Why (and how) VMware created a new type of virtualization just for containers

VMware says containers and virtual machines are better together

As the hype about containers has mounted over the past year, it has raised questions about what this technology – which is for packaging applications - means for traditional management and virtualization vendors. Some have wondered: Will containers kill the virtual machine?

VMware answered that question with a resounding no at its annual conference in San Francisco last week. But, company officials say containers can benefit from having a new type of management platform. And it’s built a whole new type of virtualization just for containers.
Virtualization for containers

A decade and a half ago, VMware helped revolutionized the technology industry with the introduction of enterprise-grade hypervisors that ushered in an era of server virtualization.

Last week the company revealed a redesigned version of its classic virtualization software named Project Photon. It’s a lightweight derivative of the company’s popular ESX hypervisor that has been engineered specifically to run application containers.

“At its core, it’s still got the virtualization base,” explains Kit Colbert, VMware’s vice president and CTO of Cloud Native Applications. Colbert calls Photon a “micro-visor” with “just enough” functionality to have the positive attributes of virtualization, while also being packaged in a lightweight format ideal for containers.

Project Photon includes two key pieces. One is named Photon Machine – a hypervisor software born out of ESX that is installed directly onto physical servers. It creates miniature virtual machines that containers are placed in. It includes a guest operating system, which the user can choose. By default Photon Machine comes with VMware’s customized Linux distribution named Photon OS, which the company has also designed to be container friendly.

The second major piece is named Photon Controller, which is a multi-tenant control plane that can handle many dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of instances of Photon Machine. Photon Controller will provision the clusters of Photon Machines and ensure they have access to network and storage resources as needed.

The combination of Photon Machine and Photon Controller creates a blueprint for a scale-out environment that has no single point of failure and exposes a single logical API endpoint that developers can write to. In theory, IT operators can deploy Project Photon and developers can write applications that run on it.

Project Photon will integrate with various open source projects, such as Docker for the container run-time support, as well as Google Kubernetes and Pivotil’s Cloud Foundry for higher-level application management. (Photon manages infrastructure provisioning while Kubernetes and CF manage application deployments.)

VMware's virtual approach to containers (3:30)

VMware has not yet set pricing for either platform, but both will be available this year as a private beta.
The journey to containers

Not all customers are ready to go all-in on containers though. So, VMware is also integrating container support into its traditional management tools.

VSphere Integrated Containers is a second product VMware announced that Colbert says is a good starting point for organizations that want to get their feet wet with containers. For full-scale container build outs, Colbert recommends transitioning to Project Photon.

VSphere Integrated Containers is a plugin for vSphere, the company’s venerable ESX management software. “It makes containers first-class citizens in vSphere,” Colbert explains. With the plugin, customers are able to deploy containers inside of a virtual machine, allowing the container in the VM to be managed just like any other VM by vSphere.

By comparison, currently if a user wanted to deploy containers in vSphere, they would likely deploy multiple containers inside a single virtual machine. Colbert says that has potentially harmful security implications though: If one of the containers in the VM is compromised, then the other containers in the VM could be impacted. By packaging one container inside each VM, it allows containers to be protected by the security isolation and baked in management features of vSphere.

Kurt Marko, an analyst at Marko Insights, says VMware’s approach to containers could be appealing to VMware admins who are being pressured to embrace containers. It could come with a downside, though.

“Wrapping Photon containers in a micro-VM makes it look like any other instance to the management stack and operators,” Marko wrote in an email. “Of course, the potential downside is lost efficiency since even micro-VMs will have more overhead than containers sharing the same kernel and libraries.” VMware says the VM-overhead is minute, but Marko says it will take independent analysis to determine if there is a tax for using containers inside VMs.
Hold your horses

As VMware attempts to position itself as a container company, there are headwinds. First, it is still very early on in the container market.

“The hype far outweighs the utilization” at this point, says IDC analyst Al Gillen, program vice president for servers and systems software. He estimates that fewer than 1/10 of 1% of enterprise applications are currently running in containers. It could be more than a decade before the technology reaches mainstream adoption with more than 40% of the market.

