Sepertinya, aku semakin menjadi maniak situs Friendster. Naluriku semakin terpacu untuk lebih meng-”utak-atik” situs social networking ini. Entah mengapa aku tidak begitu tertarik dengan Facebook, MySpace, dan situs social networking lainnya selain Friendster…

Bila dilihat, ada yang baru dari Friendster. Selain aplikasi-aplikasinya yang tambah banyak, tentu saja bagi kita yang hidup dan dibesarkan di INdonesia dan paham betul dengan bahasa Indonesia, hal ini menjadi suatu kebanggaan. Apa pasal? Soalnya, Friendster meluncurkan layanan teknologinya dalam bahasa Indonesia, setelah mereka meluncurkan dalam enam bahasa lainnya. Tapi, ada satu hal yang aneh berkaitan dengan layanannya dalam bahasa ibu pertiwi…

Bila dalam bahasa Inggris Friendster mudah dipahami dan struktur bahasanya baik, maka hal ini berbeda dengan layanan dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Sebut saja tag Who’s Viewed Me yang dialihkan ke Bahasa Indonesia..Tebak apa terjemahannya di Friendster?? Terjemahannya menjadi “Siapa yang Melihat Saya”. Tentu saja secara terjemahan hal ini bisa dimaklumi. Kendati demikian, masih banyak kekurangan dan hal yang terasa mengganjal dan kurang pas dari Friendster ini. Ada lagi hal yang terasa kurang pas, seperti “Posting Seruanku” yang dalam bahasa inggrisnya “Posted Shoutout”. Jadi kaya’ kampanye aja…

Hmmm, sebenarnya, yang dilakukan pihak Friendster memang untuk mempermudah user-nya…tetapi entah mengapa masih terasa aneh untuk yang mungkin terbiasa dengan layanan berbahasa Inggris…Tapi, 1 hal yang menjadi pertanyaan? Apakah layanan ini menggunakan Altavista???kekekekke, gaswat juga kalo benar ya….

Sepertinya sudah sekian lama aku tidak nge-blog….hmmm, banyak hal yang terjadi. Dan banyak hal juga yang bisa diceritakan sebenarnya. Tapi, ada satu hal menarik begitu melihat tampilan baru dari wordpress….wuihhh…. lucu juga ya inovasinya…. Ada apa ini??

Mungkin ini yang dinamakan inovasi dalam menghadapi persaingan… Awalnya wordpress “datar-datar” aja. Tapi sekarang udah bisa masukin suara, musik, gambar, video, dll…hmmm canggih juga.

Ya yang jelas, mungkin ini juga salah satu atraksi wordpress untuk menarik pengguna yang lebih banyak. Karena kan dia juga harus bisa bersaing dengan tempat nge-blog lainnya, seperti Blogspot…. apalagi temen-temen banyak yang bilang bahwa wordpress ga terlalu user friendly…mungkin inilah yang namanya gebrakan baru…. dan tampilan wordpress sekarang, mengingatkanku akan suatu fasilitas di sebuah operating system non proprietary….

Wah-wah…hidup WordPress… dan buat para bloggers, tetaplah nge-blog.

Wednesday, 9 January 2008

The function and job scope of the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Body (ITRB) is apparently still under question.

Answering to SDA Asia’s query on the position and clear job description of the ITRB, member of ITRB,Heru Sutadi, said that the telecommunication industry in Indonesia is now in a transition era, so there are many rules that need to be finalised.

About ITRB’s function now, Heru said it basically “Depends on the man behind the gun.”

From his point of view, ITRB is still consistent in managing, watching and handling the telecommunication industry in Indonesia. But, he adds, the regulation in Indonesia is not clear on BRTI’s specific existence.

In the future, Heru said that regulator should be able to be tap into convergence as the telecommunication industry now becoming unlimited with the boundaries in IT and broadcasting almost disappearing.

“The consideration now ITRB should be independent from operator and political purpose,” added Heru.

Wednesday, 9 January 2008

IBM announced that Suryo Suwignjo has been named President Director of IBM Indonesia. Suryo is succeeding Betti Alisjahbana who will be assuming a key role in driving business transformation in line with IBM’s strategy for ASEAN, with immediate effect.

“As we enter the next phase of IBM’s growth in Indonesia, under Suryo Suwignjo’s leadership, the team will strengthen its focus on delivering innovative client value to generate both immediate results and future growth opportunities,” said Ong Hoon Meng, General Manager, IBM ASEAN.

