The most recent articles from IT Week

VeriSign promises to ease DNS issues

Dave Bailey — 2008-06-19T12:26:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Thursday 19 June 2008 at 12:26:00

Two new European centres will accelerate DNS resolution

Web infrastructure services provider VeriSign has opened two new European centres which should help improve internet traffic management through faster domain name system (DNS) resolution and improve supervisors' ability to tackle region-specific domain attacks.

The new European Regional Internet Resolution Sites, based in Paris and Brussels will include upgraded server infrastructure making it easier to tackle two of today's most pressing internet issues: the strain placed on bandwidth by the rampant growth in video use; and transaction logging with DNS lookups.

Silva outlined the two main areas of strain on the Internet as being bandwidth, due to the amount of videos and video content people were downloading; and transaction logging with DNS lookups. "Anytime anybody wants to find something on the internet, they have to do a DNS query and even for Europe we need to increase the infrastructure required," said Silva

"What we're trying to do is regionalise the area, so customers systems don't need to go as far for DNS lookups," he added.

The new centres form part of VeriSign's Project Titan, which will see 100 similar centres being built across the globe by 2010. These centres will be ready for the transition to the next version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6.

CIOs urged to lead by example

Phil Muncaster — 2008-05-14T16:49:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, IT Week, Wednesday 14 May 2008 at 16:49:00

Enterprise IT leaders must show best practice in asset management, urges BSA

Anti-piracy body the Business Software Alliance has called on enterprise IT leaders to set an example of best practice in asset management, for smaller organisations to follow, in an attempt to reduce the UK software piracy rate.

Speaking to IT Week on the day that annual BSA research found UK software piracy rates have dropped for the first time in three years, the chair of the organisation's UK member committee, Julie Strawson argued that CIOs should take a "leadership role in championing software asset management" and provide "an ethical example of how to run a business".

The amount of illegal or unlicensed software on PCs in the UK fell by one percentage point to 26 per cent last year, according to the report, but losses as a result of piracy still totalled £925 million.

A BSA study released in January found that reducing software piracy by 10 per cent in the UK could generate 13,622 new jobs, contribute £4.42 billion to the UK economy and increase tax revenues by £1.08 billion to support local programmes and services.

The BSA also urged the government to tighten IP damages law, according to the recommendations made in the Gowers Review of intellectual property in 2006, and crack down on illegal software use in public sector organisations.

Licence to cut down IT bills

David Neal — 2008-03-10T00:00:00.000Z

David Neal, IT Week, Monday 10 March 2008 at 00:00:00

Fast says licensing complexity can lead to significant waste

Fast Corporate Services considers its primary task as providing educational and consulting services to end-user organisations struggling to manage their software lcences.

Although the organisation’s operation is kept separate from associated body the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast), they both share a common interest in combatting the use of illegal code. Where they differ is in their approach to the problem. While Fast’s main role is to sniff out and punish under-licensing, Fast Corporate Services aims to work with firms, helping them to manage resources and solve any licensing problems that come to light. It is an arrangement reminiscent of the good-cop/bad-cop scenarios that writers of television crime drama love so much.

Gerard Tilley, Fast Corporate Services’ managing director, said that in his experience most businesses have some sort of licensing issues that need resolving. Licensing problems can sometimes be just simple mistakes, he explained, mistakes that come about as a result of the complexities involved.

“IT staff are not trained to read complicated software licences, so they are very difficult to manage in-house,” Tilley said, adding that although consultants do a good job, as soon as their time is up and they leave the firm, their work becomes out of date. “Any changes that happen to systems after they go will have been missed,” he added.

To help firms improve their licence management processes, Fast Corporate Services has developed a standard for best practice. “We spent a lot of time developing a standard with the BSI to help people understand the risks of not properly managing licences,” Tilley said.

Where an organisation has been caught in possession of illegal software, these risks can take the form of legal penalties ranging from fines to prison sentences.

“There is the possibility of a criminal action being taken against you,” said Tilley. “You need to be able to explain that you have taken all reasonable steps, and that is about adhering to standards and carrying out best practices. The ultimate cost of non-compliance is a prison term.”

Associated body Fast has often been accused of heavy-handedness in policing end-user organisations, not least of all by IT Week and many of its readers, but Tilley was keen to stress that the road to a compliant software landscape is not just littered with threats about jail terms, there are also many benefits for firms.

“Following an audit, many organisations find that they are both over- and under-licensed.” Indeed, a recent survey carried out by Fast Corporate Services found that approximately 41 per cent of firms were over-licensing their software, wasting thousands of pounds every year.

