How enterprise software giants separate you from more of your company’s money

By Roger Burkhardt, CEO, Ingres

Burkhardt reveals Big Software's secrets. Photo: Ingres

Here’s how the software business really works: A software company charges your firm an enormous upfront licensing fee and locks you into escalating costs for decades to come, often using a set of hardball tactics.

But with the growing popularity of pay-as-you-go and subscription-based software and services, the old way is being exposed for the unfair financial model that it actually is. And the new open, more flexible models are starting to make the old ones look downright deceitful, especially when you show them against the backdrop of a deep recession.

Many companies have been forced to downsize to make it through these tough economic times. And as information technology and C-level executives examine the financial books together, many are discovering the unfortunate news that their Big Software contracts are harming their business’ bottom line and cannot be downsized – at least now without a fundamental change of approach.

Perhaps it’s not always intentional, but if you’re an IT decision maker with several of these licensed-based software contracts on the books, it’s very likely you’re getting duped. More

Ellison asks if Microsoft matters. Photo: Oracle

Oracle's Ellison gives the tech world a topic. Discuss among yourselves.

Does Microsoft matter? That's the question the noted Microsoft (MSFT) hater and Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison found himself answering at a Silicon Valley event Monday night. The short answer, as Jon Fortt reported here, was yes.

The longer version of his answer on the one hand shows Ellison as the old zen master that he is, making a backhanded and self-serving swipe sound like an innocuous observation. At the same time Ellison raises a fascinating point that's worth exploring further.

First consider his comments in their entirety when asked about the relevance thing by former Sun (JAVA) president and Motorola (MOT) CEO Ed Zander.

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Verizon, Sybase and Quickcomm team up to manage corporations' mobility needs. Their service just scratches the surface

Chen wants to help your company go mobile. Photo: Sybase

Telecom giant Verizon (VZ) says it is launching a suite of services to help corporate IT departments manage their fleets of mobile devices. Corporate clients can hire Verizon to track their inventories of phones and monitor billings, add and drop devices as employees come and go, enforce security policies on phones and even remotely deliver applications and data to employees' handsets.

Verizon is partnering with software company Sybase (SY) and Quickcomm, which specializes in telecom-expense management, to offer a one-stop shop for companies looking to outsource mobile operations.

Analysts' reports suggest there's a need for such tools: Forrester Research estimates that by 2012 nearly three-fourths of workers worldwide, or nearly 400 million people, will be using mobile devices for work. More

Proposed tax hike on international operations could delay economic rebound

By John Chen, chairman and CEO, Sybase

President Barack Obama has proposed to raise taxes on the international operations of U.S. businesses. There is one thing the proposal can effectively achieve: make the United States an even less friendly place to do business, and thus delay the economic recovery.

Chen worries higher corporate taxes will delay recovery of the U.S. economy

The current environment is dire to begin with. The U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate among developed nations. The latest Index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Foundation ranks us an alarming 125th among 156 countries. We are one of the very few developed countries that still double-tax overseas income of our own businesses. More