Is Silicon Valley seeing shift from Chips to Bricks?

Forget microchips. Silicon Valley sees a profitable future in the humble brick thanks to a low-energy production process that illustrates the greening of the US technology capital.

Brick maker Calstar Products is backed by venture capitalists whose vision is to create buildings less expensively and in a way that saves energy. “We think it is time for a second industrial revolution,” said Paul Holland, a partner at Foundation Capital, which invested $7 million in Calstar. EnerTech Capital led another round that raised $8 million for the business.

Currently about 40% of US energy use goes toward the heating, cooling and general operation of buildings. Silicon Valley is finding high-tech ways to make ageold materials, pursuing carbon dioxide-eating concrete, windows that insulate better than walls, and wood substitutes.

The field is still new. Venture investments in green buildings have waxed and waned with the recession, but involved 45 deals worth about $350 million the past year, according to Cleantech Group LLC.

Bricks have been made pretty much the same way for 3,000 years, until Calstar’s scientists came up with their new technique, said Chief Executive Michael Kane. Ordinary bricks are fired for 24 hours at 1,100°C as part of a process that can last a week, while Calstar bricks are baked at temperatures below 100°C and take only 10 hours from start to finish, Kane said.

Lower energy costs mean higher profit, allowing the company to pay for its research and compete against large companies that have economies of scale. The new bricks — which the Brick Industry Association says are not actually bricks — will sell for the same price as traditional claybased ones.

Agencies

Will Nissan unit shift from UK to Chennai lead to job losses?

Japanese major Nissan has decided to shift the entire production of its small car Micra from the UK and relocate it to India. After production of the Micra begins here, Nissan plans to manufacture four more models in India, involving a total investment of over Rs 2,000 crore.

The move underlines the rush among automakers to rationalise production costs and move to locations that offer the best value and quality. “We have decided to shift the production of the Micra compact car from our UK plant and manufacture it in India at our upcoming factory at Oragadam, near Chennai,” Nissan India MD and CEO Kiminobu Tokuyama told TOI here.

The company’s Chennai plant will start production from May next year, and the export markets would be catered to from autumn, Tokuyama said. Nissan, he said, plans to meet Micra’s requirements for the entire European region as well as some other markets like Middle-East from the Chennai plant. “We plan to initially start with export volumes of 1.1 lakh units, which would be gradually scaled up to 1.8 lakh units as demand goes up,” Tokuyama said. But what has prompted the company to take such a step, uprooting manufacturing presence from an established base and shifting to an all-new location. “There are many benefits to count in India, and these include a high-quality vendor base that is also cost effectiveness, leading to globally-competitive pricing,” Tokuyama said. Also, the technological skills in India are of a high quality, he added.

Nissan’s move points to the growing importance of India in small car manufacturing, which was initiated by the Government by way of lower manufacturing tax (excise duty) on them. The rising scale of small car production in India also sweetens the deal in favour of the country as component makers have improved on quality and scale, making them a safe and a reliable bet. Lower wages in the market, and relatively high engineering skills, is another big advantage that attracts companies.

Times of India/Agencies

Indian firms to shift to Cloud services, says IDC report

Around 40 percent of Indian enterprises are considering the adoption of cloud services to save costs and compete in the challenging market environment reveals, an IDC report. Currently only five percent of the Indian enterprises have adopted cloud technology. "The main reason in India that is driving the interest towards cloud technologies, is its cost-cutting potential," says Surajit Sen, Director Channels, Marketing and Alliances at NetApp India, a storage and data management solutions provider.

Looking at the growing demand for cloud computing, NetApp has unveiled certain enhancements to its storage line. The company is particularly bullish on the Indian market, which is showing more interest to adopt cloud technologies.

"As the technologies supporting cloud computing have improved, the adoption is also set to grow now," said Alok Bardiya, Vice President, Managed Services and Marketing at Tata Communications, which is a cloud computing service provider in India. NetApp is the technology partner for Tata Communications, which has over a million square feet of datacenters around the globe including six datacenters in India.

NetApp unveiled the latest version of its Data ONTAP cloud platform called Data ONTAP 8. According to Sen, the Data ONTAP 8 is a combination of the earlier platforms Data ONTAP 7G and Data ONTAP GX. With this product offering, the company aims to increase the demand for cloud technologies in markets like India.

The Data ONTAP 8 comes with enhancements such as a new technology for seamlessly moving complete data volumes across multiple storage systems called Data Motion. Other enhancements include a new version of its add-on modules for increasing storage performance, an improved end to end multi-tenancy for better security and a new high-density capacity expansion device for its storage appliances.

Agencies

Is Ad spend moving into internet from TV, radio?

Global economic slowdown has led to cut in media advertisement spending for sure, but internet company Yahoo is seeing a silver-lining.

And in some sense, recession in advance markets may be a blessing in disguise for such companies as advertisers shift ad spend from television and radio to internet.

Yahoo's Co-Founder and Chief David Filo confirmed the trend. "Advertising. while there may be slow-down....it's not going away", he told reporters on the sidelines of Yahoo India R & D-organised second Open Hack Day in India here.

There are other factors, he said. "People consume increasingly more and more internet", as opposed to television and radio, he argued. "People are moving that attention (from television and radio) to internet; that shift is going to increase (further)".

Particularly in times of economic slowdown, advertisers are shifting their ad spend to internet, Filo said. Internet advertising is "measurable" and, so, advertisers are "much more amenable" (to put more dollars into internet advertising)".

CEO of Yahoo India R & D, Sharad Sharma, said broadband access in India needs to improve, while PC penetration needs to be much faster. "Internet growth is modest (in India)", he said.

Agencies