VMware also hasn’t traditionally been known as a company that leads the charge when it comes to cutting edge open source projects, which is a perception the company is fighting. Sheng Liang, co-founder and CEO of Rancher Labs – a startup that was showcasing its container operating system and management platform at VMworld - said the container movement has thus far been driven largely by developers and open source platforms like Mesos, Docker and Kubernetes – he hasn’t run into a single container user who is running containers in VMware environments, he said.

Forrester analyst Dave Bartoltti says that shouldn’t be surprising though. VMware has strong relations with IT operations managers, not developers who have been most enthusiastically using containers. Announcements the company has made at VMworld are about enabling those IT ops workers to embrace containers in their VMware environments. Other management vendors, like Red Hat, Microsoft and IBM are equally enthusiastically embracing containers. VMware’s argument though, is that containers and VMs are better together.

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Top 10 technology schools

Interested in going to one of the best colleges or universities to study technology? Here are the top 10 schools known for their computer science and engineering programs.

Top technology schools
Every year, Money releases its rankings of every college and university in the U.S., and not surprisingly, a number of those top schools are leaders in the tech space. Here are the top 10 technology schools, according to Money's most recent survey of the best colleges in America.

Stanford University
First on the list for not only technology colleges, but all colleges, Stanford University has an impressive 96 percent graduation rate. The average price for a degree is $178,731 and students earn, on average, $64,400 per year upon graduation. Stanford's global engineering program allows its 4,850 students to travel around the globe while studying engineering. There are nine departments in the engineering program: aeronautics and astronautics, bioengineering, chemical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, management science and engineering, materials science and engineering, and mechanical engineering.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Mass., is the second best technology school in the country, with a 93 percent graduation rate. The average net price of a degree comes in at a $166,855, but students can expect an average starting salary of $72,500 per year after graduating. As one of the top engineering schools, it's ranked number 1 for chemical, aerospace/aeronautical, computer and electrical engineering. The top employers for the 57 percent of graduates that enter the workforce immediately include companies like Google, Amazon, Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil. Another 32 percent of students, however, go on to pursue a higher degree.

California Institute of Technology
Located in Pasadena, Calif., the California Institute of Technology has a graduation rate of 93 percent. The average cost of a degree is $186,122, and students earn an average starting salary of $72,300. CalTech, as it's often called, has departments in aerospace, applied physics and materials studies, computing and mathematical sciences, electrical engineering, environmental science and engineering, mechanical and civil engineering, and medical engineering. The prestigious college is also home to 31 recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Harvey Mudd College
Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif. has a strong technology program, putting it at number 4 on the list of top technology schools. The cost of tuition is also one of the highest on this list, at $196,551 for a degree. Graduates of Harvey Mudd earn an average of $76,400 early on in their careers and the graduation rate is 91 percent. The engineering program at Harvey Mudd College focuses on helping students apply their skills to real world situations. Students can also get professional experience and help solve design problems outside of the classroom through an engineering clinic.

Harvard University
Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Mass., technically ties with Harvey Mudd for top technology schools, and top overall colleges. The graduation rate is 97 percent and the average price of a degree is $187, 763 while graduates earn an average annual salary of $60,000 when starting their careers. At Harvard's Jon A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which goes back as far as 1847, undergraduate students can study applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, engineering sciences and mechanical engineering.

University of California at Berkeley
The University of California at Berkeley has a graduation rate of 91 percent, and students can get a degree for around $133,549. After graduation, the average salary for students starting out their careers is $58,300 per year. The electrical engineering and computer science division of the University of California at Berkeley has around 2,000 undergraduate students and is the largest department within the university.

University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Penn., has a graduation rate of 96 percent and the average cost of a degree is $194,148. Students graduating from UPenn and beginning out their careers earn an average annual starting salary of $59,200. The UPenn engineering department focuses on computer and information science. Students can study computer science, computer engineering, digital media design, networked and social systems engineering, computational biology as well as computer and cognitive science.

Rice University
Located in Houston, Rice University has a graduation rate of 91 percent and the average cost of a degree is $157,824. Upon graduation, the average starting salary for students comes in at $61,200 per year. Rice University has a Department of Computer Science where students can work in faculty research programs and describes the perfect computer science student as a "mathematician seeking adventurer," a quote from system architect Bob Barton. In the electrical and computer engineering department, students can prepare for a career in oil and gas, wearables, entertainment, renewable energy, gaming, healthcare, space industry, security and aviation.

