Links for June 30th through July 2nd

• THE COOLEST NEW [Austin] COMPANY CONTEST
  List and profiles of some new Austin companies.
• IBM to acquire BigFix for configuration, vulnerability management
• Cloudera gathers up open-source components for Hadoop
• Adobe Released Puppet Recipes for Hadoop
• Hadoop goes 'open core' with Cloudera Enterprise
• Ex-Amazon techies launch cloud computing startups
• IBM embraces Firefox, adopts it internally
• IBM Acquires BigFix for Data Centers
  "BigFix's platform includes a range of modules for areas such as patch management, security configurations and power management. The software's workload is distributed over all devices under management, and a special query language BigFix developed minimizes performance hits to the machines under management, according to its Web site."
• BigFix Expands and Enhances Server Management Offerings
• Mitsubishi Corporation to Offer BigFix Software to SaaS Providers
  More on BigFix being used in SaaS scenarios: "By introducing the software as an operational platform, SaaS providers can manage several hundred thousand PCs with just a single server. The ultra-lightweight agent program facilitates upload of multiple functions, providing unified management of security, inventory, and power. The energy savings gained through BigFix's products are becoming more and more sought after by businesses."
• BigFix Signs Agreement with BT Global Services to Extend BT Mobilexpress Desktop Management | BigFix, Inc.
  "For its initial service, BigFix Solutions are available in a Software-as-a-Service delivery model for BT MobileXpress customers to manage their mobile and remote PCs."
• Growing pains afflict HTML5 standardization
• Red Hat says only it and Microsoft can build entire clouds
  Wow, hubris much?
• IBM to Acquire BigFix to Advance Smarter Data Centers — ARMONK, N.Y., July 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ —
• White House freezes IT projects costing $3 billion | The Industry Standard – InfoWorld
• Mobile Roundtable – 6 Retail CIOs and 5 Questions about M-Commerce: Part I
  "But I'll leave you with one very pragmatic piece of advice from my very pragmatic CIO's. The best tactic for getting mobile projects going is to give your CEO a bunch of mobile devices (iPads a plus for sure). But if you do that, you better make sure to give the same set of devices to your help desk first." Also, commentary on the CMS needs when you do a mobile front-end. It's becoming clear that mobile projects aren't just re-skinning. In fact, I'm not sure "re-skinning" ever works.
• Does Uncle Sam really need 1,100 data centers?
  A classic NIMBY answer: that's a great idea, but it doesn't apply to us…
• Windows 8 leak: an App Store for Windows, IE9 beta in August
• Study: Open-Source Making Significant Traction in the Enterprise
• MeeGo mobile effort offers baseline code
  They're saying MeeGo is ready to do development work, but don't go using it in production just yet.
• Click Forensics raises $6M to fund expansion
  Austin-based company gets more funding to detect online ad fraud.
• What killed the Kin?
  Engaget says Microsoft's demands to convert to a Windows brand OS screwed the Kin because it drew out the delivery dates and soured the Verizon relationship.
• Carriers Go to Battle Over Faster Networks
  Testing out 4G and "faster 3G" wireless network connections. As always, the carriers marketing-lie about the speeds you can expect, puffing them up.
• Hitachi Offers Private, Public Cloud Storage
• EMC cans Atmos Online service
  "We are no longer planning to support production usage of Atmos Online. Going forward, Atmos Online will remain available strictly as a development environment to foster adoption of Atmos technology and Atmos cloud services offered by our continuously expanding range of Service Provider partners who offer production services."
• Health minister outlines tech spending
  It's like an episode of "Yes, Minister": finding out how much we're spending would take too much money. Wonder how they keep track of their accounts such that they can't query it. What ERP/procurement systems are they using? Seems like a big IT fail.
• Financial Services Technology Journal: The innovation issue
  Sounds like an ITSM/BSM bomb-shell: "Over the past few years, many financial services and insurance companies have restructured their IT organizations as technology service providers to offer greater flexibility to the business and improved cost controls. This restructuring turned the relationship between IT and the business into one of supply and demand. We believe that the service provider model is broken and, in many situations, its promised benefits have not been achieved. The service provider model is restricting the value that a CIO can bring to the business and his or her ability to innovate in order to differentiate the business."
• Simple IT Restructuring Has Failed To Provide Cost Benefits
  PwC says that "turn IT into a service to the business" stuff isn't all that: "When the CIO is perceived to be yet another external services provider, he or she is not positioned to influence the business vision and is left to play a reactive role, often mired in a conflict-ridden game of maintenance, margins and cost reductions."
• Microsoft Kills Kin

Disclosure: see the RedMonk client list for clients mentioned.