Nemertes Impact Analysis

Expert Insight On How Recent News Affects You

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Microsoft Aims to Keep Private Information Private

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has acquired Credentica, an authentication technology
provider. Historically, using the words "Microsoft" and "strong identity
management" in the same sentence would be laughable. Successful integration of
Credentica's U-Prove could make it serious business.

Inadvertent disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII) is a
critical issue. In Nemertes' Security and Information Protection
benchmark, participants said the most onerous compliance challenges are
privacy-related regulations, such as: HIPAA, FERPA, GLBA and CA SB1386.
Technology such as Credentica's is aimed at easing compliance with such
regulations by keeping the PII in the hands of the individual.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Any enterprise offering e-commerce where personal health
information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII) is needed for
authentication should consider an approach such as Credentica's; the less
information stored, the less chance of inadvertent disclosure.

Vendors: Vendors of authentication solutions need to be concerned. The one
challenge for Microsoft is Credentica's SDK is Java-based, giving competitors
some runway to position against Microsoft.

Investors: This may be a competitive threat to established vendors of
authentication technology including RSA Security (NYSE:EMC) and IdenTrust.
Further consolidation in is probable. Likely targets include smaller
authentication providers, such as TriCipher, StrikeForce Technologies and
Authentify.

Ted Ritter, Research Analyst

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/030608-microsoft-buys-u-prove.html?fsrc=rss-security [3]
http://www.nemertes.com/products_services/research/benchmarks/nemertes_benchmark_security_and_information_protection [4]

AT&T Offers IT-Offloading Options for SMB

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) last week announced its latest offering for
small-midsize businesses (SMBs) and enterprise branch offices. AT&T Business
in a Box offers SMBs the ability to easily migrate from traditional analog to
Voice Over IP. The single network connection and device provides hosted VOIP
functionality using AT&T Voice DNA, Internet access with firewall
protection, VPN, Wi-Fi data access, and LAN network connectivity.

SMBs understand the value and cost savings of migrating to VOIP. More than
90% of the IT executives participating in Nemertes' Building the Successful
Virtual Workplace benchmark are planning, deploying, or already using VOIP

Impacts:

Enterprise: This solution is ideal for SMBs or branch offices looking to
integrate their voice and data services, but my not have the budget or on-site
IT support.

Vendors/Carriers: SMBs represent a tremendous market opportunity with rapid
growth. Carriers must not underestimate their needs or expectations. They often
have stringent requirements for service and support.

Investors: Keep a close eye on companies that are focused on offloading IT
and network functionality for SMBs, such as XO Communications and Covad. Demand
for these services outstrips supply right now.

Katherine Trost, Research Analyst

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080227/aqw052.html?.v=44 [5]
http://www.nemertes.com/voice_over_ip [6]

Six Count'Em, Six Classes of Services Now Available form Global Crossings' MPLS

Global Crossing (NASDAQ:GLBC) upped the Class-of-Service ante by announcing
six classes for its IP-VPN services. New options include three enhanced classes
for its Basic, Enhanced and Premium Tiers.

Nemertes forthcoming Market Analysis on MPLS notes that only one other
service provider (Sprint) supports six or more classes of service in its MPLS
VPN offerings. The growing flexibility of CoS offerings enables enterprise
architects to institute finely grained control over network services to better
support latency-sensitive applications, including voice and video.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Work closely with your providers to develop a CoS strategy that
supports your real-time and non-real-time application requirements, and make the
number of services classes part of your decision criteria when selecting an MPLS
provider.

Vendors: Although not every enterprise needs six classes of CoS, look at
options for delivering expanded CoS capabilities to keep up with market trends.

Investors: CoS management requires significant investment in operational
systems support applications and network testing. Look to companies such as IXIA
(NASDAQ:IXIA) and Ericsson (Stockholm:ERICB.ST) subsidiary Redback Networks to
support this trend.

--Irwin Lazar, Principal Analyst and Program Director, Collaboration and
Convergence

http://www.globalcrossing.com/news/2008/march/10.aspx [7]
http://www.nemertes.com/ongoing_research/security_and_information_protection [8]

Apple Brings iPhone to the Enterprise

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced new features for the iPhone, including the
ability to synchronize Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Exchange Server, as well as
future support for Cisco's (NASDAQ:CSCO) client-VPN.

More than 93% of the IT executives participating in Nemertes' Building the
Successful Virtual Workplace benchmark said their mobile workers rely upon
smart phones, mostly for e-mail but increasingly for business applications and
Web browsing. Apple's moves gives mobile workers increased application
capabilities.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Consider iPhone for your workers who can benefit from
fully-functional Web browsing via a mobile device, or consider leveraging
Exchange interoperability to support existing iPhone users.

Vendors: Develop an iPhone strategy if you don't have one already. Wireless
service providers need to deliver devices that support the full-browser
functionality of the iPhone.

Investors: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced a $100-million
venture capital fund to support third-party application developers. Prepare your
own investment strategy for supporting the emerging iPhone ecosystem.

