GSA Technology Council

Google Inc. has announced a new version of Google App Engine, furthering its goal of making Google’s scalable infrastructure available to all developers – from those in startups to those working in enterprise IT departments.

New features include:

• Cron support. Developers want the flexibility to run tasks on a regular basis, without the need for labor-intensive monitoring and maintenance. Starting today, App Engine developers can automatically run and schedule jobs using cron.
• Database import and export. Developers want the freedom to move around application data in lockstep with business needs. Starting today, App Engine developers can batch transfer gigabytes of data into App Engine using a new import tool. Export capabilities will be available within the next month.
• Access to firewalled data. Enterprise developers want the security of firewalled data and the ease of web app deployment, but applications in the cloud can’t generally access on-premise datastores. To address this challenge Google is launching the Secure Data Connector, which enables centrally-managed access to on-premise data from Google Appsâ„¢, including App Engine- and gadget-based solutions.

In conjunction with today’s news, we are also giving developers an early look at App Engine’s support for the Java programming language. Limited to the first 10,000 sign-ups, this early look is intended to gather feedback from the Java developer community. Important highlights include:

• Standards-based. App Engine’s use of standard Java APIs and libraries enables developers to work with the Java tools and frameworks they’re already familiar with, and ensures the easy deployment of their Java code to all standard J2EE servlet containers, including IBM WebSphere, Tomcat and others.
• An end-to-end solution. App Engine’s early look at Java language support includes a Java runtime, integration with the new Google Web Toolkit 1.6, and a Google Plugin for Eclipse. Together these tools provide a unified development experience for writing AJAX applications in a single language, from client to server.

“In making Google’s infrastructure broadly available, App Engine has helped over 150,000 developers focus on designing and launching great products, without the usual scale and maintenance headaches,” said Andrew Bowers, Product Manager at Google. “Today – with newly-launched features, and an early look at Java language support – we’re making Google App Engine a viable deployment option for more and more application developers.”

Google has worked in coordination with Oracle, IBM, Appirio, Cast Iron, Panorama, PivotLink, Sword Group, ThoughtWorks, Cloud Sherpas and PingIdentity, on this launch. These companies have developed applications and gadgets using the App Engine features premiering today.

To learn more about Google App Engine, and to watch the video of tonight’s Campfire One announcement, visit http://code.google.com/appengine. Additionally, the App Engine team will be on-hand at the Google I/O conference in May (http://code.google.com/events/io) to engage in product discussions with the larger developer community.

via Google

Fluor Corporation announced today that it was awarded front-end engineering for CO2 capture for the SaskPower Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Sequestration Demonstration project in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. The contract value for the first quarter award was not disclosed. If the project proceeds as planned, it would be the first commercial-scale carbon capture system used on a coal-fired power plant in North America.SaskPower’s project will transform the aging Unit 3 at Boundary Dam Power Station into a reliable, long-term producer of clean electricity while enhancing provincial oil production and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This leading-edge project will determine the technical, economic and environmental performance of carbon capture and storage technology.

“Fluor is looking forward to demonstrating the benefits of our commercially-proven carbon capture technology,” said Dave Dunning, president of Fluor’s Power Group. “Fluor is a leader in the power industry and our industry-proven Econamine FG Plus ^SM technology is just one example of our commitment to client needs.”

The front-end engineering involves the preparation of a detailed process design, cost estimate and a design verification analysis using Fluor’s CO₂ technology. Fluor is one of three companies selected to proceed to the next stage for further evaluation of the carbon capture technologies. SaskPower is expected to make a final selection by the end of 2009.

“Our leadership in clean energy is demonstrated by our use of Fluor’s proven Econamine FG Plus ^SM technology since 1989,” said Don Broeils, vice president for plant betterment, within Fluor’s Power Group. “We have successfully applied it to fossil-fueled boilers, gas turbines, gas engines and steam reformers to operate with significantly lower capital and operating costs.”

Fluor’s CO₂ capture technology was successfully demonstrated for 14 years at a gas and oil-fired combined cycle power plant in Bellingham, Mass. The plant produced 365 tons of liquefied food grade CO₂ daily for local sale. Fluor’s Econamine FG Plus^SM technology has also recently been selected for FEED study opportunities in Germany and Norway.

via Fluor

Apple has announced an updated Xserve that delivers up to twice the performance of the previous system. Using Intel “Nehalem” Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture, the 1U rack-optimized Xserve delivers up to an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt.** Xserve is available with up to two 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors and industry-leading storage options that include a low-power solid state drive (SSD) and up to 3TB of internal storage. Starting at $2,999, Xserve includes an unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard.