Brigham Young University-Provo
Brigham Young University-Provo, located in Provo, Utah, has a graduation rate of 78 percent, but students won't have as many loans as other colleges on this list. The average price of a degree is a moderate $80,988 and the average starting salary for graduates is around $51,600 per year. Brigham Young University-Provo offers degrees in electrical engineering, computer engineering and computer science. With a wide array of programs to choose from in each degree, Brigham Young University-Provo boasts a rigorous course load with an emphasis on gaining practical skills for the workforce.

Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas is home to Texas A&M University where 79 percent of students graduate and the average cost of a degree is $84,732. Students can expect to earn an average starting salary of $54,000 per year after graduation. The Texas A&M computer science and engineering program boasts an "open, accepting, and compassionate community that encourages the exploration of ideas." Students should expect to leave the program prepared to help solve real-world challenges in the technology industry through applied research.

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9 tips for dealing with toxic coworkers

Negative people in the workplace can take a toll on both your sanity and health. But before you point fingers ensure you've done you're part to build a healthy relationship. Here experts discuss techniques for dealing with difficult behaviors.

No two people are exactly alike, but people do they do share traits - and those traits aren't always positive. Some prefer drama or negative attention. They are everywhere, including the workplace. They might be on your team or sit in a nearby cubicle. It could be your boss, a vendor, direct report or a coworker. They're combative, critical or nonproductive.

Unless you are very lucky, some probably work with you. You aren't likely to change them, so the best you can do is come up with a plan to mitigate the misery. We spoke with IT leaders as well as a mental healthcare professional to find out the best strategy to help reduce the drama and negativity in your work day.

Don't label people, label behaviors
There is a danger in labeling people as toxic, according to Pamela D. Garcy, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, career coach and author of the book, "How to make time when you don't have any: A new approach to reclaiming your schedule." Instead she recommends labeling the negative or toxic behavior. That's not to say that it isn't an employee's responsibility to behave well, but first you should return power to yourself, she says.

Understanding the behavior will help you identify the root of the problem and will likely help you build a strategy for having a more productive relationship with the person, whether it's your boss, a co-worker or a direct report. "Labeling and rating people limits you. You cannot see the potential in front of you because you're blinded by the label. Label the behavior instead of the person, if possible -- even if only as a mental exercise," says Garcy.
Are you part of the problem or solution?

It's easy to say it's all the other person's fault, but there are two sides to every coin. Are you contributing to the toxic behavior? Do you let this person's toxic behavior upset or frustrate you? Are you being pulled into the downward emotional spiral? More importantly what can you do to prevent this from happening?

"Be introspective. How are you contributing to the undesired behaviors and what is within your control to improve the situation," says Dustin Wells, chairman & CEO of Headspring, a provider of enterprise software strategies and development. The bottom-line is don't let your action or inaction add make a bad situation worse.

Change your perspective
Some things are out of your control. Chances are you aren't going to change this person, so your best bet is to focus on what you can control. That requires a change in perspective. Without the right perspective, warns Pamela Rucker, chair of the Technology Advisory Council for St. Jude Research Hospital and chair for the CIO Executive Council's Women in Leadership board, every issue may feel like a personal affront.

"Changing your perspective helps you cancel out the negative story you've told yourself about why the person doesn't like you, or why the person is working against you. If you can change your belief system at the root, then everything else that comes out of that will change, "she says.

Taking some time for yourself and changing your own perspective can help you adopt a more level-headed approach. Don't allow yourself to dwell on this person's behavior and get sucked into an emotional tailspin. Instead try to think of a solution. "You have at least two choices -- focusing on the problems or focusing on creating solutions.

Staying away from people-rating and focusing on problem-solving will help you. If you change your perspective to focus upon solutions, you're more likely to gain solutions. People-rating tends to stop you in your tracks... "says Garcy.

Style clash or toxic behavior?
Another important factor, according to Rucker, is to ensure you've made an important distinction. Are these people difficult to work with or toxic?