“The team will build on the strong relationships developed under Betti’s leadership with the extended ecosystem, to partner clients and the local community in Indonesia as they progress on their journeys of innovation.”

Hoon Meng added that they will continue to draw on Betti’s knowledge of emerging growth markets and her keen understanding of client needs and industry trends to further our growth plans across ASEAN.

Suryo Suwignjo will oversee IBM Indonesia’s operating units, including its sales and distribution and services businesses. He will be responsible for accelerating the team’s efforts in integrating IBM’s portfolio to help clients across industries become more efficient and competitive through the strategic use of IT.

“We have a tremendous opportunity before us – a vibrant marketplace of businesses and organisations growing both locally and globally, a strong leadership team with a proven track record and the industry’s most complete and innovative portfolio of technology and capabilities,” said Suryo Suwignjo, President Director, IBM Indonesia.

Suryo Suwignjo joined IBM in 1990. Prior to today’s announcement, he led Industry Systems, Systems & Technology Group, IBM ASEAN. Among other leadership positions, he has also served as Country Manager, Systems & Technology Group and Business Partners, IBM Indonesia from 2001 to 2006.

Monday, 7 January 2008

Telecommunication executants in Indonesia have been urged to stop their operation in radio frequency 1.9 GHz and to migrate this frequency to 800 MHz. According to Gatot Dewa Broto, Chief of General Affairs and Public Relations Directorate General Post and Telecommunications Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, this announcement is apparently the result of a recent evaluation on 1.9GHz.

Gatot said that based on rules from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Number 01/PER/M.KOMINFO/1/2006 with regards to the mobile cellular network IMT-2000, radio frequency 1,9 GHz can only be used until the end of 2007.

All existing network players are no longer allowed to build and develop PCS 1900 network on the 1.9GHz frequency.

On the other hand, telecommunication providers who have permission to use mobile cellular networks in radio frequency band 1900-1910 coupled with 1980-1990 MHz can only operate with a maximum band of 5 MHz (1905-1910) coupled with 1985-1990 MHz.

Gatot said this frequency allocation has been made to support neutral and effective technology. Also, the Indonesian government wants to keep away from inefficient radio frequency spectrums in order to develop a good telecommunication industry.

“It’s not easy to migrate radio frequency,” says Gatot.

“That’s why this allocation and radio freuquency management is needed.”

Friday, 4 January 2008

Political instability may have led to a slowdown in Bangladesh’s business investments, but the PC market has managed to remain as it was in Q2 07. According to a recent IDC study, while the market showed a declining trend starting from the first quarter of the year, Q3 07 showed the least with less than one percent decrement sequentially.

IDC expects shipments to stand still year-on-year to reach 185,000 units in 2007 due to floods, political turmoil & hurricane in recent months.

Nonetheless notebook expansion continues to grow as public awareness on the products are growing rapidly despite the negative tension on the market.

“As the natural disturbances & political instability affect all business segments, the market remains stagnant and unpredictable for its future outcomes,” says Handoko Andi, IDC Associate Market Analyst.

“Nevertheless, healthy demand on PC as awareness continues to grow should keep the market to a more optimistic growth next year.”

Although traditional PCs remain the largest share of PC shipments, it has gradually declined to 79 percent in total during Q3 07, loosing 12 percent of its market share when compared to same quarter last year. While notebooks accounted to 19.7 percent of the total market share, the rapid growth was affected by the weakening desktops demand in both consumer & commercial segments. In contrary, notebooks have gained popularity in consumer segments despite the negative trend shadowing the market.

Both consumer & commercial segment are set to expand strongly with a healthy 19.6 percent growth in 2008, surpassing 200,000 units. Overall, Bangladesh PC market’s growth will be supported by IT spending from business investments, especially in Medium to Very Large Businesses with each increment ranging from 18 percent to 42 percent year-on-year. Furthermore, notebooks are also expected to increase rapidly in Home segment and Large to Very Large Businesses.

With the government committed to holding the elections before end 2008 end, many speculate the year will be experiencing more instabilities. However, as the recent period remains calm and conducive, IDC expects the market will be on track in 2008 where growth will continue to be driven mainly by whitebox products, as it remains the mainstream PC in the market used by both consumer & commercial end-users.

F5 Networks, Inc, the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, announced a new version of its BIG-IP Application Security Manager™ (ASM) solution.

