Belgium scores highly in IT courses

The British leading global career and education network Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has published the first ever international World University Rankings for Computer Science & Information Systems. The Belgian score is most encouraging.

No less than five Belgian universities feature in the top 200. Between places 51 and 100 is the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven), followed by the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Universiteit Antwerpen (UA) and Universiteit Gent (Ugent) - all between places 101 and 150. This catapults Belgium into the worldwide top-10 of countries with excellent higher education programs in IT.

Not surprising is the fact that American universities dominate the ranking for Computer Science and Information Systems. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) tops the table, with Berkeley and Harvard also in the top five. Caltech, UCLA and Carnegie Mellon join them in the top ten. The US has long led the way in information technology. The excellence of its universities in this area provides a formidable base for its market dominance.

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Forbes.com: An Open-Source Presidency ? - "Its already endorsed and employed by EU" - by John Dragoon

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An Open-Source Presidency in US ? - "Its already endorsed and employed by EU" - by John Dragoon

President Obama has been praised and vilified for exploring the use of open-source technology. Yet touting open-source software use in the public sector is nothing new. The U.S. actually lags behind the governments of the Netherlands, Brazil and others that have effectively mandated open source over proprietary software in civil and federal government. The U.K. recently moved to favor open-source adoption while the European Commission has recommended the adoption of open source across all European Union member countries.

The U.S. government's cautious approach to open-source software is certainly about to change, driven by the vast amount of money at stake. The US government spends nearly $12 billion a year on software alone--a figure that covers just capital investments, not the ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs. There's little doubt that open source can replace many proprietary products effectively. Ubiquitous technologies such as server software that runs data centers, database applications, operating systems and productivity suites on desktops and laptops are especially good targets. With the world in dire need of belt-tightening, this is an opportune time to invest in open source and pave the way for greater innovation while drastically lowering expenses.

Denmark, Sweden lead US in new global IT ranking report

EU-Digest

Denmark, Sweden lead US in new global IT ranking report

Denmark and Sweden outscore the United States in their ability to develop information and communications technology, according to a survey published today (Thursday) by the World Economic Forum's "networked readiness index". The United States, which topped the list in 2006 before slipping down the rankings, climbed one place to third in the latest edition of the survey. The report covered 134 countries, with Chad, East Timor, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Bangladesh at the bottom. The study largely blamed poor political and regulatory environments in the United States for offsetting some of the benefits of having the world's most competitive economy. The index, which measures the range of factors that affect a country's ability to harness information technologies for economic competitiveness and development, also cited America's low rate of mobile phone usage, a lack of government leadership in information technology and the low quality of mathematics and science education.

Singapore, the top Asian country, and Switzerland ranked 4 and 5. Nordic nations Finland, Iceland and Norway followed, with Netherlands and Canada completing the top 10. China jumped 11 spots to No. 46, leading the group of big emerging economies. India was 54th, five places ahead of Brazil, while Russia was down at No. 74.

WSJ: For Denmark's Entrepreneur of Year, Something Was Rotten - by Andrew Higgens

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For Denmark's Entrepreneur of Year, Something Was Rotten - by Andrew Higgens

At a banquet in Copenhagen late last month, accounting firm Ernst & Young feted a Danish software company for runaway growth under Stein Bagger, its dynamic chief executive. About a thousand guests, including Denmark's tax minister and leading business people, were there to applaud.But Mr. Bagger, the night's big winner, wasn't there to pick up the accolade of "Entrepreneur of the Year" and two other awards. He was busy fleeing from what investigators now describe as Denmark's biggest business scam in decades. Shortly before the banquet began, Mr. Bagger, 41 years old, vanished from a hotel in Dubai. He flew to New York, drove across America and then surrendered to police in Los Angeles. In the meantime, his award-winning company, IT Factory, declared bankruptcy. A liquidator has taken over IT Factory and is sifting through its affairs. Sent back to Denmark Tuesday, Mr. Bagger cried and pleaded guilty before a Danish court to charges of aggravated fraud and forgery, crimes that could land him in jail for eight years, according to his court-appointed lawyer, Jesper Madsen.

The saga has fascinated and appalled a nation that takes pride in its Nordic rectitude. The chief investigator estimates the swindle amounted to around $185 million, a modest sum next to the alleged fraud of America's Bernard Madoff but enough to fuel a jet-set lifestyle of sports cars and French Riviera holidays sharply at odds with the Danish norm.KPMG audited IT Factory's accounts from 2005 through 2007. Deloitte did the same in the previous two years. From 2003 through 2007, IT Factory reported that its revenue grew 69 times and its profit rose 288 times, to 121 million kroner ($22 million). This year, says Mr. Jensby, the chairman, IT Factory expected to roughly quadruple its profit. KPMG in Denmark says it is "shocked" and "cooperating with police." Deloitte's Danish unit said it has double-checked its 2003 and 2004 audits and found no problems.