Difficult employees are those you say are opinionated or hard to get along with. They are sometimes protective of their turf, overzealous or stuck in their way of thinking. "It can seem like you're never able to get on the same page with a difficult person, and at times, it feels like every conversation you have with them is hard, says Rucker. However, she notes, that many times when you get to the heart of the matter, it may simply be a result of style clash and you're way of doing things may be contributing.

"I've found out that in many cases, the source of my difficulty in working with individuals can be a matter of relationship or style. This took a while for me to figure out over the course of my career, because I took people's behavior personally, and thought when people behaved badly they were deliberately being jerks and trying to give me a hard time. What I realized, though, was that I had a lot more to do with the difficulty of the interaction than I initially thought," says Rucker. She says she needed to step back and develop stronger relationships with certain people and take the time to understand their style and way of doing things. When she did, the result was a more productive working relationship.

Toxic employees, on the other hand, are dealing with more than just the ordinary issues of relationship and style. These are the employees who can spread negativity in your organization like a cancer. "Whether it's anger, fear, distrust, shame, hurt, abandonment, you name it, the toxic person has something inside of them that hurts those they come in contact with, and damages the fabric of a team, "says Rucker.

Build a better relationship
Rucker also notes that she needed to work on helping these individuals get to know her in return. Learning this lesson has allowed her to flip many difficult relationships into successful outcomes. "The more I developed relationships with people, understood their style and learned how to communicate with them in ways that resonated with them, the easier it became to work with others, " says Rucker. "I had to realize that to other people, I was the one that was difficult to deal with. I was the one that was deliberately misleading, I was the one that had a takeover mentality, and I was the one always looking for a fight."
Set boundaries on your time

You may assume a coworker can control your emotions and suck you in, but people often-times have more control over the situation than they may think, according to Garcy, "Often there is at least a small moment when you have a decision to make. There's that microsecond of freedom when you make a choice; that's moment when you can say to yourself, 'I don't want to encourage or engage in this drama.' At that moment, decide that you're going to do whatever you can to politely create a boundary. Make it your practice to gently and politely tell this person what you will and won't do. It will probably take a lot of repetition. Focus upon your own behavior. Realize that it is going to take time before this person takes your boundaries seriously and learns that they are there."

Since you can't change the other person's behavior directly, the safest bet is to tell them what you are going or not going to do. For example, you might try saying something along the lines of, "I'm going back to work now," or, "I'm not going to spend my work time on non-work items."

If this person is someone who you know is going to take up a lot of your time, Rucker recommends trying this approach: "I set the tone when I start talking by stating, 'I only have a few moments, but I want to catch up with you on how things are going. What's the latest update with your issue?'" This will let the other individual know that you are concerned, but also prepares them for you to move onto another subject without taking up an inordinate amount of your time.

Identify the real issue for you
Is the coworker's behavior impacting your work? If the answer is yes, try to communicate with the coworker at a time and in a place that allows your coworker some dignity. Then explain the situation.

"The formula I usually give to a coachee in this circumstance is [to] relax yourself so that you can practice assertive communication with your co-worker, seek a win-win solution, talk to yourself optimistically throughout the challenging moments, and increase your own daily self-care," says Garcy.

If you feel like you've exhausted those avenues than maybe it's time to talk to your manager or supervisor and get some assistance from them.

Grow your emotional intelligence
Whether you're an IT leader or an entry-level help desk analyst, emotional intelligence will help you understands people's motivations and their behaviors, allowing you to empathize with them and perhaps change your perspective.

"Emotional intelligence helps you deal with difficult or toxic people from a rational standpoint, allowing you to focus on the facts of the relationship by recognizing and managing your emotions as compared to those of the difficult person. It is important that one understands the situation properly and doesn't overreact or take things personal," says John DiCamillo, CTO and head of infrastructure & services for Arup, an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists.

This doesn't happen by itself. There are many avenues for professional development in the area of emotional intelligence like a career coach or leadership seminars. Do your part and continue to educate and grow. "Emotional intelligence is a multiplier effect for both the individual and the business. It can't replace technical excellence, but it can multiply the business advantage for the company. And, it can multiply the effectiveness for the individual," says Larry Bonfante, founder of CIO Bench Coach and CIO of USTA.