The new BIG-IP ASM delivers unprecedented security capabilities, enabling both network and security architects to manage the multiple layers of their application security environments comprehensively and transparently. In addition, BIG-IP ASM’s robust capabilities and ease-of-use make it an ideal security solution for architects seeking to safely introduce new technologies into their application delivery infrastructures, including solutions that ensure regulatory requirements for financial, e-commerce, health care, and retail industries.

Most organizations are incorporating security into the software development lifecycle for new applications, there are still many legacy applications that organizations must protect for regulatory and compliance reasons. Application firewalls can help organizations provide compensating control protections for legacy and commercial applications.

As part of F5’s integrated application delivery portfolio, BIG-IP ASM inherits unmatched performance enhancements by taking advantage of native TMOS functionalities including compression, caching, rate shaping, SSL offload, TCP content manipulation, and TCP Express. The result is the industry’s fastest and best-performing application firewall-a streamlined, integrated security solution that can easily be deployed into an end-to-end Application Delivery Network.

“We recognize that each enterprise has specialized security requirements in addition to general application protection,” said Jason Needham, Director of Product Management at F5. He adds, enterprises and other organizations need a manageable, end-to-end application security solution that’s flexible enough to protect against the next generation of application attacks as well as current threats.

BIG-IP Application Security Manager 9.4.2 is available now, both as a software module and a standalone device. The BIG-IP ASM module, running on BIG-IP LTM, is available on the 6400, 6800, 8400, and 8800 BIG-IP hardware platforms. The standalone version of ASM 9.4.2 is available on F5’s 4100 hardware platform.

Wednesday, 2 January 2008

With increasing concern about global warming, 2008 will see more governments impose guidelines and legislation around carbon emissions and major corporations will set targets for reduction of carbon emissions.

A major source of carbon emissions comes from the generation of electricity and the increasing demand for compute power, network bandwidth and storage capacity will increase the need for data centre power and cooling. The US government just completed a study which estimated that the IT sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption) for a total electricity cost of about USD 4.5 billion. This number is expected to double in the next 5 years.

Hu Yoshida, CTO, Hitachi Data Systems has predicted some storage trends for 2008.

1. Increasing Use of Archiving: Structured data like databases are exploding as they are required to hold more data, longer, for compliance reasons. Semi structured data, like email, web pages, and document management data are increasing dramatically. Corporate email quotas will increase from less than 200 MB to 2GB in order to support new knowledge workers and compete with free mail box offerings from Google and AOL. An avalanche of unstructured data will be driven by RFID tags, Smart cards, and sensors that monitor everything from heartbeats to border crossings. The new Airbus and Boeing Dream Liners will generate terabytes (TBs) of data on each flight. All these pressures will drive the need to archive data in order to reduce the working set of production data. This will call for new types of archiving systems that can scale to petabytes and provide the ability to search for content across different modalities of data. Creating a separate archive for each type of data will not help the problem.

2. Awareness of Storage Deficiencies: There will be a growing awareness that the storage of data has become highly inefficient, with low utilisation, stranded storage, too many redundant copies, low access speeds, inefficient search, and disruptive movement and migration. Continuing to buy more of the same old storage architectures will no longer be an option. Buying faster storage processors with larger capacity disks on the same 20 year old architectures will no longer be viable. New storage architectures will be required to meet these changing demands. A new architecture that can scale performance, connectivity, and capacity, non-disruptively to multiple petabytes is required. It must also be able to provide new data and storage services like multi-protocol ingestion and common search, across heterogeneous storage arrays with centralised management and secure protection.

3. Data Mobility will be a Key Requirement: With the need for continuous application availability, IT will need the ability to move data without disruption to the application. While software data movers have been used in the past, they steal processor cycles from the application and are limited to slow speed IP links to move data. As the volume of data increases, this becomes too disruptive. The movement of data will have to be offloaded to a storage system which can move data over high speed Fibre Channel links without the need for the application’s processor cycles. This will be increasingly more important for migration of data during storage upgrades to larger and larger storage capacity frames.