“The Xserve is the best workgroup server for our education, business and creative customers,” said David Moody, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing. “With up to twice the performance, better power efficiency and an innovative SSD drive option, this is the best Xserve we’ve ever made.”

The new Xserve includes Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 2.93 GHz, each with an integrated memory controller with three channels of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC memory that delivers up to 2.4 times the memory bandwidth while cutting memory latency up to 40 percent.*** Using high-efficiency power supplies and intelligent thermal management, Xserve delivers a 19 percent reduction in idle power use.

Xserve’s industry-leading storage capabilities include a 128GB SSD boot-drive option that requires a fraction of the power of a hard disk and delivers up to 48 times faster random access times without occupying a drive bay. Xserve’s three 3.5 inch drive bays support both 7200 rpm SATA and 15,000 rpm SAS drives and can be configured with up to 3TB of internal storage. Two PCI Express 2.0 x16 expansion slots provide massive I/O bandwidth to support the latest high-bandwidth expansion cards. The Xserve RAID card option now delivers improved performance up to 497MB/s**** and supports RAID levels 0, 1 and 5 with 512MB of cache without using a valuable PCI Express expansion slot. A 72-hour backup battery is included for enhanced data protection.

Every Xserve ships with an unlimited client edition of Leopard Server, offering support for Mac®, Linux and Windows clients without the added cost of client-access licenses. Leopard Server extends Apple’s legendary ease of use with Server Assistant and Server Preferences, which allow even nontechnical users to quickly manage users and groups on the server and easily set up key services. Leopard Server includes Podcast Producer, the ideal way to automatically publish podcasts to iTunes® or the web; Wiki Server, allowing people to collaboratively create and modify their shared websites with just a few clicks; and iCal® Server, the world’s first commercial CalDAV standard-based calendar server. Leopard Server is fully UNIX compliant and LDAP and Active Directory support allows Xserve to fit right in to existing IT environments.

The new Xserve joins Apple’s latest hardware products in setting new standards for environmentally friendly design. Xserve uses PVC-free internal cables and components, contains no brominated flame retardants and features a power supply with an average energy efficiency of 89 percent.

via Apple

Yahoo! has announced the availability of Artist Pages, a free consumer experience that aggregates the best music products, services, information, and content the Web has to offer about more than 500,000 artists featured at Yahoo! Music, making it a great starting point for music fans. Showcasing tour dates, music videos, music downloads, streaming music, editorial content and much more, Artist Pages will help fans discover, experience, or purchase their favorite music online as easily as possible. Artist Pages will launch on Yahoo! Music (http://music.yahoo.com) on April 7.

Yahoo! is placing control of its Artist Pages in the hands of music fans, giving them an ability to create their own canvas of content and commerce offerings. To customize their own Artist Pages, users can select among modules offering iTunes, Amazon.com, Last.fm, Rhapsody, Pandora, YouTube and Yahoo!. In the future, users will also be able to create and self-publish their own Artist Pages as Yahoo! opens the platform to any musician, artist or record label exposing their creativity to Yahoo!’s enormous audience.

“Yahoo! is focused on attracting and engaging the largest online audience and connecting each individual to the people and experiences that matter most to them,” said Jeff Dossett, senior vice president of Yahoo!’s North America Audience Group. “With Yahoo! Music’s Artist Pages, we’re creating a truly open and indispensable music destination that will drive music fans to Yahoo! first on their path to music discovery, experience and purchase.”

Originally conceived as a closed service that was restricted to proprietary consumption and information offerings, the re-launched Artist Pages represents the first major effort by any online music site to truly open itself up to best serve music fans who use multiple online music products and services. The end-result is a rich Web experience that eliminates the friction that otherwise exists in the fragmented online music world.

“Artist Pages leverages the scale of the Web and Yahoo!’s massive audience to create something totally new, open, social and original which we believe will attract a new generation of music fans and Web users to Yahoo! Music,” said Michael Spiegelman, head of Yahoo! Music. “Artist Pages is a major game-changer for the digital music industry.”

via Yahoo!

The global economic downturn has taken its toll on industries across the globe, and the mobile and wireless communications industry is no exception. In the European market, which is highly saturated and competitive, mobile network operators (MNOs) are in a survival of the fittest battle to maintain and expand their market share. On the fringes of this battle are new entrants, challenging established MNOs to stay in the game. The question is whether or not there is space for these new entrants in an established market, especially during these economic times, when smaller companies could be viewed as potential acquisition targets.