Take care of yourself
One of Garcy's recurring theme is self-care. It might seem obvious, but it's often overlooked. "Get plenty of sleep, eat healthy foods, exercise, spend time with positive people, and reconnect with yourself," says Garcy. Doing so can only increase your odds of a better outcome and will help you lead a healthier, more manageable lifestyle. Find ways to reduce stress levels in your own life, like yoga, meditation, exercise or a self-help book. For others it may be golf or fishing. Whatever you do to relax, make sure you are investing enough time in your own wellness.

Final Thoughts
"It's important to recognize that not every challenge will have an immediate solution, so be patient," says Garcy. Successful people will work toward a long-term solution, rather than a short-term release of stress.

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Microsoft buys sales-gamification startup with eye to CRM combo

Microsoft has acquired Incent Games and plans to integrate the Texas startup's FantasySalesTeam sales-gamification software into Dynamics CRM.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Adding the fantasy sports component to its CRM offering will give companies a tool to make incentive programs for sales staff more engaging, according to Bob Stutz, corporate vice president for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, in a who discussed the news in a blog post.

Microsoft will integrate the platform into its own Dynamics CRM software in the coming months, Stutz said. It will also continue to support customers using FantasySalesTeam with other CRM products.

However, the move drew some derisive commentary from at least one analyst.

"Are they kidding?" said Denis Pombriant, managing principal at Beagle Research Group, via email. "Let's see, for many years and even centuries, we have incentivized sales people with money (the carrot) and job loss (the stick). That wasn't enough? Really?"

The real problem with incentives is the difficulty in individualizing and applying them across a product line that contains more than one product, and that can't be solved with gamification, Pombriant said.

Rather, it's a big data problem, he suggested, and it can be solved by comprehensive compensation-management systems such as what's offered by companies like Xactly and Callidus.

"We spend all kinds of effort and resources trying to squeeze more productivity out of sales reps," Pombriant said. "It makes little sense to me to introduce a game system that takes their attention away from the business at hand rather than pursuing results."

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7 places you’ll be surprised to learn are still using Windows XP

More than a year after Microsoft ended support for the aging OS, some high-profile organizations are still using Windows XP -- and putting themselves at risk.

7 places you’ll be surprised to learn are still using Windows XP
Microsoft announced in April 2014 that it would no longer support the 13-year-old Windows XP operating system. However, now, more than a year later, Kaspersky Labs and Net Applications both report that between 16-17 percent of computer users still use XP. You may think that it's mostly consumers, but the reality is that millions of business-critical systems are still running Windows XP, leaving them open to potential security issues. "When a company ends support, like Microsoft did, then vulnerabilities don't get fixed. If these vulnerabilities get public, [they] will be all over the Internet and easy to exploit. The problem with XP is that it was such a good, robust system that is still has quite a large user base," says Andrey Pozhogin, senior product marketing manager at Kaspersky Lab North America.

We were surprised to uncover some large organizations still relying on this retired technology. Here's a look at seven places you wouldn't expect to still be using Windows XP.

The U.S. Navy
According to a recently unclassified Navy document, Microsoft applications affect "critical command and control systems" on ships and land-based legacy systems, leaving them open to potential cybersecurity risks. But they aren't standing idly by as they work to rid themselves of these legacy systems.

According to an IDG News Service report, the U.S. Navy just entered into a $9.1 million contract that would keep the XP security patches and updates coming until 2017. Over the entire length of the contract, the total will near $31 million.

"Without this continued support, vulnerabilities to these systems will be discovered, with no patches to protect the systems," the Navy document says. "The resulting deterioration will make the U.S. Navy more susceptible to intrusion ... and could lead to loss of data integrity, network performance and the inability to meet mission readiness of critical networks."

The Navy is also paying for continued support for Microsoft's Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Server 2003. The Navy has been transitioning away from the obsolete systems but at the time of this report it has more than 100,000 workstations running Windows XP and other aging systems.

The U.S. Army
The Navy isn't the only branch of the military struggling with outdated technology. The Army purchased a Microsoft Custom Support Agreement (CSA) for Windows XP last year. Like the Navy, the Army doesn't want to give specifics on which systems are affected but the document states the following: "This procurement will ensure the Army has continued extended support to avoid security vulnerabilities on the existing licenses. The security updates for vulnerabilities rated 'critical' will be provided at no additional charge, but per hotfix, fees apply for security hotfixes rated 'important.' Non-security hotfixes are not available."