4. Control Unit Virtualisation of Storage: Control Unit Virtualisation of Storage will be recognised as the only approach to storage virtualisation that can add value to existing storage arrays. Industry analysts like Dr. Kevin McIsaac, of Intelligent Business Research Services Pty in Australia points out ”The idea of being able to layer (network-based) virtualisation over existing storage arrays is seriously flawed”. He points out that this “results in a lowest common denominator view of the infrastructure, eliminating the value-added features of the array.” This type of virtualisation adds another layer of complexity introduces a performance bottleneck, becomes another potential source of failure, and a vendor lock-in. A control unit based approach to virtualisation is able to leverage all the rich functionality of the control unit to enhance the functionality of lower cost or legacy tiers of storage arrays. A control unit based approach to virtualisation will enable less capable storage systems to utilise the value added services in that control unit like data mobility functions or thin provisioning capabilities.

5. Services Oriented Storage: Services Oriented Storage will become a requisite complement to Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) in the application space and to Services Oriented Infrastructure in the infrastructure space in order to achieve the dynamic data centre of the future. SOA depends on a virtualisation layer provided by XML which enables applications to share information and utilise common services like billing. Services Oriented Infrastructure depends on a virtualisation layer provided by products like VMWare which enables operating systems to share the resources of a processor platform. Services Oriented Storage requires a virtualisation layer in the storage control unit which enables other storage systems to leverage its services like a high performance global cache, distance replication, tiered storage, and thin provisioning.

6. Convergence of Content, File, and Block based Storage Services: Instead of separate stove pipe storage systems for content (archive), file and block storage system, we will see the convergence of these storage types to a common virtualisation platform. High availability clusters of content servers and file servers will use a common block virtualisation services platform, under one common set of management tools. This will enable content servers or file servers to leverage common block services like distance replication, thin provisioning, or virtualisation of heterogeneous storage systems

7. Thin Provisioning: Thin provisioning will provide the biggest benefit in increasing the utilisation of storage by eliminating the waste of allocated but unused storage capacity. This savings is multiplied many times over by eliminating the need to copy that allocated but unused capacity every time a copy is required for backup cycles, replication, data mining, development test, data distribution, etc. The implementation of thin provisioning should be provided as a service on a storage virtualisation platform so that it can benefit existing storage systems through virtualisation. The benefits of thin provisioning would be defeated if it requires yet another stand alone storage system. This ability to increase utilisation will be embraced by Green advocate and will be seen as a way to contain costs.

8. Deduplication: Deduplication will be implemented by all the major backup vendors. Deduplication is especially effective in eliminating duplicated data in backups. The ability to reduce a stream of data by 20 to 30 times will be extremely valuable in reducing the cost of storing data to the point that it will be feasible to store backup data to disk rather than to tape where the operational, availability, and reliability characteristics are better. Other forms of deduplication like single instance store for archives, and copy on write for snapshots will become more prevalent.

This feature written by myself, published in www.sda-asia.com

Wednesday, 2 January 2008

Fujitsu Indonesia has launched the fi-6140 and fi-6240 colour A4 scanners for Indonesian market to mark the New Year. According to a press release issued, Lina Melinda, Deputy Group Manager, Business Administration Group PT, Fujitsu Indonesia said that the fi-6140 and fi-6240 are designed to digitize cards, paper, photographs, transparencies, and other items with sizes ranging from A8 (53mm x 74mm) to A4 (210mm x 297mm).

“Both scanners also support barcode and patchwork reading, thus allowing them to simultaneously scan and separate different scan jobs for time savings,” added Melinda.

Both scanners are compatible with Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 operating systems. Besides that, the fi-6140 and fi-6240 also offer the Universal Serial Bus (USB) or Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) connectivity options.

The new Fujitsu fi-6140 and fi-6240 colour A4 scanners are priced at USD 1,630 and USD 2,260 respectively, and are available for in Indonesia with immediate effect.

My news published in www.sda-asia.com

Monday, 31 December 2007

Open source has been predicted to be one of top IT business models to watch out for in 2008. According to Made Wiryana, Academician, Lecturer, and open source expert, disappointment in Windows Vista coupled with great responses and high expectation to low end machines that come bundled with the Linux operating system and the rising interest in green IT, has made many think positively about Linux.

“For example many departments in Indonesia already have migrated to Linux. This phenomenon drives people to open source,” said Wiryana. Besides this, many big IT vendors such as IBM, Oracle, and other vendors who are specifically focused on services will see this open source as a trend.

IT business without community is impossible, Wiryana adds. He reckons open source businesses can solve local IT problems and big IT vendors should support and develop open source communities.

Today, open source is still growing on a global level. One such example would be at the Beijing Olympics, which is predicted to be fully-supported by open source.

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.

This feature written by myself and published in www.sda-asia.com