The pressure for companies to comply with regulations regarding intellectual property is increasing, according to Tilley.

“Recently we have seen the government tighten up controls around the theft of intellectual property. Trading Standards has more power, and penalties have been increased,” he said. “Firms must tighten up compliance processes. Publishers are taking more steps to take software asset management seriously, and to ensure compliance. If they act then firms can be embarrassed.”

To avoid problems, controls should be tightened up across the company. Tilley suggested that staff are informed of the rules at their induction, and then reminded often. “People are not always aware of what is allowed in offices; you need policies in place.”

ISPs facing pressure over illegal downloads

David Neal — 2008-02-28T00:00:00.000Z

David Neal, IT Week, Thursday 28 February 2008 at 00:00:00

But experts say self-regulation may be more effective

Politicians in the UK have turned their attention to internet service providers (ISPs) in a bid to limit the amount of pirated material available on the internet.

In a document released by the department for culture media and support the Government admits that it will begin looking at the legislative environment surrounding ISPs, and was considering increasing its own powers, and the penalties it has at its disposal.

"The Government will equip itself to introduce legislation swiftly if suitable arrangements between ISPs and relevant sectors are not forthcoming, or prove insufficient” the report stated. "We will also explore tougher penalties for copyright infringement."

But John Lovelock, Chief Executive of The Federation Against Software Theft, said that typically ISPs were reluctant to divulge such information, meaning that investigating illegal downloaders and file sharers was an expensive and time consuming operation.

Lovelock suggested that self regulation would be more practical. "When ISPs see something illegal they should pull it" he said, adding that if ISPs consistently provided static IP addresses that could be linked to a business, or individual, the process of finding out who was acting illegally would be swift, and precise.

"Businesses would be linked to a permanent IP address making them permanently identifiable" he said, "We would then be able to ask ISPs to take action immediately, and could do so without lengthy and expensive investigations".

Such prospects would encourage firms to revisit their internet usage policies and ensure that they are strong enough to avoid exposure to investigation, said Lovelock. "Businesses should spend more effort controlling what their staff do, have robust policies in place, and ensure that they are using the right technologies."

Best estimates suggest that the UK is awash with illegally downloaded material. Recent research from online comparison site Moneysupermarket.com found that almost 20 per cent of British citizens readily admitted to downloading music, software, games and films from the internet, while almost half admitted to buying a disc already containing pirated material. Commenting on the research, Rob Barnes, head of broadband and mobiles at the firm, described Britons as having a relaxed attitude towards downloading.

Centennial offers help with SAM

Phil Muncaster — 2008-01-14T00:00:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, IT Week, Monday 14 January 2008 at 00:00:00

New SAM Essentials offering aims to improve asset management processes

Software asset management (SAM) vendor Centennial Software has launched new resources and training programs designed to help firms implement SAM initiatives more effectively and learn best practices in software management.

Centennial SAM Essentials is based on the MindManager workflow management software and features a collection of workflows and best practices which the firm has documented in templates, according to Centennial's Matt Fisher.

"It's aimed at those people in an organisation tasked with achieving SAM, and is [based on] the ISO 19770-1 standard, which we have simplified," he added. " They can edit, and pick and choose which policies they need to apply, and if you have to sell investment [in SAM] to the board, the RoI is easier to prove using this."

In addition, Centennial announced a new SAM Academy training initiative, which offers firms online or classroom-led courses ranging from the licensing fundamentals of the major vendors and general best practices, to more advanced ISEB accreditations.

In related news, the perils of buying pirated software - one of the drivers for good asset management processes - were highlighted this week with the discovery of one of the UK's worst cases of software piracy.

Derby-based Michael Walton was found to have been selling illegal copies of specialist architectural software on eBay and now faces up to 10 years in jail, according to reports.

"Criminals have now refined their strategy and are selling at almost retail price in order to avoid suspicion," explained Najeeb Khan, vice-Chair of industry body the Business Software Alliance. "By ensuring software is purchased from a reliable and trustworthy source, organisations can not only ensure compliance and prevent copyright breach, but can also reduce their exposure to the potential risks of unlicensed software use, such as virus attack, software failure and system downtime"

Kewney: Searching for Ballmer

Guy Kewney — 2007-12-19T00:00:00.000Z

Guy Kewney, IT Week, Wednesday 19 December 2007 at 00:00:00

Guy Kewney hasn't seen Steve Ballmer in years

Here’s something you couldn’t do five years ago: go to Google News, type “Ballmer” and get “Your search – Ballmer – did not match any documents”.