According to Yiru Zhong, Frost & Sullivan’s analyst: “Analyzing the performance of new MNO entrants, there are three MNOs with interesting developments: 3 in Italy and the UK, P4 (or its brand name, Play) in Poland, and Yoigo in Spain.” 3 began its operations in 2003, when the Italian market had almost 100% population penetration and was dominated by three major players: TiM, who held 45% of the market; Vodafone, a 33% market share; and WIND, with the remainder. 3 UK faced equally challenging conditions as the UK mobile market had four dominant players, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2, all of whom occupied a relatively equal market share. As such, 3 UK became the fifth MNO at a time when only 10% of the population did not have a mobile subscription. By the end of their second year of operation in 2004, both 3 UK and 3 Italy had managed to capture 4 – 5% share of subscribers in their respective markets. In order to sustain and grow customer scale, 3 moved away from being a mobile communications company to become a multimedia service provider.

P4 in Poland launched its operations in 2007 with its brand name, Play, at a time when the population penetration was 109% and the market was dominated by TP, Era and Plus. Play specifically targeted the youth segment and had the explicit vision of becoming the “interactive mobile operator.” Play entered into a strategic partnership with Onet.pl, one of Poland’s key online players, to combine its wireless communication services with internet-based opportunities such as social networking. This is a critical differentiator as Play becomes the only MNO in the Polish market which enables customers to move seamlessly between the mobile and internet worlds. Play’s key to success was its decision to focus on a specific group of customers, the youth segment, and to serve it well. This strategy, combined with a competitive pricing approach, helped Play to gain a 5% market share by the end of 2008 in its second year of operations. This puts its performance on par with 3′s historic performance in 2004.

As an alternative to the three MNOs in Spain, Yoigo entered the market in December 2006 as a no-frills operator with simple, low cost and efficient service. At the time of Yoigo’s entry, the market penetration exceeded 100% at 107% and there were already three established players in Movistar (Telefonica’s mobile arm), Vodafone and Orange. Yoigo not only invested in building its own network but also positioned itself as the alternative newcomer by highlighting its simple tariff plans and low cost service. By the end of 2008, it appeared that Yoigo’s performance did not match what other challengers such as 3 and Play had achieved in terms of market share. Yoigo had only managed to gain a 2% subscriber market share. Nonetheless, Yoigo’s business plan relies on its ability to control cost while maintaining its low tariff strategy. As such, Yoigo is an enthusiastic supporter of outsourcing functions, from network operations to IT activities to online distribution. While it remains to be seen if this cost control strategy works out in the long run, Yoigo demonstrated the effectiveness of online distribution channels. This in turn may have indirectly triggered a rethink in Vodafone’s and Orange’s distribution strategies in Spain.

“We believe that there is a role for challengers in the mobile market as competition increases innovation in the market. There are two main lessons from the performances of 3, Play and Yoigo,” observes Frost & Sullivan analyst Yiru Zhong. “First, new entrants, whatever their market performance, have the ability to motivate established players to accelerate innovation ranging from service offerings to partnerships to the way they engage with existing and new customers. Second, a successful value proposition cannot rely on low cost alone. Yoigo’s performance in terms of market share confirmed this view that was first evident from the lack of sustained success in Virgin Mobile and other low cost MVNOs in UK. Yoigo can become a viable MNO in the mobile market by redefining its value proposition to tap into a specific customer segment or customer need.”

via: Frost and Sullivan

Yahoo! has announced the availability of Yahoo! Mobile, an open and highly-personalized mobile starting point to the Internet, on both the mobile Web and as an Apple? iPhone app, allowing consumers to discover, stay connected and stay informed through their mobile devices. Additionally, the company will preview the soon-to-be-launched Yahoo! Messenger app for the iPhone, which will provide iPhone users in the United States with the No. 1 Messenger service in the country¹.

Announced at Mobile World Congress in February, Yahoo! Mobile for the Web is now available across more than 300 devices with HTML-enabled mobile browsers by visiting http://new.m.yahoo.com, while the Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app is now available in the Apple iPhone App Store. Both are currently available in eight countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, with additional localized versions expected to launch over the next several months.

