HP claims that Hurd puts “HP’s most valuable trade secrets and confidential information in peril,” by accepting the position at Oracle.

HP’s blog also says, “Mark Hurd agreed to and signed agreements designed to protect HP’s trade secrets and confidential information. HP intends to enforce those agreements.”

Although Hurd never signed a non-compete agreement, but he did however sign confidentiality agreements. HP claims that this makes his job at Oracle impossible. “By working at Oracle, he cannot help but utilize and disclose HP’s trade secrets and confidential information,” HP claims in its lawsuit.

The “Norton Cybercrime Report: The Human Impact” used more than 7,000 people in 14 countries to conduct the study.

The study also found that while one-quarter of participants said they would expect to become online crime victims, only half said they would change their web surfing habits after becoming a victim. Of those victims, only 44 percent actually reported the crime to authorities.

The findings also show that computer viruses and malware are the most common types of attacks with 51 percent reporting they had been impacted by them. Online scams was second with 10 percent reporting, followed by phishing with 9 percent and a tie at 7 percent reporting social network profile hacking, online credit card fraud and sexual predation.

“Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle,” said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. “There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle’s future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise. Mark pioneered the integration of hardware with software when Teradata was a part of NCR.”

“Mark is an outstanding executive and a proven winner,” said Oracle President Safra Catz. “I look forward to working with him for years to come. As Oracle continues to grow we need people experienced in operating a $100 billion business.”

“I believe Oracle’s strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage,” said Mark Hurd. “Exadata is just the beginning. We have some exciting new systems we are going to announce later this month at Oracle OpenWorld. I’m excited to be a part of the most innovative technology team in the IT industry.”

“Essentially, we are offering customers the industry’s first risk-free datacenter product line. Datacenter builds can be fraught with risk for customers that take a do-it-yourself approach to their data centers or that work with construction companies that do not specialize in data centers. Projects can often veer off course, leading to delays of months or years and cost overruns of millions or tens of millions of dollars. Digital Realty Trust’s guarantees eliminate those risks for our customers,” said Brent Behrman, Vice President of Global Sales at Digital Realty Trust.

A recent survey conducted by Data Center Knowledge illustrates the risks inherent in large-scale Do-it-Yourself (DIY) datacenter development projects. The survey of readers involved in recent datacenter projects showed that one fifth of all such datacenter projects were not completed on schedule. The survey also determined that one quarter of DIY datacenter projects went over budget with a sixth of them achieving overruns of a million dollars or more. The survey also determined that data centers built by in-house teams were twice as likely to have cost overruns between $1 million and $10 million as projects involving a wholesale datacenter provider.

“Designing and building data centers today is a complex process that has many inherent risks associated with it. For most IT organizations, planning, engineering and constructing these specialized facilities is a multi-year process that often results in budget overruns and delays in delivery,” said Michelle Bailey, Research Vice President for IDC’s Datacenter Trends Program. “Two key success factors in effective datacenter delivery are shortening time to market and injecting more predictability around the datacenter blueprint. The longer a datacenter project takes, the more likely it is to miss meeting corporate objectives and disrupting capacity planning models. Risk assessment and risk mitigation are therefore critical requirements for any company undertaking a datacenter project.”

“Providing customers with guaranteed pricing and delivery, even for custom projects, is unique in the industry,” said Dave Caron, Senior Vice President of Portfolio Management at Digital Realty Trust. “Rather than take on the risks associated with a $10 million, $50 million or $100 million datacenter project, our ability to provide this guarantee program offers customers a clear, risk-free option.”

Using Linxter, developers can implement secure, reliable data exchange over the Internet for a variety of needs, such as: the bridging of on-premise software with cloud assets, remote monitoring and control of servers and devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, smart grid implementations, and multi-player gaming. Linxter takes care of all the communication plumbing – including the infrastructure and coding complexities – so that developers can focus on the core value proposition of linking distributed apps and systems instead of the requirements needed to connect them.

“Mobile app development is inherently more complex than the server-side, especially when you have a requirement for reliable distributed communication,” said Jared Stehler, CTO of Boston-based Fiesta Cabin. “The powerful Linxter API provides us with such a platform, including essential features for mobile, like offline message queuing and reliable delivery, right out of the box. And since everything is hosted in the cloud, you get the scalability you need when your app goes viral. Linxter enables us to deliver engaging user experiences without concentrating on the communication plumbing in the back-end.”

“We are seeing tremendous growth in the cloud messaging space, and with the release of our Java and Android SDKs we expect that growth to further accelerate,” said Jason Milgram, CEO of Linxter. He also added, “As more and more apps become mobile or are moved to the cloud, companies are demanding the enterprise class security and reliability of traditional message-oriented middleware systems for them. Linxter provides such a platform at a fraction of the cost, and can be implemented in a fraction of the time.”

The website was designed with the consumer in mind; from the navigational structure, virtual logo tool and instant live chat software, to the simple checkout process. “We wanted a website that showed our fun yet professional and experienced side” said Heather Sanderson, CEO of Blue Soda Promo. “Unlike many of our competitors, we don’t just shove the cheapest products in front of our customers. We listen to what they want and help them find the best promotional products to meet their needs and budget.”

Blue Soda Promo also included a blog as well as created Twitter and Facebook accounts to provide marketing professionals and businesses with constant advice and readily available tips on choosing the right promotional items to help boost their revenue.