The story on our front page half a decade ago quoted the Microsoft chief executive on the subject of licensing on .Net Server. Certainly “Microsoft licensing” is much in the news, but where is Steve?

Last time I caught a glimpse of him on the web, he was shouting “developers, developers, developers” ad nauseam and sweating heavily – not what you’d call significant industry or technical news.

Some things don’t change. The top story that week was about privacy rights – Facebook has kept that one popular. Linux was in the headlines – no change there, either. Back page, I was writing about beer and Wi-Fi, and they’re both still popular, too.

The de-Ballmerisation of Microsoft is years away, but his non-newsworthiness shows how Microsoft has changed in the past five years from an organisation that courted the media, to one that is almost exclusively focused on lobbying.

When Bill or Steve arrives in London, they pop straight into 10 Downing Street, not into a big hall with thousands of hacks waiting to write their scripts down.

These days, no news about Microsoft is good news. So don’t tell anybody, eh Steve?

Gartner predicts rough road ahead for software vendors

Rosalie Marshall — 2007-11-19T00:00:00.000Z

Rosalie Marshall, IT Week, Monday 19 November 2007 at 00:00:00

Analysts Gartner says managers will wrestle with vendors over software licensing costs

Changing dynamics in the software licensing market will give IT buyers more power when negotiating software license costs with software vendors, predicts analyst Gartner in a report.

The report warned power will shift in the market from vendors to IT managers, leading software vendors to establish more realistic margins.

Increased use of software as a service (SaaS) models for delivering business software will reduce an organisation’s lock-in and customisation costs, according to the analyst firm. Customisation is usually limited to configuration in SaaS environments, while other costs such as implementation and upgrading costs may be covered by the SaaS vendor’s monthly fee, the report explained.

Simon Heywood, business manager at software reseller PC-Ware, agrees with Gartner’s predictions that the SaaS model is likely to affect licensing costs and announced plans that PC-Ware will work with its partners to develop its own SaaS model.

Gartner also expects the expansion of markets in China, India and Brazil will drive a demand for lower software and licensing costs. These large populations are not held back from legacy software investments but are free to start from a “Greenfield” environment using low cost software and SaaS architecture, said the report.

Also noted by the firm was the impact of open-source software (OSS), which will allow businesses to obtain upgrades, services and support from third parties at half the price charged by the software vendor. The OSS movement will bring more competition to the services market, particularly in areas such as server, operating systems, development tools and database maturities, Gartner said. "There will be less maturity in technologies such as ERP and CRM", the report added.

William Snyder, research vice-president at Gartner, added, “software buyers need to realise that the pendulum is beginning to swing in their favour and there are an increasing number of alternatives in today’s software market.”

“We would advise IT organisations to use BPO and open-source alternatives to improve their negotiating power with software suppliers as well as employing the emergence of third-party vendors as a means to reduce higher maintenance fees on older versions of software.”

Business Continuity Services updates licence tracking tool

Daniel Robinson — 2007-09-06T00:00:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson, IT Week, Thursday 6 September 2007 at 00:00:00

Business Continuity Services has added new features to its software licensing compliance tool

Business Continuity Services (BCS) has released an update to its Software Organiser tool for tracking licenses. It includes numerous improvements asked for by customers, plus a new dashboard feature for an at-a-glance view of compliance.

Software Organiser 4.1, available immediately, adds over 80 enhancements and fixes, according to the firm. Chief among these is a "compliance eye" graphic showing which applications are compliant, and which not. This helps customers to focus on priority areas such as Microsoft licensing, according to BCS business development director Andy Fisher.

Another improvement is an import wizard that can accept audit discovery data from any source, such as spreadsheets.

"More and more customers are auditing using a discovery tool, but won't let them near their servers, so these are still audited manually," Fisher said. This is because server licenses are often complex, especially with today's multi-core processors, and administrators also prefer to keep non-essential software, including discovery agents, off their servers.

Software Organiser's key strength against more generalised asset management tools is its ability to recognise when the same software has been reported more than once, as can happen if an application is part of a suite, according to Fisher.

"We give a truer picture of a company's software compliance situation," he said.

