Kroes, in a recent statement. “The commission has to ensure that such alternatives would continue to be available.”

Oracle, meanwhile, insists that it will continue to develop MySQL and other Sun technologies. Oracle’s chief executive, Lawrence J. Ellison, contends that MySQL serves a different part of the database market than Oracle’s main products do — an assessment supported by many analysts. One main incentive for Oracle to keep improving MySQL is that the program serves as a bulwark against Microsoft’s SQL Server database, which challenges Oracle’s products on the low end.

“The commission’s statement of objections reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics,” Oracle said in a statement.

To Ms. Kroes’s point, there is an open-source alternative, and usually a pretty good one, to just about every major commercial software product. In the last decade, these open-source wares have put tremendous pricing pressure on their proprietary rivals. Governments and corporations have welcomed this competition.

Whether open-source firms are practical as long-term businesses, however, is a much murkier question.

The best-known open-source company is Red Hat, which produces a variant of the Linux operating system for server computers. Like most of its peers, Red Hat offers a free version of its base product and relies on selling support services and extra tools for revenue. In its last fiscal year, which ended in March, the company’s revenue rose 25 percent to $653 million, and it reported net income of $79 million.

But Red Hat is a rare case. “There’s only one company making real money out of open source, and that’s Red Hat,” said Simon Crosby, the chief technology officer at Citrix Systems, which acquired the open-source software maker XenSource for $500 million in 2007. “Everyone else is in trouble.”

The enduring appeal of open-source software revolves more around its disruptive nature than blockbuster sales.

As long as there has been software, there have been some people eager to share and improve it for the common good. The rise of the Internet made such sharing easier than ever, enabling people the world over to work together on projects outside the confines of a formal corporate structure.

Open-source software has thrived and played a prominent role in the building of the Internet’s infrastructure. Many companies rely on Linux-based computers and Apache Web server software to display their Web pages. Similarly, the Mozilla Firefox Web browser has emerged as the most formidable competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

The grass-roots nature of open source has led advocates to view the projects as a populist foil to proprietary software, where a company keeps the inner workings of its applications secret.

But in the last decade, open-source software has become more of a corporate affair than a people’s revolution.

In some cases, dominant technology companies have used open-source projects as pawns. Google, for example, has needled Microsoft by providing financial support to the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, which oversees of the development of Firefox. I.B.M. has been a major backer of Linux, helping to raise it as a competitor to Microsoft’s Windows and other proprietary operating systems.

Many of the top open-source developers are anything but volunteers tinkering in their spare time. Companies like I.B.M., Google, Oracle and Intel pay these developers top salaries to work on open-source projects and further the companies’ strategic objectives.

In the last three years, there have been five big acquisitions in which a major technology company bought an up-and-coming open-source company for many times its annual revenue. Sun, for example, bought MySQL for about 10 times its revenue, while Citrix bought XenSource for more than 150 times its revenue, according to people familiar with the companies’ sales.

Most recently, VMware, the leading maker of virtualization software, brought SpringSource for $420 million, or about 20 times its annual sales.

“A lot of these guys were getting close to an I.P.O., but they elected to go the acquisition route instead,” said Michael Olson, the chief executive of Cloudera, an open-source start-up. “A lot of open-source firms are one-product companies, and it’s hard to build a long-term, successful business that way.”

The larger technology companies have tended to buy these one-trick ponies for strategic purposes. With its core server business declining, Sun hoped it could piggy-back on MySQL’s momentum with Internet companies. In SpringSource, VMware acquired a company that had cultivated deep interest with software developers and helped VMware diversify beyond its virtualization roots.

“VMware took into consideration that which money can’t buy, which is a critical mass of adoption,” said Peter Fenton, a venture capitalist at Benchmark Capital, who has been involved in some fashion with many of the large open-source deals. “SpringSource’s main product was the equivalent of a best-selling novel.”

Citrix took perhaps the biggest risk of all, paying a huge premium for XenSource in the hopes of disrupting VMware’s position in the virtualization market.

“I don’t think Citrix would ever say it paid too much,” Mr. Crosby said. “Citrix leaped to the forefront of a whole software category. The ability to talk credibly about virtualization is worth a huge amount in its own right.”

Meanwhile, the ideal of an independent open-source giant has faded.

Mr. Fenton said that many open-source advocates had once hoped Red Hat would scoop up the top open-source start-ups, keeping these crown jewels out of the hands of proprietary software makers. But the company failed to go after other open-source companies initially and later could not afford to pay the high prices offered by larger companies.