Blue Soda Promo offers over 750k different products that can be customized with a company logo and other pertinent information. Blue Soda Promo offers items such as promotional stress balls, customized caps and custom printed shopping totes. Blue Soda Promo prides itself in its passion to help companies generate more revenue using promotional marketing. Their slogan, “We make your brand POP!” highlights their emphasis in not just selling customized products, but providing each client with a consultation on which promotional products to use for their respective event.

Issued annually, the Inc. 500|5000 list ranks the fastest growing companies in the U.S. Companies were required to have minimum revenues of $80,000 in 2006 and minimum revenues of $2 million in 2009 to qualify for the 2010 list, and must be privately held, for profit, and independent as of December 31, 2009.

“We are very pleased to be included in the Inc. 500. It is an honor to be listed among America’s top private companies and leading entrepreneurs,” said George Karidis, SoftLayer Chief Strategy Officer. “We have seen strong revenue growth and remarkable success since our founding in 2005, even through a challenging, turbulent economic climate.”

SoftLayer’s growth has been enabled by its strategic position to address the dynamic needs of businesses in an unstable economy. SoftLayer’s IT solutions offers an option for enterprises of any size, from any industry, to outsource their data center infrastructure needs and focus their resources on operational needs rather than capital expenditures.

The company continues to set milestones, with the following highlights:

• Employee head count increased from 20 employees in 2009 to over 50 for 2010.
• EBITDA margins in excess of 40%
• Projected gross revenues of $13 million for 2010
• Ending 2010 with projected annualized revenues of $20 million
• #1 Fastest Growing Web Hosting Company in Inc. 500 list
• #2 Fastest Growing Company Award in Chicago Award by Inc Magazine
• #3 Fastest Growing Company Award in IT Services by Inc Magazine

The firm is positioned for continued growth, having recently launched Cascade, SingleHop’s cloud computing platform. “Like many of our innovative products, Cascade will undoubtedly play a significant role in our future growth. Cascade is a simple product that is added to on top of a dedicated server, yet offers advanced cloud hosting benefits. It’s a simple concept, with a simple pricing model, which we feel is important in the cloud computing space.” says Zak Boca.

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini stated,“With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of Internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online. In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences.”

Recently, McAfee has shown explosive growth, spurring Intel to acquire the company. McAfee said it will operate as a whole-owned subsidiary, and will be reporting to Intel’s Software and Services Group.

Although the merger is not yet a done deal between the two companies, both Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer, and Doug Erwin believe the end is almost in sight. During a phone conversation on Friday, Lance and Doug gave their thoughts on the merger deal brewing between the two companies.

“Is this 100% done deal? Well we can’t say we are 100%, but we are really close to that. And Doug and I are really close to putting these two companies together in the next 90 days,” says Lance.

Doug adds, “Let me put it another way. It’s not over till the fat lady sings.. and she is warming up on the side. There is a lot of work that needs to be done between our two staffs and I think we are going about it the right way, in that we hired an outside consultant… Bain Consultant to come in and work with us.”

As both sides continue to look at the merger, one of the number one concerns has been to ensure the current customers are treated well. Regarding the customers Erwin says, “I think the biggest concern Lance and I have is for a seamless integration that does not affect the customer.” To this end, Bain & Company consulting has been brought in to ensure that the possible merger avoids the many pitfalls that can occur.|

“About 6 months ago G.I. Partners approached SoftLayer about doing an investment in the company,” Lance explains. “They have done a lot of investment in this space overall including Digital Realty, Savvis, Telx, The Planet and most recently ViaWest. After they approached us and we started going through due diligence, we began to find there was a lot of common DNA with The Planet and so as we began to close the process over the last 30 days or so, we started exploring the possibility of putting these two companies together.”

That common DNA doesn’t just extend to the family history between the two companies. It also includes many mutual customers. They both also target the dedicated and cloud hosting space. However, if both companies were purely similar, merging them would simply create a larger company, which is technically not a bad thing…, but it would be somewhat boring.

In addition to the similar fields of interest, SoftLayer brings their infrastructure know how. The plans for the merger include moving customers to SoftLayer’s automation layer. This translates to the new company able to take on more customers, keeping staff low, and yet maintaining their high-grade support.

The Planet offers an enterprise level suite of services. Namely, The Planet will bring colocation and managed hosting to the party. Along with these hosting addons, The Planet also brings in enterprise level hosting features and the expertise in handling those services.

SoftLayer, up until recently, has avoided the colocation and managed hosting spaces. They have instead focused on their target niche and have not deviated from that path. And yet, if they do merge with The Planet, adding those services is part and parcel of the new company. So why now? Why would SoftLayer, who have been disciplined in avoiding the watering down of their brand, want to increase their services and in fact, consider adding those services as a definite strength?|

“It’s been on the drawing board for a long time and we are going to bring a SoftLayer approach to those two types of services that are not yet seen in the industry. As we talk about it internally we are going to pull out a big stick and poke a lot of our competitors in the eye when they see what we are going to do to colocation and managed services,” says Lance.

On the possibilities of an IPO, Lance says, “I think that [an IPO] is the most logical step for the combined companies, putting them together they are going to be about 300 million in revenues and growing rapidly and you get to a point where the number of potential suitors out their drops dramatically simply because of the size of the company so an IPO becomes the natural choice.

“So if you want to sum it up, you could say we are strapping on the gloves, ” says Doug. However, you sum it up, the potential merger between The Planet and SoftLayer could be a hosting juggernaut rivaled by very few especially in the dedicated server market.