Tech Companies That Won't Survive 2009 385
buzzardsbay writes "Fresh off their annual market survey, eWEEK channel folks have compiled the list of tech vendors their readers think will fail, falter, or be sold off in 2009. It's important to note that these aren't the opinions of the magazine or its editors. The list comes from folks who work in IT, mostly technology resellers, who are out in the field selling, installing and maintaining this stuff. If there were ever canaries in the tech coal mine, they'd be these service and solution providers who live and die by the slightest shift in the markets. Some of the companies on this list, like Sun and AMD, are shocking because of their size. Others, like CA and Symantec, not so surprising." What other companies are headed for implosion, or should be if all were right with the universe?
Re:Virtualization (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd like to see /.'s predictions on that, especially with regards to VMWare. In my own ad hoc findings, it is true that Microsoft shops are leaning towards HyperV but isn't that to be expected? I find non Microsoft shops to be leaning towards VMWare. What are you finding?
Re:Virtualization (Score:5, Interesting)
Vmware isn't going any place.. to have them on the list just shows how much of a joke this is
Re:The list (Score:3, Interesting)
Any suggestions on a good AV package for windows then?
Note: I agree, McAfee home is disappointing, but their enterprise AV, if you have access to it, is nice.
Re:Virtualization (Score:2, Interesting)
Unless Citrix or Red Hat ends up ruling it.
if AMD went under (Score:4, Interesting)
Lamest list ever (Score:2, Interesting)
Why make a list of companies that will "go out of business", then hedge by saying they might be bought up, then finish with, well we don't think much of this is likely.
Reminds me of a skit I saw once.
Interviewer: You have an facinating new book called, "Was Hitler Welsh?" Well was he?
Author: After exhaustive study, I can confidently say, no he wasn't.
Re:Can I be the first to ask (Score:5, Interesting)
Why the fuck is this presented in Flash? It has NO added value and makes the material harder to digest.
Now there is a company I would like to see go out of business. Unfortunately, Adobe [google.com] appears to be doing just fine.
Re:KVM (disambiguation)? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why would anyone want to include Mac OS X as a guest? Apple goes out of their way to make it not run on things that aren't Macs. Why would someone then adopt it as a virtualized guest?
I happen to work for a listed company... (Score:2, Interesting)
I recently spoke to a director of sales.
His sales pipeline is double the one he had last year, because customers have decided to stop fooling around with start ups that will probably be out of business next year, and go with known brand names.
I'm not giving any more details because I'm not very familiar with insider trading laws, and don't want to get in trouble. But anyone who thinks that larger companies that sell into the IT marketspace are in trouble, clearly have no clue about what's really going on.
Re:The list (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know... I guess it's somewhat interesting that lots of people believe these companies will fail. If nothing else, it says something about their PR challenges. People aren't as likely to purchase products from companies they feel have an uncertain future.
Where's SCO (Score:2, Interesting)
Or are they counting it as already gone (since it seems to be a zombie now...)?
Re:The list (Score:4, Interesting)
The we get to AMD, Sun, Citrix, Symantec, where about 1 out of every 6 people think these companies will fail. Certainly these companies have problems, but each has products that could keep or gain marketshare. Some mght be in trouble, again, those that align themselves with MS, such as AMD and Symantec, are at the whim of MS, which can be dangerous, but, OTOH, about 85% of the respondents believe that these companies will be ok.
Then there is VMWare, in which a whopping 89% predict stability. They might be in trouble if a traditional OS continues to be utilized as a base OS, rather than relegated to guest status. On wonder why one would want MS Windows eating up resources with IE and Media Player and all the other stuff that gets loaded in, when one could run a custom version of *nix and VMWare, and then run MS Windows as a guest OS only when needed. I am sure for many with enterprise licenses to MS Windows, running it might virtual windows might make sense, but 90% of the respondants indicate that VMware has the better idea.
Come back in 2010 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The list (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's the list for those who are too lazy to read TFA or allow Flash:
Cool. Thank for saving the click.
1) Novell
Odd. SUSE Linux is a popular product with many tie-in deals. They will be fine.
2) NetApp
Overpriced products easily duplicated with FreeNAS or any number of products at a fraction of the cost.
3) Checkpoint
Too many corporate support deals to go away quickly.
4) McAfee (let's hope so!)
Horrible products for years. Illicit money has been propping this company up for years.
5) Salesforce.com
Won't go away, but may have to scale back the development staff. Their product is too close to helping SaaS succeed.
6) Juniper, CA, and AMD are tied for sixth place.
AMD is stable. Juniper I could see going away.
7) Sun, no surprise there
Sun is a good company. Why do people harp on them?
8) Citrix
Their product is licenses by MS and integrated into Windows Server. I just don't see them going away.
9) Symantec (again, let's hope so!)
This is wishful thinking. Despite many years of bad product, their tie-ins with OEMs keep them afloat.
10) VMware
Now this is just crazy talk. VMware is a good product with a strong user base and good support. The free solutions simply don't compare in scope and flexibility.
Re:The list (Score:1, Interesting)
Exactly. My constant irritation comes from the fact that the readers (and suppliers of said survey) of those magazines come from a vast majority of SA's who "claim" they are executives and have no say or understanding whatsoever in the market. Anyone who bases anything on the value of FREE magazines is not thinking clearly. Think I'm mistaken? Why not put a review of the stupid things people thought of in 2009 when 2010 turns the corner. In fact, where are 2008, 2007 etc... predictions that were grossly inaccurate. The only thing these articles do is hurt vendors who work hard at making a good name for their employees. Stop listening to marketing all the time and just work.
Re:The list (Score:1, Interesting)
VMWare?? Ok, disclaimer time - I am currently doing research in virtualization. But seriously, who thinks that virtualization will die out? VMWare is a leading player in the virtualization game and will continue to be so.
There's even talk of running entire data centers using virtual machines and watching temperatures for hot spots. When a certain group of computers in close proximity start rising in temperature, the networked monitoring system can shuffle them around to provide a stable power and heat distribution.
This kind of stuff is just the tip of the virtualization iceberg. Desktop virtualization is probably just an expensive toy, but server virtualization may get much bigger very quickly.