“You could make the case there was a window of opportunity to do that three to five years ago,” Mr. Fenton said. “That opportunity has gone away. And it’s hard to put Humpty Dumpty back together again now.” (source: The NYT)

Tender Internet Pedesaan: Keunggulan Open Source Software

JAKARTA: Enam dari 25 penyelenggara jasa Internet (PJI) dinyatakan tidak lolos prakualifikasi proyek Internet perdesaan Desa Pinter.

“Mereka tidak lulus seleksi dokumen,” ujar Gatot S. Dewa Broto, Kepala Pusat Informasi Depkominfo, kepada Bisnis kemarin.

Keenam perusahaan itu adalah PT Cyber Network Indonesia (Mitra), PT Inet Global Indo, PT Nettocyber Indonesia, PT Sejahtera Globalindo, PT Total Info Kharisma, dan PT Core Mediatech.

Gatoto menambahkan ada tiga perusahaan yang dikurangi jumlah paket incarannya karena tidak lulus di paket wilayah tertentu.

“Seperti PT Indointernet yang semula berencana menawar di semua paket berkurang menjadi enam paket saja,” katanya.

Departemen Komunikasi dan Informatika (Depkominfo) melalui Balai Telekomunikasi dan Informatika Perdesaan (BTIP) Ditjen Postel membagi pengerjaan proyek Desa Pinter dari dana Universal Service Obligation (USO) menjadi 11 paket pekerjaan.

Ada tiga paket favorit peserta, yaitu paket 4 Jawa Barat dan Banten dengan pagu anggaran tahun pertama Rp41,5 miliar, paket 5 Jawa Tengan dan Yogyakarta dengan pagu senilai Rp35,6 miliar, serta paket 7 Bali, Nusa Tenggara Barat dan Nusa Tenggara Timur dengan pagu senilai Rp27,9 miliar.

Sebanyak enam perusahaan dinyatakan tidak lulus mengikuti paket 4, sementara empat perusahaan tidak lulus prakualifikasi di paket 5 dan paket 7.

PT Telkomsel dan PT Indonesia Comnet Plus, yang mendaftarkan diri juga sebagai calon peserta, diketahui telah memenangi hak kontrak sebagai penyedia program USO untuk akses telekomunikasi bagi 31.824 desa atau disebut Desa Berdering. Kedua perusahaan tersebut dinyatakan lulus prakualifikasi di seluruh paket.

Penggunaan Software Sumber Terbuka (Open Source)

Terkait dengan spesifikasi terminal komputer pada proyek Desa Pinter, Depkominfo tidak mewajibkan para pemenang tender untuk menggunakan peranti komputer dengan kandungan konten lokal dan berbasis sistem operasi open source.

Gatot menjelaskan dalam aturan mengenai tender menggunakan dana universal service obligation (USO) yang ditetapkan tidak ada kewajiban tersebut, pengadaan perangkat operasional bergantung pada pemenang tender di setiap paket.

“Kami mewajibkan pemenang menyediakan komputer lengkap minimal satu unit di setiap desa ibu kota kecamatan, tetapi dari siapa vendor dan bagaimana sistem pengadaannya diserahkan kepada pemenang tender,” ujarnya.

Dia menjelaskan besar kemungkinan merek komputer maupun peranti lunak yang ada di dalamnya setiap paket berbeda. Selain itu, para pemenang juga bisa mengadakan peralatan tersebut menggunakan sistem tender atau penunjukan langsung.

Hal ini sedikit bertentangan dengan pernyataan Menkominfo Tifatul Sembiring dalam acara Global Conference Open Source (GCOS) di Jakarta pekan lalu yang berjanji mendorong penggunaan open source di masyarakat. (fita.indah@bisnis.co.id)

Namun dari hasil pembicaraan kami dengan Bapak Santoso Serad, Kepala BTIP Ditjen POSTEL, dijelaskan oleh beliau bahwa untuk pengadaan haedware Komputer diperlukan jaminan dari fabrikan/vendor serta jaminan pemeliharaan selama 4-tahun, sedangkan untuk pengadaan Perangkat Lunak, maka diperlukan Perangkat Lunak yang LEGAL dan support dari Distributor Software serta jaminan pemeliharaan selama 4-tahun.

Menurut pemahaman kami, maka tiap Peserta Tender diperbolehkan untuk menggunakan Perangkat Lunak Sumber Terbuka (Open Source) sebab perangkat lunak jenis ini sudah dikenal sebagai Perangkat Lunak LEGAL berlisensi GPL (General Public License). Distributor atau Distro Perangkat Lunak Sumber Terbuka sudah banyak terdapat di Indonesia yang dibuat oleh anak-anak Bangsa, seperti IGOS Nusantara yang berbasis Distro Fedora dan dikemas kembali oleh Tim Kemetrian Negara  RISTEK, Distro turunan dari Ubuntu yang dikemas oleh para ahli software Indonesia dengan merek Blankon dan Ki Hajar, Distro turunan dari Mandriva dengan merek PC Linux OS dan PC Linux OS-3D (tampilan Desktop 3 Dimensi) yang berbahasa Indonesia dan dijamin BEBAS VIRUS!