--Irwin Lazar, Principal Research Analyst and Program Director,
Collaboration and Convergence

http://www.apple.com/iphone/enterprise/ [9]
http://www.nemertes.com/nemertes_benchmark_building_a_successful_virtual_workplace [10]

Secret Sauce for Business?

Apple ( NASDAQ: AAPL ) moved to make the iPhone more business-centric by
making available a software development kit (SDK). This lets software vendors
port their applications to the iPhone and enterprises view the iPhone as a
viable business instrument. This move isn't a total panacea, though, since Apple
reserves the right to certify any applications developed using the kit and
expects to take a 30% cut of any licensing fees generated.

This is likely the nose of the camel with respect to the iPhone. With the SDK
in general circulation, it will become apparent quickly how to write
applications for the instrument-with or without Apple's permission.

Impacts:

Enterprises: The iPhone is coming, albeit with resistance from Apple. If you
are interested in the iPhone as a viable adjunct to your mobility strategy, this
would be a move to watch.

Vendors: It may be a bit premature to jump for joy at the prospect of
building applications for the iPhone. But it's wise to consider the SDK and
explore opportunities.

Investors: Apple continues to ride the iPhone wave. If Apple relaxes its
tight control over the iPhone, we expect an emerging iPhone application
community that will worth investment.

--Mike Jude: Senior Analyst

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=158022 [11]

Trend Micro E-mail Archive for Mid-Market Companies

Trend Micro (OTC:TMICY) announced the Trend Micro Message Archiver,a
mid-market solution for secure archiving. Nemertes' research shows email archive
and the associated compliance support is an important issue for CIOs.

Companies typically follow an evolutionary adoption process: Simple archiving
(.pst files) to more sophisticated storage/recovery solutions to full-blown
email archive/compliance solutions. The Trend solution is aimed to support
organizations that are moving from step two to step three.

Impacts:

Enterprise: Email archive is a critical compliance and business continuity
function. If you are not archiving, you must. If you are archiving, it must be
secure and include e-discovery support.

Vendors: The Trend solution is a competitive threat; high functionality at a
low price point. Trend also is well-entrenched in mid-market companies, with its
anti-x solutions and a well-supported channel.

Investors: There is a battle brewing between SaaS archiving solutions, such
as MessageOne (Dell (NASDAQ:DELL)), Positini (Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)), and
standalone solutions, including Enterprise Vault (Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC)) and
EmailXtender (EMC (NYSE:EMC)). Look for consolidation on both sides.

-Ted Ritter, Research Analyst

http://trendmicro.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=612 [12]
http://www.nemertes.com/products_services/research/benchmarks/nemertes_benchmark_security_and_information_protection [13]

And the Business Reason for Wireless Is --

Sybase (NYSE: SY) announced a major modification of its Information Anywhere,
a mobile business productivity set. The most notable aspect of the announcement
was that this new release is designed to provide business applications through
the email system. Rather than a whole new user interface for the business apps,
functionality would be embedded in conventional e-mails. Aside from the fact
that this is yet another attempt to implement open access for wireless, it is
also a notable foray into mobility-enabled business applications.

In Nemertes' Advanced Communications Services benchmark, business
applications for wireless devices are notably absent from the enterprise.
Sybase's move to ease the deployment of such applications may be an indication
that vendors are now moving to help enterprises do so.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Although one vendor does not totally solve a dearth of
business-enabling mobility software, this space is heating up. Those who were
intimidated by the custom coding involved with extending business apps to mobile
workers via wireless devices should reconsider.

Vendors: Business-productivity application vendors should keep an eye on
Sybase's success with this iAnywhere release. If it's successful, it signals
pent-up market demand.

Investors: As workforces become more mobility-focused and customer-centric,
vendors building enabling technology should see a lot of market resonance.

--Mike Jude, Senior Analyst

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid40_gci1303353,00.html?track=sy190&asrc=RSS_RSS-6_190 [14]

Monitoring Performance from the End-User Perspective: All Performance is Local

Knoa has released version 5 of its Experience and Performance Manager (EPM)
suite for quantifying enterprise application performance from the user's
perspective. This highlights the continuing evolution of enterprise IT toward a
user-focused, application-centric service delivery model.

Nemertes' Service Delivery and Management benchmark found fewer than
21% of participants directly, regularly measure application performance from the
desktop. With the increasing number of remote users accessing applications over
a growing number of networks, such measurement is becoming more important to
meeting user needs and demands.

Impacts:

Enterprise: The options for performance monitoring at the desktop are
increasing. Include monitoring in your next enterprise-desktop strategy.

Vendors: Management vendors should include a desktop reach in their products,
as IT continues to realize that performance there dominates perception of IT
services.

Investors: Companies such as Knoa and competitor Symmetriq will be attractive
targets in the next round of management consolidation.

--John Burke, Principal Research Analyst

http://www.knoa.com/main/Knoa_EPM_5.0_release.jsp [15]
http://www.nemertes.com/nemertes_benchmark_delivering_the_enterprise_service_delivery_management_volume_1_organizational_and_operational_trends_0 [16]