Marketwatch: 3PAR and TechSoup Global Serve Up Technology Savings for Nonprofits

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3PAR and TechSoup Global Serve Up Technology Savings for Nonprofits

3PAR, the leading global provider of utility storage, announced today that nonprofit TechSoup Global has chosen 3PAR Utility Storage to lower their own IT costs while delivering an estimated $312 million in annualized IT savings to other nonprofits in more than 190 countries. Over the past two decades, TechSoup Global's innovative programs have supported social benefits organizations on the international, national, and local level by helping them address unmet technology needs. With their entire donation program managed online through the TechSoup.org Website, the nonprofit chose 3PAR Utility Storage to build a resilient, high-performance storage infrastructure that would enable future scalability while keeping costs to a minimum. "The other platforms we looked at had serious drawbacks such as complex management interfaces, inability to stand by performance numbers, and lack of fully-developed thin provisioning capabilities," said Tim Suttle, Director of Information Systems Infrastructure for TechSoup Global. "3PAR are the innovators of thin provisioning, and although other vendors are now trying to catch up, they just can't match 3PAR."

Ben Neumann: "Views From The Trenches" - the owner of Globat - EU-Digest provider - speaks out about about success

The following personal profile of Ben Neumann, a German born US entrepreneur provides some fascinating tips for anyone who is beginning his career or wants to change his career: As he says: "Many times, things in my personal and professional life happened
because of opportunities that I was offered or found through people I
was somehow connected to. No matter where you are in your career, most
of the time, relationships are the secret to ultimate success in
business or otherwise."

For the complete report click on this link : Ben Neumann: Views From The Trenches

Imtech: Netherlands: Imtech Gets Energy Contract Of 140 Million Euro For German Federal Intelligence Service

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Netherlands: Imtech Gets Energy Contract of 140 Million Euro For German Federal Intelligence Service

Imtech (technical services provider in Europe) announced from its headquarters in Gouda, the Netherlands, that it recently won an energy contract for the implementation of a decentralized energy power plant and all energy supplies for a period of 15 years for the German Federal Intelligence Service. This contract has a value of about 140 million euro, 30 million euro for the power plant and 110 million euro for services in the operational phase. The German Institute for Real Estate Development ('Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben') contracted Imtech on the basis of a 15-year contract as energy partner of the Federal Intelligence Service ('Bundesnachrichtendienst') in Berlin for the new 250,000 m² office building on a ten-acre big campus. 4,000 employees of the Federal Intelligence Service will work on this new campus. Imtech will implement a decentralized energy power plant and will facilitate all energy supplies for heating, cooling and energy distribution and related energy solutions. Imtech will start the implementation of the power plant at the end of 2008. The energy contracting services of the operational phase will begin in 2011 after completion of the building.

Imtech N.V. is a European technical services provider in the fields of electrical engineering, ICT (information and communication technology) and mechanical engineering. With approximately 18,000 employees, Imtech realises annual revenue of 3 billion euro. Imtech holds strong positions in the buildings, industry, infrastructure / mobility markets in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe, Spain and the UK and in the global maritime market. Imtech provides services to a total of 12,000 clients. Imtech offers added value in the form of integrated and multidisciplinary total solutions that lead to improved operating processes and higher yields for clients and their clients in return. Imtech also provides solutions that contribute to a sustainable, liveable society, for example in the field of energy, mobility, safety and the environment. Imtech shares are listed on the Euronext Stock Exchange (Amsterdam), where Imtech is included in the Amsterdam SmallCap Index (AScX) and the Next 150 index. Imtech was recently given the award of "the best Dutch employer" by the Dutch Employer Federation CRF

IT Jungle -The Market for Servers in Europe Is Hot - by Timothy Prickett Morgan

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The Market for Servers in Europe Is Hot - by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Last week, the box counters at IDC and Gartner provided their quarterly estimates of global server sales by server type, operating system, and vendor. But IDC also went the extra mile and provided some insight into server sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In what must seem like something of a dream for server makers, Europe is going strong right now. According to IDC, sales of server across all architectures rose by 11 percent in the first quarter of 2007 to nearly $4.3 billion, and the number of server units sold increased by 8 percent to 600,000 machines. In recent years, shipment growth has outpaced revenue growth, but the advent of multicore machines and sophisticated virtualization technologies are convincing some customers to buy beefier machines and then virtualize them.

Javno - Europe - Tech. Industry Credited for Economic Growth

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Europe - Tech. Industry Credited for Economic Growth

Technological industry is credited for 50 percent of the total European Union productivity rise in the period from 2000 to 2004, European Commission’s latest report showed. Technological industry is growing faster than the entire European economy, headed by software industry and IT services, which increased 5.9 percent in 2006 and 2007, the annual Commission’s 12010 report states further on the progress.

Public and private investments into the informatics and communications technology (ICT) sector are starting to payoff, the Commission points out in its report on a digital European growth and employment strategy. The technology gives incentive to innovations and productivity within the framework of basic diverting of Europe to knowledge-based economy, The Commission goes on to stress.

Triangle Business Journal: IT industry adds $2 trillion a year to U.S. economy

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IT industry adds $2 trillion a year to U.S. economy

A report released Tuesday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation pegs the IT industry's annual contribution to the U.S. economy at $2 trillion.The report, called "Digital Prosperity: Understanding the Economic Benefits of the Information Technology Revolution," found that the integration of information technology across all sectors of society is responsible for much of the growth felt in the U.S. economy. "For the United States alone, what we found was that because of the digital revolution, (Gross Domestic Product) is $2 trillion larger today than it would have been ..." Robert Atkinson, president of the ITIF, said in a written statement.

The report recommends that politicians and policy makers promote digital innovation and transformation of economic sectors by supporting research in emerging IT areas.