Kesimpulannya, para Peserta Tender Internet Pedesaan Desa Pinter akan mendapatkan keunggulan kompetitif bilamana mereka memakai Distro Open Source buatan anak-anak Bangsa tersebut diatas karena mendapat support penuh dan dukungan pemeliharaan yang tak terbatas waktunya, sebab mereka semuanya berdomisil di Indonesia. Keuntungan lainnya adalah terbebas dari gangguan Virus yang biasa menyebar di Sistem Operasi Microsoft Windows, berbahasa Indonesia, tampilan Desktop yang bisa 3 Dimensi (bila dikehendaki), biaya yang kompetitif serta yang lebih penting lagi adalah tidak adanya DEVISA Nasional yang bocor ke Luar Negeri.

Kami harapkan pihat Depkominfo/Ditjen Postel/BTIP bersedia untuk mendukung kesimpulan kami tersebut diatas, sehngga para peserta Tender Internet Pedesaan Desa Pinter mendapat kepastian hukum untuk mengajukan proposal dengan menggunaan Perangkat Lunak Sumber Terbuka (Open Source).

Perbandingan Total Cost of Ownership OpenOffice 3.0, StarOffice 9.0 dan Microsoft Office 2007

Perbandingan Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) antara OpenOffice 3.0, StarOffice 9.0 dan MS Office 2007 dibuat untuk sebuah perusahaan yang memiliki 1000 karyawan dan diusahakan agar perbandingannya adalah berbasis Apple-to-Apple untuk semua komponen biaya yang dapat diperbandingkan, termasuk biaya analisis, migrasi dan upgrade hardware setelah berumur 3-5 tahun sebagai berikut:

1. Hardware upgrade
2. Operating System
3. Aplication Analysis
4. Document Analysis
5. Biaya Office Lisences
6. Support Costs (3-tahun)
7. Prepaid package of Support Hours
8. Training
9. Administration
10. Document Migration
11. Macro Migration

Silahkan lihat rinciannya disini:

Download TCO Productivity Tools

Microsoft Kurangi 27-jenis Pekerjaan di Kantor Pusat Redmond dan Bellevue

Didera oleh Krisis Finansial AS yang masih berlanjut, Raksasa Software Microsoft akhirnya memutuskan untuk mengurangi 27-jenis pekerjaan di Kantor Pusat Redmond dan Bellevue. Ini adalah kelanjutan dari pengurangan karyawan sebanyak 5.000 orang yang dimulai pada Januari 2009.

Selain dari Krisis Finansial AS uang masih berlanjut, pengurangan karyawan ini juga diakibatkan oleh makin ketatnya persaingan usaha Software, disamping persaingan dengan pembuat softwarea Proprietary lainnya, juga akibat makin meningkatnya penggunaan Software Open Source yang kemampuan dan fiturnya makin canggih, serta dukungan dari Komunitas Open Source di seluruh dunia.

Menurut jurubicara Microsoft, Lou Gellos, pengurangan jenis pekerjaan ini juga dimaksudkan untuk meningkatkan efisiensi kerja dan produktivitas karyawan. Saat ini keseluruhan jumlah karyawan Microsoft mencapai 92.000 orang di seluruh dunia.

Secure Mashup Software from OpenAJAX Alliance

The OpenAjax Alliance, a group of companies, open-source projects and organizations dedicated to delivering interoperable AJAX technologies, announces the approval and availability of OpenAjax Hub 2.0 as an industry standard for more secure Web 2.0 mashup applications.The OpenAjax Alliance, a group of companies, open-source projects and organizations dedicated to delivering interoperable AJAX technologies, announced on July 27 the “approval and availability of OpenAjax Hub 2.0 as an industry standard for more secure Web 2.0 mashup applications,” the Alliance said in a news release.

The OpenAjax Alliance developed OpenAjax Hub 2.0 over the past two years. “AJAX is Web development technology based on HTML and JavaScript that runs mashups, widgets and gadgets. Mashups allow business users to drag and drop ‘mashed up’ components to create customized Web applications in minutes,” the organization said in the release. It continued:

The major addition to Hub 2.0 is a JavaScript Library for Secure Enterprise Mashups created to better protect widgets and mashups from hackers and malicious intent. It addresses concerns among IT managers that may have inhibited adoption of mashup software within companies.