Software Organiser 4.1 is a free upgrade for existing customers from version 4.0. For new customers, licenses start at £1,795 for s single administrator seat. Maintenance is free for the fist year, but charged at 20 percent of the licence fee afterwards

Centennial Software updates SAM tools

Phil Muncaster — 2007-09-05T00:00:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, IT Week, Wednesday 5 September 2007 at 00:00:00

SAM.Suite is deisgned to cover the entire asset management lifecycle, says Centennial

Software asset management (SAM) tools vendor Centennial Software today launched a new offering designed to enable firms to control their software licensing more effectively, save money and reduce risk.

SAM.Suite features the latest version of the firm's flagship Centennial Discovery product alongside a fully integrated new offering called License Manager, that together enable firms to cover the entire lifecycle from software audit to compliance reporting, according to the firm's Matt Fisher.

"In the customer community SAM is growing in prominence – people are understanding the opportunities to save money where they're over-licensed and there's a healthy fear of being audited by vendors or watchdogs," he added.

The updated version of Centennial Discovery includes enhancements to software recognition capabilities, while License Manager allows firms to audit their network but filter out the information that isn't relevant.

SAM.Suite also offers multiple users in various departments across an organisation to be involved with asset management, improving the effectiveness of their SAM activities, explained Fisher.

The product's other major differentiator is that it can adapt to the constantly changing nature of enterprise networks with a new feature which reconciles manually collated information with an online database, flagging up any anomalies.

"Most vendors take individual applications and create a link between them and individual licenses," argued Fisher. "But this doesn't take account of the fact that the network is dynamic, with new PCs coming on and being retired and software being installed and uninstalled all the time."

David Mitchell of analyst Ovum argued that SAM is now "one of the hottest areas of the market" because the vendors and industry watchdogs are becoming evermore stringent with their audits.

"The rough percentage of those enterprises who have the appropriate level of licensing is zero," he added. "SAM tools help you know in advance if you have any issues so you can fix them at your pace."

Experts warn licensing must evolve

James Murray — 2007-08-15T00:00:00.000Z

James Murray, IT Week, Wednesday 15 August 2007 at 00:00:00

Virtualisation challenge could add greater complexity

Oracle's recent revelation that it will find it "too complicated" to develop a licensing model that accounts for software running on virtual servers has prompted a mixed response from experts, with some insisting the stance is short-sighted and others arguing the vendor is right to refrain from complicating its licensing model further.

Neil Macehiter of analysts Macehiter Ward-Dutton said that Oracle was trying to "delay the inevitable" in the face of growing customer pressure for virtual machine-based pricing models. "While firms use virtualisation to just deliver server consolidation it is not as big an issue," he said. "But as soon as they start using virtualisation in more sophisticated ways they will realise the current licensing models are broken."

Roy Illsley of analysts Butler Group agreed Oracle and other vendors would have to develop licensing models for virtualised environments. "It is difficult [to develop virtualisation pricing], but vendors are not putting enough effort into it," he said. "Eventually, if they don’t come up with something they will lose out." However, he added that Oracle's current stance was understandable on the grounds that virtualisation of database apps was less advanced than in other areas.

Ronan Miles, chairman of the Oracle UK User Group, also agreed all vendors will have to address the licensing challenge posed by increased adoption of virtual machines, but argued it was too early for Oracle to adapt its licensing model.

"Licensing for virtual machines will be complicated and Oracle has been criticised enough in the past for bringing in complex licensing terms," he said. "I'd say they are right to wait and see how the market develops because customers aren’t knocking their door down about it yet."

He added that in the meantime early adopters of virtualisation software had the option of agreeing usage with Oracle and insisted that issues around licensing were unlikely to hamper virtualisation software deployments.

Speaking earlier this month, Oracle president Charles Phillips insisted it was "too complicated" to develop a licensing model based on virtual rather than physical machines and downplayed suggestions the existing enterprise software licensing model was broken, insisting critics were guilty of taking a "huge leaps of logic from small changes [in the market]".

Mukesh Sharma, senior manager for technology alliances in Europe at virtualisation software specialist VMware, said that Oracle's concerns were understandable. "Oracle has a complex and diverse portfolio so it will be difficult to create a one-size-fits-all approach," he observed. However, he hinted there was a risk that software vendors that failed to account for virtualised environments through their licensing could find their competitiveness compromised.

"We are seeing two schools of thought," he said. "One set of ISVs are only just beginning to think about licensing for virtualisation, but another set are already being very creative and are developing pricing models that work on a per virtual machine basis."

VMware cited middleware software specialist BEA as a vendor already selling some of its products on a per VM basis.