This would seem to indicate that, like the Navy, some of these systems are mission critical.

Crown Commercial Service
The Crown Commercial Service, Great Britain's government agency in charge of the improvement of commercial ties and procurement activities, has paid for XP extended support until 2015, but in May decided to end the contract, leaving thousands of computers at risk to attack from "low-level hackers," according to a recent article from The Guardian. Government officials said the departments in question had known for seven years that this day was coming and they would need to migrate away from Windows XP. "We expect most remaining government devices using Windows XP will be able to mitigate any risks, using the CESG guidance. Where this is not possible, they may need to review their own short term transition support," says Britain's Government Digital Service tech blog.

The National Health Service
Another quick stop in Great Britain brings us to their National Health Service, an organization responsible for a publicly funded healthcare system -- an enormous government agency. Last October, it reported that, "35 percent of NHS Trusts are still running Windows XP seven months after it reached end of life." In fact, 14 percent of those NHS Trusts were so reliant that they were unable to set a date for transition. With the recent high-profile hacking cases, the NHS seems like it could be a privacy disaster waiting to happen.

In 2008, the NHS had implemented a plan to update systems across the entire organization to address these issues but abandoned the endeavor after pouring 12 billion pounds into the plan.
Atms still using Windows XP

ATMs around the globe
Last October, a whopping 95 percent of ATMs were still using Windows XP and hackers where exploiting this to drain ATM machines. In 2014, Kaspersky Lab's Global Research and Analysis Team was hired as forensic investigators to find out how thieves were tapping ATM machines in Eastern Europe.

"During the course of this investigation, we discovered a piece of malware that allowed attackers to empty the ATM cash cassettes via direct manipulation. At the time of the investigation, the malware (Backdoor.MSIL.Tyupkin) was active on more than 50 ATMs at banking institutions in Eastern Europe. Based on submissions to VirusTotal, we believe that the malware has spread to several other countries, including the U.S., India and China," the Kasperky's team reported.

As recent as May, incidents continue to be reported in both Eastern and Western Europe. In the most recent one, thieves made away with 1.23 million pounds. The European ATM Security Team (EAST), the arm responsible for oversight of trends in ATM fraud said, "As a significant number of Europe's ATMs continue to use the Windows XP operating system, there are concerns that many remain vulnerable to ATM malware if the necessary preventative measures are not taken."

Water utility companies using XP
Last year, Forbes reported that an alarming 75 percent of life-sustaining water utility companies were still operating using Windows XP. Numbers like that make this area vulnerable to cyber attacks. According to Matt Wells, general manager for automation software at GE Intelligent platforms, the utilities industry is slow to adopt new technologies but with the ending of XP support, cloud computing will help these outfits transition to newer technology.

The U.S. electrical energy industry
In a recent Forbes article by Michael Assante, the former vice president and CSO for the North American Electric Reliability Corp. and former CSO for American Electric Power Company Inc, Windows XP is still being used on workstations in a majority of the electric and gas utilities in the U.S.

The energy industry reported last August that they were worried, too. In fact, cybersecurity has moved onto the list of the top five concerns for U.S. electric utilities, according to data from a recent U.S. News and World Report article, which revealed that "…if only nine of the country's 55,000 electrical substations were to go down -- whether from mechanical issues or malicious attack -- the nation would be plunged into a coast-to-coast blackout." Federal regulators have stepped in adding cybersecurity standards for the electric industry. Cybersecurity, according to the report, has "surged in the ranking of the Top 10 industry issues … leapfrogging two spots to number four."

Just for laughs
While not an XP issue, this Gizmodo article reports that in 1985, the Grand Rapids School District put into service a Commodore Amiga, programmed by a local student, to control heating and cooling services throughout its 19 public schools. Well, 30 years later, the Amiga is still faithfully performing its duties, although not without its share of repairs and replacement parts over the years. The best part is that the same student who originally programmed the system still lives locally and makes himself available to administer and repair any hiccups along the way. "The kid who programmed the machine is the only one who knows how to fix them," Gizmodo reports.