“OpenAjax Hub 2.0 is a major step forward for the OpenAjax Alliance towards its mission of promoting Ajax interoperability,” says David Boloker, OpenAjax Alliance Steering Committee chairman and chief technology officer for Emerging Internet Technology [at] IBM. “In order to realize the potential for mashups across the industry, there [need] to be standards. Hub 2.0 defines a key industry standard for how widgets can be isolated into secure containers and then how widgets can talk to each other through a mediated messaging bus.”

Bertrand Le Roy, senior program manager at Microsoft, was quoted as saying, “The OpenAjax Hub 2.0 is a unique opportunity for the industry to provide a trusted solution to the very real problem of secure mashups, bridging applications as well as libraries such as the Microsoft Ajax Library or jQuery without a constraint on their design.”

The Hub 2.0 technology “isolates third-party widgets into secure sandboxes and mediates messaging among the widgets with a security manager. For example, suppose a Website includes a third-party calendar widget. That widget itself might be malicious or might become malicious if its code has vulnerabilities that allow a site to hijack the widget. Malicious widgets could transmit hijacked data to a scamming Website or piggyback user credentials to read and write from company servers,” the OpenAjax Alliance said in its statement.

However, it said, “Hub 2.0 prevents attacks by isolating untrusted widgets from the main application and other widgets, and by preventing access to user credentials. It protects against widget hijacking due to its features around careful widget loading and unloading and message integrity.” According to the statement:

“OpenAjax Hub 2.0 is a significant technology advancement for enterprise mashups,” said Mikael Orn, director of development for IBM Mashup Center. “Hub 2.0 allows companies to realize both mashup security and flexibility. With OpenAjax Hub 2.0, users or administrators can isolate untrusted third-party widgets into secure sandboxes, preventing information stealing and other malicious acts. The net result is that mashup users can combine company-internal widgets with third-party widgets without compromising security.”

“JackBe is excited to see the OpenAjax Hub 2.0 mature into a robust specification and standard that provides an additional approach to [addressing’ the security challenges of mashups in the browser,” said Deepak Alur, vice president of engineering and product management at JackBe. “At JackBe we are incorporating this technology into Presto, JackBe’s enterprise mashup platform, to enhance our offering and provide even greater security support for our enterprise customers.”

Steve Repetti, CEO and CTO at RadWeb Technologies, said, “The new OpenAjax Hub 2.0 provides a comprehensive enterprise-grade solution for secure widget interoperability. OpenAjax Hub 2.0 is the glue that binds distributed objects and applications together in a trusted environment.”

And Howard Weingram, principal architect at TIBCO Software, called OpenAjax Hub 2.0 a “very important advance for the industry.” He added, “For the first time implementers can securely combine standardized widgets and components from different sources, including those with very different trust profiles. TIBCO is shipping Hub 2.0-enabled products today and sees the Hub as a strategic technology.”

According to the statement:

OpenAjax Hub 2.0 was validated in late 2008 during a multi-vendor interoperability event, and then revised in early 2009 to allow straightforward integration with other industry mashup technologies, particularly OpenSocial technologies. It has now been finalized and approved for release.

The OpenAjax Alliance also said:

The announcement is part of a broader set of initiatives at OpenAjax Alliance to accelerate customer success using Ajax. In addition to OpenAjax Hub, the alliance is working on a companion mashup initiative, OpenAjax Widgets, which defines an Ajax interoperability standard for Ajax widgets, and is scheduled for approval in the coming months.

(source: eWeek)

In Recession Era more Enterprises are accepting Open Source Software

According to a recent IDC study, the market for open-source software has been accelerated by both the slow economy and increased acceptance from enterprise customers.

The IDC study, “Worldwide Open Source Software 2009-2013 Forecast,” showed that worldwide revenue from open-source software (OSS) will grow at a 22.4 percent rate to reach $8.1 billion by 2013. This forecast is considerably higher than 2008 for three reasons, IDC said. One was that this study included more open-source projects than last year’s. Another reason was that open-source software has had a much higher level of acceptance over the past 12 months than previously expected. And the third reason was the economy. IDC said the recession helped to spur the uptake and use of open-source software in the closing months of 2008.

Regarding the greater acceptance of open source, IDC said with large software vendors such as IBM, Sun, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle making significant amounts of revenue from their activities with and support of OSS, more enterprise customers become more accepting of open-source software. This has greatly aided mainstream adoption and acceptance of OSS.