Macehiter added that ISVs developing licensing models for virtual machines would have to rely heavily on enhanced monitoring tools capable of tracking software deployments across virtual machines. "The big challenge is policing," he explained. "It is easier to license software on a physical box than on a dynamic virtual machine. Customers are going to expect automated tools for policing their usage across the virtualised environment and letting them know if they are compliant."

test future gallery

2007-08-13T00:00:00.000Z

IT Week, Monday 13 August 2007 at 00:00:00

Virtualisation pricing "too complicated" claims Oracle

James Murray — 2007-08-09T00:00:00.000Z

James Murray, IT Week, Thursday 9 August 2007 at 00:00:00

Software giant says further changes to its licensing model to account for virtual machines are unlikely

Oracle has admitted it is "too complicated" to develop a licensing model that accounts for software running on virtual servers, despite the growing adoption of virtualised environments at many large enterprises.

Speaking yesterday, Oracle president Charles Phillips said that customers remained happy with Oracle's current licensing model, which is predominantly based on physical machines running the software.

"We license by the physical partition as there is no way we can know what [customers] are doing with [the machine]," Phillips said. "It is too complicated to do it any other way."

Phillips insisted the current model remained valid regardless of the growing popularity of virtual machines and suggested it would prove all but impossible to develop a system that accounted for the flexibility delivered by virtualised systems. "If there are 4 CPUs that is what we license for," he explained. "If you have a TV subscription and you don’t watch the TV one day you still pay the subscription".

Last year, Oracle modified its licensing to account for rising adoption of multicore chips, but Phillips suggested changes to deliver "virtualisation pricing" are unlikely.

The news is likely to be welcomed by customers using virtualisation software to drive up utilisation rates and reduce the number of physical processors they run. However, some experts predict vendors will ultimately have to develop licensing models to account for virtual servers in order to protect their revenue streams.

Controversial technology writer Nicholas Carr has called for a major overhaul of pricing models, describing Oracle's shift on multicore licensing as evidence "the traditional software pricing model is coming apart at the seams" as it tries to cope with the emergence of multicore chips, virtualisation and open-source software.

Roy Illsley of analyst Butler Group said that Oracle's current stance is und erstandable on the grounds that virtualisation of database apps is less advanced than in other areas, but he too predicted that all major software vendors would eventually have to develop new licensing models to account for the growing deployment of virtual machines in production environments.

"It is difficult [to develop virtualisation pricing], but vendors are not putting enough effort into it," Illsley said. "Eventually, if they don’t come up with something they will lose out… as virtualisation takes off it will create a licensing headache and customers will pressurise vendors to simplify it for them."

But Phillips dismissed calls from Carr and others for a new approach, arguing that people are guilty of taking "huge leaps of logic from small changes [in the market]".

Separately, Phillips hinted Oracle's long-running acquisition spree would continue, joking that it "remains to be seen" whether or not the company can " buy everyone", and insisting its Surround SAP strategy of acquiring vendors with a strong presence in SAP accounts is bearing dividends.

SAP's Léo Apotheker recently dismissed the strategy as Oracle's "latest brainstorms", adding that Oracle's M&A strategy is resulting in technology that is "not very readable".

But Phillips countered that SAP "can dream if they want to", arguing that Oracle could not have delivered its recent growth without increasing its activity in SAP accounts. He added that the acquisition of vendors such as Hyperion and Stellent means that Oracle is now an important supplier for many SAP customers "who didn’t call me three years ago".

Phillips also dismissed the suggestion that the acquisition spree has undermined Oracle's reputation as an innovative company. He insisted that the development of a portfolio that delivers best-of-breed software while tackling traditional integration projects represented innovation. "We view buying [companies] as successful R&D," he said. "That's R&D without risk… we only have to buy it if it works."

Teksys launches SAM managed service

James Murray — 2007-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

James Murray, IT Week, Monday 6 August 2007 at 00:00:00

New hosted service promises to provide software asset management systems without high up front costs

Just days after Dell announced it was to enter the software asset management (SAM) market with the acquisition of Asap Software, Microsoft services specialist Teksys has bolstered its own SAM portfolio with the launch of a new on demand service.

Based on Centennial Software's Discovery SAM software suite, Teksys said the new managed suite aims to provide firms with a fixed cost service for optimising the discovery, procurement and management of their software estates.

Teksys said that under the new service plan its staff will use the hosted version of the Discovery suite to gain remote visibility over a customer's network and use the information to provide a range of SAM services, including software inventory analysis, license position development and maintenance, vendor audit response, licensing help desk, vendor reporting and process and policy implementation.