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PC makers tighten inventories, remain edgy about Windows 10

Even as PC business contracts for 14th straight quarter, Mac sales surge 16%

Skittish about the impact of Windows 10, including the free upgrade-from-Windows-7-and-8.1 offer, computer makers drew down inventories and sent PC shipments plummeting in the June quarter, IDC said today.

The quarter was among the worst ever for personal computers, according to the research firm, which estimated the year-over-year contraction at 11.8%. That decline was bested only twice before in the two decades that IDC has tracked shipments: in early 2013, when the January quarter was off 13% and the September quarter of 2001, which posted a decline of 12%.

OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) shipped approximately 66 million systems in the three months that ended June 30, IDC said, down from the 75 million during the same stretch in 2014.

The dramatic downturn was due to several factors, said IDC analyst Loren Loverde, who runs IDC's PC forecast team, including a tough comparative from last year as enterprises scrambled to replace obsolete Windows XP machines. The 2001 operating system was retired by Microsoft in April 2014.

But Windows 10 also played a part, Loverde contended. "We've heard from various parties, including ODMs [original device manufacturers], component makers and distributors, that they've reduced inventory as Windows 10 approached," he said.

Although the industry is more bullish about Windows 10 than its predecessor, Windows 8, that's not been reflected in larger shipments simply because OEMs aren't sure how the new OS will play out in the coming quarter or two. To safeguard against overstocking the channel, and to some extent preparing for the launch of Windows 10, OEMs played it conservative and tightened inventories by building fewer PCs.

"Although it's very difficult to quantify, I'd say that this inventory reduction is a little bit more dramatic than before Windows 8," said Loverde.

Three years ago, inventories surged as PC makers cranked out devices -- 85 million in the second quarter of 2012, 88 million in the third -- figuring that Windows 8 was going to be a big hit and juice sales. That didn't happen.

"There were a lot of [retail and distribution] customers buying additional inventory and promoting Windows 8," Loverde said. "The [negative] impact on inventory is more substantial this time, and everyone is taking a wait-and-see approach, thinking that they'll make decisions in the second half of the year."

Some of the nervousness on the part of computer makers revolves around the upgrade offer Microsoft will extend to all consumers and many businesses with existing PCs running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Starting July 29, Microsoft will give those customers a free upgrade to Windows 10. The deal will expire a year later, on July 29, 2016.

Because Microsoft has never before offered a free upgrade of this magnitude, it's uncharted territory for Windows OEMs. A host of unknowns, ranging from whether the free upgrade will keep significant numbers on old hardware to the eventual reaction to the new OS, have made computer makers edgy about committing to fully packing the channel.

"It's even riskier when the market is declining," Loverde said of carrying large inventories.

And the PC business has been in decline, and will continue to contract.

IDC has held to its prediction that for 2015, global PC shipments will be down 6.2% from last year's 308 million, or to around 289 million. (That may change to an even more depressing number; Loverde said IDC had not yet adjusted the figure to account for the worse-than-expected second quarter.) In 2016, the industry will shrink by another 2%.

The brightest spot in the quarter's forecast was again Apple, which IDC had in the OEM fourth spot with shipments of 5.1 million Macs, a year-over-year jump of 16%. Other manufacturers in the top five -- Lenovo, HP, Dell and Acer -- were pegged with declines of 8%, 10%, 9% and 27%, respectively.

"Apple's a pretty unique company," said Loverde. "They've cultivated their market position and product portfolio, and, of course, their positioning is towards more affluent buyers who are not as price sensitive."

Loverde was convinced that some of the Mac's strong sales in the June quarter benefited from uncertainties about Windows 10 on the part of consumers.

Unclear, said Loverde, is how the Mac will fare if, as IDC and others believe, Apple introduces a larger iPad later this year, a tablet better geared to the productivity chores typically handled by personal computers.

"I think there will be some impact on Mac shipments, but Apple is always willing to cannibalize its own products," he said. "But the upside on tablets [generated by a larger iPad] and as a brand is bigger than the risk."

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Best tools for single sign-on

It has been a few years since we last looked at single sign-on products, the field has gotten more crowded and more capable.