“Consumers around the globe are demanding compelling mobile Internet services that offer increased personalization,” said David Ko, senior vice president, Yahoo! Mobile. “To further capitalize on the market potential and continue our mobile leadership, we created Yahoo! Mobile, a dynamic starting point enabling consumers to discover the world around them, stay connected through a variety of communication services, and customize content to define their Internet experience on mobile devices.”

via Yahoo!

2008 was the fifth straight year of employment gains in the tech industry’s two strongest sectors — software services, which added 86,200 net jobs, and engineering and tech services, which added 26,600 net jobs. The downside is that high-tech manufacturing shed 23,100 jobs and communications services shed 12,700 jobs. This is according to the 2009 Cyberstates Report from TechAmerica.org.

TechAmerica, formed by the merger of AeA and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), today released its 12th annual Cyberstates report, which includes a first-ever supplement with a 3rd and 4th quarter breakdown of 2008 tech employment. Fourth quarter data show the tech industry’s resilience compared to the U.S. economy as a whole, having sustained only a 0.6 percent drop in employment, or 38,000 jobs, in Q4 2008 when total private-sector employment declined by 1.3 percent.

The high-tech industry has added 382,900 jobs to the U.S. economy over the last four years. The industry added 77,000 net jobs in 2008, for a total of 5.9 million workers. This was on top of 79,600 added in 2007, 139,000 in 2006, and 87,400 in 2005.

The Cyberstates 2009 report — which details national and state trends in high-tech employment, wages, and other key economic factors for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico — shows that California’s high-tech industry added 2,000 net jobs for an industry total of 942,700 in 2007, the most current year for which state data is available. This marks the third net increase in jobs since the tech bubble began to burst in 2000. Leading the way in job creation were the computer systems design and related services sector (+12,600 jobs), R&D and testing labs (+8,800), and engineering services (+2,500 jobs).

Cyberstates 2009 Highlights

• U.S. high-tech employment totaled 5.9 million in 2008.


• Tech employment was up in 2008 by 77,000 or by 1.3 percent.


• High-tech manufacturing employment fell by 1.3 percent, losing 23,100 jobs between 2007 and 2008.


• The semiconductor industry lost the most jobs of any manufacturing sector, 10,900 in 2008.


• Six of the nine tech manufacturing sectors lost jobs in 2007. Only the communications equipment, defense electronics, and electromedical equipment sectors added jobs.


• The communications services sector continued to shed jobs in 2008, albeit at a faster pace, losing 12,700 compared to a loss of 7,200 in 2007.


• The software services industry added 86,200 jobs in 2008, up for the fifth year in a row.


• The engineering and tech services industry added 26,600 jobs in 2008, also up for the fifth year in a row, putting it at an all time high.


• The unemployment rate for electrical engineers was 2.5 percent in 2008 and 2.7 percent for computer and math occupations.


• The tech industry paid an annual average wage of $83,300 in 2007, 88 percent more than the average private sector wage of $44,400.

The Full report is available for purchase at Cyberstates 2009

Xobni, the an Outlook search and relationship plugin, has announced an investment from the BlackBerry Partners Fund to bring the company’s Series B round to over $10 million. The company has also removed its beta label with the introduction of Xobni v1.7. The new version of Xobni includes significant performance improvements to its relationship management sidebar and is available as a free download here: http://xobni.com/download

The BlackBerry Partners Fund’s investment allows Xobni to continue developing innovative solutions, including its lightning fast inbox search and powerful relationship management tools. The funding will also accelerate the development of a premium version of the product slated for release later this summer. The investment from BlackBerry Partners Fund brings the total raised in Xobni’s Series B funding to over $10M and adds BlackBerry Partners Fund Partner, Rick Segal, to Xobni’s board of directors. Xobni closed the first part of the Series B in January 2009, led by Cisco Systems.

“Xobni has a very compelling value proposition and we look forward to its extension into new platforms and use cases,” said Rick Segal of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. “We’re delighted to be part of Xobni’s growth and success.”

“We’re excited the BlackBerry Partners Fund shares our vision of improving email search and management,” said Jeff Bonforte, Xobni CEO. “With the additional funding, Xobni will strengthen its service and extend it to new platforms for our customers.”

