Hardware makers save profits compete with soft power PC big guy for cloud computing

Mergers and acquisitions battle smoke, PC bosses compete for cloud computing

"The network is the computer!" "Sun co-founder Gage 20 ago, is now becoming a reality, and cloud computing is the engine that drives this revolutionary transformation."

For the PC industry, it is clear that the meagre profits of the hardware will not support its future development. And the pressure from Apple, but also to traditional PC manufacturers everywhere passive. Therefore, the use of cloud computing to software and services transformation, it becomes inevitable. In the third quarter of last year, Hewlett-Packard, Dell's two big PC giants in the cloud computing area to accelerate the acquisition process to improve their hardware and software integration capabilities, last week, Acer 320 million U.S. dollars to acquire the advanced cloud computing capacity of the U.S. company Igware. The ASUS computer also said it would increase its investment in cloud computing. "Mobile terminal + Cloud computing Background" for a time to become major PC manufacturers wrestling with the central battlefield, the cloud war.

PC Giants increase cloud computing mergers

In the three quarter of 2010, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, the enemies, launched a takeover battle against 3PAR, a small company with an annual revenue of around 240 million dollars. Hewlett-Packard eventually beat Dell in September 2010 at a price of $2 billion, and was expected to embrace 3PAR. The two big PC giants are scrambling for 3PAR because 3PAR has a core technology in the cloud computing world that can help users dramatically reduce IT management costs. Therefore, who gets the 3PAR, who's IT service capabilities can be significantly improved.

The failure to compete for 3PAR did not affect Dell's massive mergers and acquisitions in the cloud. In the past 20 months, Dell has acquired 12 companies, half of which involve cloud computing, according to Martinyates, director of Dell's cloud computing solution architecture.

Acer, which has been on the decline in PC business since last year, has also begun to fully layout cloud computing. In Thursday, Acer announced that it would enter the cloud services market with $320 million trillion in acquisitions of US cloud computing company Igware and the development of its own cloud services Acercloud. The reason Acer is buying igware is to offset the decline in consumer PC profits by coping with the trend of low-cost, portable trends in the personal consumer PC market. Industry insiders point out that Acer's move is far-reaching and its Acercloud cloud computing services are designed to complete platform-wide integration of Acer's General PC, laptop and tablet computers. Trecy Cai, Gartner analyst, said: "The acquisition is the right choice for Acer, who no longer relies solely on the hardware business to bring new value to users by providing applications and software services, and thus boosting their profitability." ”

After Acer announced its takeover of Igware, Asustek immediately said it was actively looking for partners to join the fast-growing cloud computing sector and did not rule out the possibility of setting up a dedicated subsidiary. ASUS emphasizes that the cloud computing application market will be an important battleground in the near future IT industry, and Asus is now doing its best to enhance its infrastructure, including the network, computing, storage, and, in turn, operating systems, application platforms, and network services.

Tablet and smartphone become the main battlefield

In the cloud era, "cloud" for users to do storage and computing work, users as long as there is a mobile terminal, through the cloud platform, you can achieve their needs. In other words, "mobile terminal + Cloud computing Background" mode, will become the cloud computing era major IT giants wrestle the main form. For PC manufacturers, only to build their own cloud computing background, can open hands and feet in the mobile terminal force. More importantly, the PC Giants must find a powerful response to the aggressive "invasion" of Apple's ipad. With the help of cloud computing, it is the hope of PC bosses to fully exploit the application potential of mobile terminals.

Faced with the current situation of PC hardware sales, PC leader Hewlett-Packard announced in June this year, will be rid of the hardware-oriented old image, and gradually turn to the cloud consulting services, the introduction of a variety of public cloud, private cloud software and hardware integration solutions. HP has also fully applied cloud computing to its Tablet PC touchpad, with soft and hard integration to create customized applications for businesses, and to launch more business tools to become a platform for corporate cloud connectivity. For Apple, the business market is its Achilles heel, and HP is hoping to compete with Apple in a differentiated way in areas that it specializes in.

ASUS Group CEO Shen Zhenlai also pointed out that the future of the world's tablet computer will have three camps. The first camp is the Apple camp, it is a closed camp. The other two camps are open: the Android camp and the Windows camp. The strategy adopted by ASUS on tablets is also closely linked to cloud computing, creating a satisfying user experience with a large number of cloud applications and cloud storage services pre-installed.

In addition, in the smartphone sector, many emerging forces are also borrowing cloud computing to challenge Apple. Recently, Aliyun mobile phone official exposure, the reporter learned that the latest mobile phone will be available at the end of this month. The Aliyun handset will be a mobile operating system developed independently by Aliyun, which is fully compatible with Android applications. It is reported that Aliyun for the operating system to carry a lot of based on cloud computing applications, the biggest bright spot is that the use of CloudApp way to access applications, users need to register a cloud account, you can use the Aliyun provided by a number of cloud services and cloud applications, including Ali Browser, Ali Mailbox, Ali Search, Mobile phone, such as Wang Wang. Clearly, this model of Aliyun's phone is a direct challenge to Apple's iphone.

(Responsible editor: admin)