Single mindedness
Since we last looked at single sign-on products in 2012, the field has gotten more crowded and more capable. For this round of evaluations, we looked at seven SSO services: Centrify’s Identity Service, Microsoft’s Azure AD Premium, Okta’s Identity and Mobility Management, OneLogin, Ping Identity’s Ping One, Secure Auth’s IdP, and SmartSignin. Our Clear Choice test winner is Centrify, which slightly outperformed Okta and OneLogin. (Read the full review.)

Centrify Identity Service
Centrify has put together a solid single sign-on tool that also has some terrific mobile device management features. If you are in the market for both kinds of products, this should be on your short list. The admin user interface is well thought-out. Set up was quickly accomplished. Multi-factor authentication settings are located in the policy tab for users and in the apps tab for individual apps. The MFA choices are numerous, including email, SMS texts and phone calls, and security questions. Centrify comes with dozens of canned reports, plus the ability to create your own using custom SQL queries.

Microsoft Azure Active Directory Access Control
Earlier this year Microsoft added Azure Active Directory to its collection of cloud-based offerings. It is difficult to setup because you tend to get lost in the hall of mirrors that is the Azure setup process. It is still very much a work in progress and mainly a developer’s toolkit rather than a polished service. But clearly Microsoft has big plans for Azure AD, as its new Windows App Store is going to rely on it for authentication. If you already are using Azure, then it makes sense to take a closer look at Azure AD. If you are looking for a general purpose SSO portal, then you should probably look elsewhere.

Okta Identity and Mobility Management
Okta tied for first place in our 2012 review and it remains a very capable product. Okta’s user interface is very simple to navigate. Okta has beefed up its multi-factor authentication functionality. It now offers a mobile app, Okta Verify, as a one-time password generator. It also supports other MFA methods. Okta has its own mobile app that can provide a secure browsing session and allow you to sign in to your apps from your phone. It contains some MDM functionality, although it is not a full MDM tool. Reports have been strengthened as well, but reports only show the last 30 days.

OneLogin
OneLogin was the other co-winner of our 2012 review and while it is still strong, its user interface has become a bit unwieldy. OneLogin has numerous SAML toolkits in a variety of languages to make it easier to integrate your apps into its SSO routines. It also has specific configuration screens to set up a VPN login and take you to specific apps. OneLogin’s AD Connector requires all of the various components of Net Framework v3.5 to be installed. Once that was done, it was a simple process to install their agent and synchronize our AD with their service. OneLogin has 11 canned reports and you can easily create additional custom ones.

Ping Identity PingOne
Ping began as on-premises solution with PingFederate, but now offers cloud-based PingOne, web access tool PingAccess and OTP soft token generator PingID. Multi-factor authentication support is somewhat limited in PingOne. You can use PingID or SafeNet’s OTP tokens. If you want more factors, you have to purchase the on-premises Ping Federate. Reports are not this product’s strong suit. The dashboard gives you an attractive summary, but there isn’t much else. Ping would be a stronger product if consolidated their various features and focused on the cloud as a primary delivery vehicle. If that isn’t important to you, or if you have complex federation needs, then you should give them more consideration and look at PingFederate.

SecureAuth IdP
Of the products we tested, SecureAuth has the most flexibility and the worst user interface, a combination that can be vexing at times. SecureAuth is the only product tested that has to run on a Windows Server. The interface is supposed to get a refresh later this year, but the current version makes it easy to get lost in a series of cascading menus. The real strength of SecureAuth always has been its post-authentication workflow activities. SecureAuth’s MFA support is strong, featuring a wide selection of factors and tokens to choose from. This is a testimonial to its flexibility.

PerfectCloud SmartSignin
SmartSignin has been acquired by PerfectCloud and integrated into their other cloud-based security offerings. They now support seven identity providers (Amazon, Netsuite and AD) with more on the horizon and more than 7,000 app integrations. The identity providers make use of SAML or other federated means, and come with extensive installation instructions. This is a little more complex than some of its competitors. When it comes to MFA support, SmartSignin is the weakest of the products we reviewed. They are working on other MFA methods, including SMS and voice, but didn’t have them when we tested. Also, MFA is just for protecting your entire user account, there is no mechanism for protecting individual apps.

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