Shaun Fröhlich, chairman of Teksys, said that the managed service delivery model is ideally suited to the growing number of firms that are concerned about software license compliance but often lack the resources to cover the up front costs involved in implementing effective SAM policies and systems.

The company said it is offering the service on a per-month per-device basis with prices for firms with over 1,000 user devices starting from £2.04 per device per month.

Matt Fisher, vice president of marketing at Centennial, said that the hosted model would allow IT chiefs to deploy SAM best practices without "having to go to the board to ask for £40,000".

He added that the version of the Discovery suite used by Teksys had been specifically tailored to suit the managed service model. "The software is run on Teksys' servers and as long as we can get an internet connection to the customers' network we can get all the data we need," he explained. "The solution is also tailored so that the data is compressed and encrypted on the user's PC so IT chiefs don’t have to worry about the solution leading to bandwidth overload or security problems."

The announcement follows news that hardware giant Dell is to bolster its own SAM services through the $340m acquisition of Asap Software. The company said the deal would allow it to simplify customers' procurement processes and allow Dell to bolster its software licensing, purchasing and compliance services.

Dell splashes out on SAM

Phil Muncaster — 2007-08-03T00:00:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, IT Week, Friday 3 August 2007 at 00:00:00

Asap Software acquisition will help it simplify firms' IT environments, according to Dell

Dell has announced it will acquire software asset management (SAM) specialist Asap Software in a $340m deal that will extend the computing giant's capabilities to include the management of software licensing, purchasing, renewals and compliance.

Asap Software has customers in the commercial and government sectors, while its subsidiary, License Technologies Group, specialises in licensing and e-commerce services for software publishers and their partners.

Dell said the deal will help it fulfil the goal of simplifying IT, removing cost and complexity for its customers.

SAM is becoming increasingly important for large firms as they struggle to manage the complexity of varying software licences, while organisations such as the Business Software Alliance and Fast, and vendors like Microsoft put pressure on firms to be compliant.

Alex Hilton of SAM specialist Centennial Software argued that the move will help raise businesses’ awareness of the value of software asset management.

"While Dell's decision to acquire Asap software was likely to be driven by a desire to consolidate the LAR market in North America, the associated move into the software asset management area is a good sign that this market is maturing, " Hilton added.

The pros and cons of patents

Daniel Robinson — 2007-07-30T00:00:00.000Z

Daniel Robinson, IT Week, Monday 30 July 2007 at 00:00:00

Patents stifle innovation and drive up costs, but would the IT industry really be better off without them?

A recent news item has put patents back on the discussion agenda. According to IT web site Ars Technica, Microsoft has filed a patent in the US for an advertising framework capable of serving up targeted ads to computer users based on any and all data that happens to be stored on the computer’s hard drive.

I’m sure this description alone will have alarm bells ringing in the minds of readers. Just imagine the security implications if someone on the corporate network installed such software, which scans through “user document files, user email, user music files, podcast files, computer status messages” then, presumably, reports its findings back to the mothership in some form.

Of course, that the patent has been filed does not necessarily mean that Microsoft is planning to implement such a service. It would be such a disastrously bad move from a PR viewpoint that it would be astonishing if this were to happen. A more likely reason for the filing is that, in the Machiavellian world of intellectual property, Microsoft hopes to get in a pre-emptive strike against anyone else considering the same technology.

Much has already been written about patents, particularly in relation to software, but what struck me when reading reports about Microsoft’s application is just how little innovation there seems to be. Searching through data on a computer hard disk is hardly new, and neither is serving up adverts based on information about users. Surely it was an obvious step in bringing these technologies together?

Ah, but I’m forgetting that this is the US system, under which someone has patented a method for refreshing bread – otherwise known as toasting.

Readers should consider that bad patents affect all of us in the IT industry. A former colleague of mine held the opinion that it is in the economic interests of the US to permit dubious patents. Since the country has the largest economy in the world, any large vendor has to do business there, which means paying royalties to any local company that might have patented some otherwise trivial business process. The US government, of course, gets to collect taxes from that money.

Therefore, trivial patents not only stifle innovation, they add to the cost of products and services. It is we, the customers, who ultimately pay for costly patent litigation or for royalties on intellectual property.

The patent system seems in dire need of a rethink, and it is tempting to solve the problem by simply abolishing patents. But let’s not forget the reason patents exist in the first place: to reward those who come up with genuinely new inventions that benefit us all.