“The open-source software market has seen a strong boost from the current economic crisis,” said Michael Fauscette, group vice president of Software Business Solutions at IDC, in a statement. “OSS is increasingly a part of the enterprise software strategy of leading businesses and is seeing mainstream adoption at a strong pace. As the overall software industry continues to consolidate, it will be key for OSS vendors to reach scale if they plan to continue as a stand-alone business.”

In addition, the IDC study indicated that more vendors are beginning to leverage OSS to enhance their competitive advantage and this should help to increase the adoption of OSS and overall growth for vendors. The study also showed that hybrid business models are increasing, with closed-source vendors offering more OSS solutions, on-premises software vendors offering SAAS (software-as-a-service), SAAS vendors offering on-premises versions, and OSS vendors offering both open-source and proprietary solutions.

Google tantang Microsoft dengan Chrome OS

Raksasa Search Engine Google baru-baru ini mengumumkan bahwa pihaknya akan segera meluncurkan Sistem Operasi Komputer baru yang berbasis Browser Chrome yang sudah memiliki sejumlah 30-juta pengguna. Operating System baru ini akan dinamakan Chrome O.S. dan rencanya akan diluncurkan kepada pengguna pada semester-II tahun 2010, dimana akan mulai dipasang pada perangkat PC jinjing Netbook agar dapat beroperasi lebih cepat dalam mengakses Web dan juga proses booting yang lebih cepat

Sistem Operasi baru ini berbasis Kernel Linux dan berlisesnsi Open Source. Dengan demikian pengembangan selanjutnya akan didukung oleh Komunitas Open Source di seluruh dunia. Karena berlisensi Open Source, maka OS Chrome ini bebas didistribusikan tanpa biaya lisensi. Jadi ini akan menyaingi OS Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, maupun Windows 7 yang akan segera diluncurkan Microsoft.

Aplikasi-aplikasi diatas Chrome OS awalnya akan dibuat oleh Google, namun karena OS ini bersifat sumber terbuka, maka siapa saja bebas membuat aplikasi-aplikasi baru. Pada awalnya memang Chrome OS ini akan difokuskan untuk Netbook, namun nantinya juga akan dapat dipakai untuk PC dan Laptop biasa yang lebih besar, menggantikan Linux OS.

Khusus tentang hal yang terakhir diatas, Komunitas Open Source sedikit khawatir, bila Google Chrome OS ini akan dapat memecah perkembangan Linux OS, seperti Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, OpenSUSE, dll.

Silahkan ditanggapi.

Steve Ballmer mem-PHK Karyawan Microsoft untuk tahap ke-Dua

CEO Microsoft Steve Ballmer mengumumkan lewat email PHK para karyawan yang redundant untuk tahap kedua karena makin menurunnya penghasilan perusahaan itu akibat dari Krisis Finansial Global yang masih berlanjut.

Sebelumnya perusahaan itu telah mem-PHK 5.000 karyawan yang dianggap redundant, dan membuat kesalahan membayarkan pesangon yang kelebihan dan berusaha untuk menarik kelebihan pembayaran itu, namun akhirnya upaya itu dibatalkan perusahaan.

Berikut ini adalah berita lengkap tentang PHK di Microsoft untuk tahap kedua. Kemungkinan masih akan ada PHK tahap berikutnya, tergantung dari situasi Perekonomian AS dan Dunia.

Ballmer email kicks off second round of Microsoft layoffs

Waves goodbye to pink slippers

By John Oates

Posted in Enterprise, 5th May 2009 15:07 GMT

Steve Ballmer has emailed all Microsoft staff as the second wave of planned redundancies at the software giant begins to bite today.

Earlier in the year, Ballmer announced 5,000 job losses as Microsoft works to cut costs in the face of a shrinking world economy. He said the firm would cut jobs by the middle of 2010.

Ballmer’s email describes today’s move as the second part of its plan. He said Microsoft was “mostly but not all done” with redundancies. There are job losses within the US, as well as in other countries.

Ballmer said: “I appreciate the way you have pulled together to help the company respond to this difficult economic environment. There’s no doubt that these are very challenging times…

Thank you for your continued hard work, commitment, and focus.

Steve”

Ballmer said the company would continue to “provide support” to people laid off. Ballmer also said he could not rule out further job losses. Ballmer said: “we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.”

This blog (http://vowe.net/archives/010470.html) has the whole email.

Microsoft’s first ever announcement of redundancies ended in embarrassment when Microsoft accidentally overpaid severance pay (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/microsoft_overpays_laid_off_workers_oops/) to laid off staff. The firm made things worse by trying to claw back the cash before bowing to the inevitable public backlash and reversing the decision.