Since the launch of Xobni’s public beta in May 2008, the company has been working to optimize speed and performance. The new version of Xobni makes the following significant improvements:

• Reduced Outlook Startup Time – Xobni now loads much faster inside Outlook
• Faster Message Loading – Xobni profile data is now cached, reducing delays between loading messages
• Indexing Controls – users can now control how often and how much of their mail is indexed
• Sidebar Controls – users can now choose for Xobni to open automatically with Outlook or only open when they need it

Xobni has also enhanced its product offering throughout the past year by developing strategic partnerships with leading content providers including LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo! Mail, Skype and Hoover’s

via Xobni

NASA and Microsoft Corp. have announced plans to make planetary images and data available via the Internet under a Space Act Agreement. Through this project, NASA and Microsoft will jointly develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to make the most interesting NASA content — including high-resolution scientific images and data from Mars and the moon — explorable on WorldWide Telescope, Microsoft’s online virtual telescope for exploring the universe.

“Making NASA’s scientific and astronomical data more accessible to the public is a high priority for NASA, especially given the new administration’s recent emphasis on open government and transparency,” said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Under the joint agreement, NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will process and host more than 100 terabytes, or 20,000 DVDs of data. WorldWide Telescope will incorporate the data later in 2009 and feature imagery from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Launched in August 2005, MRO has been examining Mars with a high-resolution camera and five other instruments since 2006 and has returned more data than all other Mars missions combined.

“This collaboration between Microsoft and NASA will enable people around the world to explore new images of the moon and Mars in a rich, interactive environment through the WorldWide Telescope,” said Tony Hey, corporate vice president of Microsoft External Research. “WorldWide Telescope serves as a powerful tool for computer science researchers, educators and students to explore space and experience the excitement of computer science.”

Also available will be images from a camera aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Scheduled to launch this May, LRO will spend at least a year in a low, polar orbit approximately 30 miles above the lunar surface collecting detailed information about the lunar environment.

“NASA is excited to collaborate with Microsoft to share its portfolio of planetary images with students and lifelong learners,” said S. Pete Worden, director of Ames. “This is a compelling astronomical resource and will help inspire our next generation of astronomers.”

This agreement builds on a prior collaboration with Microsoft that enabled NASA to develop 3-D interactive Microsoft Photosynth collections of the space shuttle launch pad and other facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center last year. The images featured on Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope will supplement existing imagery and data available on NASA’s Web site, the Planetary Data System and other sources.

The WorldWide Telescope is a Web 2.0 visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from ground- and space-based telescopes for a seamless, rich media guided exploration of the universe. Through WorldWide Telescope and Microsoft technology, people will be able to pan and zoom in on these images and the most interesting locations on Mars and the moon without distorted views at the poles.

Attracting millions of users since its release last spring, WorldWide Telescope provides a base for teaching astronomy, scientific discovery and computational science. Tours with narration, music, text and graphics create interactive learning experiences that allow people to search, explore and discover the universe in a new and unique manner. Additional information and a free download of WorldWide Telescope can be found at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org.

To further integrate the planetary data into WorldWide Telescope, Ames is developing a suite of planetary data processing tools. These software tools convert historic and current space imagery data into a variety of formats and images of the moon, Mars and other planetary bodies readily available for easy browsing and use by the general public, enabling the creation of enhanced educational tools for students and teachers.

“NASA has a wealth of images and data, from the Apollo and Lunar Orbiter missions to Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mercury Messenger flybys,” said NASA Ames Chief Information Officer Chris C. Kemp. “This collaboration makes it possible for NASA to leverage exciting new Microsoft technologies to make NASA’s data — and America’s space program — more accessible to the public.”

via Microsoft and NASA

Google Inc. has announced the Internet availability of proxy materials for its 2009 Annual Meeting of stockholders under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Notice and Access rule. Google’s proxy materials can be found on its investor relations website at http://investor.google.com/proxy.html.

Pursuant to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Notice and Access rule, companies may satisfy their proxy materials delivery requirements by delivering a “Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials” to stockholders, providing Internet access to the proxy materials, and providing a printed set of proxy materials by mail to any stockholder who requests them. Google has elected to take full advantage of these rules in order to minimize impact on the environment and maximize cost savings relating to the printing of the proxy materials.

Google’s 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K and proxy statement for its 2009 Annual Meeting of stockholders have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and may be viewed on Google’s website at http://investor.google.com/proxy.html. Google’s stockholders may obtain hard copies of these proxy materials free of charge by following the instructions provided on its website or in the “Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials”.

Google’s 2009 Annual Meeting of stockholders will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 2:00 p.m., local time, at Google’s corporate headquarters at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043. For your convenience, we are pleased to offer a live webcast of the Annual Meeting and Google Moderator to allow you to propose questions for the question-and-answer portion of the Annual Meeting at http://investor.google.com/questions.

via Google