Making SAP appealing again

The German giant is trying to shake off its dusty enterprise image -- and it is throwing hundreds of millions into that effort.

FORTUNE -- When you think SAP (SAP), you probably think uber-boring enterprise resource planning software. But the Walldorf, Germany-based company is trying hard to change that image.

SAP unveiled a series of initiatives to boost its market share in databases and mobile apps at a press conference in San MORE

Why Zynga loves the hybrid cloud

The gaming company has high hopes for its Z Cloud initiative. Zynga's CTO of Infrastructure explains his strategy.

FORTUNE -- About 54 million people play Zynga (ZNGA) games like FarmVille, Hidden Chronicles and Words With Friends each day. That level of activity adds up to a whole lot of virtual cows (and other imaginary goods) being sold, but it also poses a huge challenge for the social gaming company's back-end infrastructure—the MORE

Inside SAP's radical makeover

The mission-critical (but unsexy) software giant lost its way with customers. CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe think they can make SAP appealing again.

FORTUNE -- At the stroke of midnight on Feb. 15, a new app called Recalls Plus appeared in Apple's App Store. It promised parents real-time alerts on the latest baby formula or car seat recalls, allowing them to share such information with friends. There was nothing MORE

Oracle earnings: Some growth, plenty of SAP-bashing

Between talk about increased software sales and the company's new cloud service, Larry Ellison and his posse took plenty of time to bash their rivals.

FORTUNE -- There are some in the tech media who think covering enterprise technology is a major snoozefest. But it can actually be incredibly entertaining -- especially when Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison goes off on a tirade against his competitors.

Redwood City, Calif.-based Oracle announced its MORE

Blue Jeans Network brings Skype, Cisco users together

The Mountain View, Calif. startup is offering a cloud-based product that unites groups of users of several different videoconferencing services.

FORTUNE -- Videoconferencing has become (almost) mainstream, but there are still plenty of challenges getting different technologies like Cisco's (CSCO) TelePresence and Skype to work together. In industry-speak, that's called interoperability -- or lack thereof.

Enter Blue Jeans Network, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup that says it's found a solution to the MORE

Salesforce gets into HR

Payroll and onboarding might not seem all that exciting, but so-called human capital management software is attractive to Salesforce and its competitors

FORTUNE -- Watching Salesforce.com (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff addressing the crowd at Cloudforce, the company's one-day event for partners, customers and developers, is a bit like watching one of those overly enthusiastic preachers on TV. The outspoken executive works the room, walking among his audience and cracking jokes, all MORE

Are CIO's falling in love with file sharing?

Not exactly. Despite being courted, corporate America -- from Pabst Brewing to Zynga -- has mixed feelings about employees using popular services such as Dropbox.

FORTUNE -- A growing number of employees are using file-sharing services to circulate and collaborate on documents and presentations, but many of them are doing so without the blessing -- or knowledge -- of their IT department. The companies that provide these file-sharing services are trying MORE

Intel finally ups the ante in mobile

Intel's mobile processor is finally getting some love from mobile phone manufacturers.

FORTUNE -- After years of trial and error, Intel's (INTC) Atom processor is finally getting some love from mobile phone manufactures. But that doesn't mean they'll be a hit with consumers. To win over the smartphone-wielding masses, the company will need to get everyday buyers to believe that phones with Intel inside are somehow superior to phones that run MORE

Look who's reinventing the firewall

Goaded on by a smaller rival, Cisco is changing its approach to firewall technology.

FORTUNE -- For the past few years Cisco's firewall business has been losing market share to a much smaller rival called Palo Alto Networks. Now the network equipment giant is set to unveil its answer to Palo Alto's disruptive technology -- its own next-generation, so-called "context aware" firewall.

The announcement was made Monday afternoon, a day before the MORE

Huawei is here to stay

The Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications company has gotten into plenty of scrapes with American firms. Now, it wants competitors to know it isn't going anywhere.

FORTUNE -- Last week, China-based Huawei unveiled its latest effort to make nice with corporate America, announcing it will spend more than $6 billion on processors and other components from Broadcom (BRCM), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Avago Technologies (AVGO). The company has spent the last few MORE