eWeek articles from February 2002

eWeek archives from February 2002

IBM targets Dell customers - Vendor says its servers cost much less to operate than competitor's.
February 4, 2002... Turning the tables in a difficult economy, IBM has launched an offensive to lure customers from Dell Computer Corp. by claiming its Intel Corp.-based servers cost up to 80 percent less to operate. While IBM is the worldwide leader in server...

JNI purchases Troika storage apps.
February 4, 2002... JNI Corp., a San Diego-based producer of storage adapters and software, will get related technology as part of a $10.5 million deal with Troika Networks Inc. As part of the deal, announced last week, JNI will get Troika's Zentai Controller...

Micromuse extends Netcool's reach - Initiative to centralize security management.
February 4, 2002... Network management provider Micromuse Inc. last week announced plans to launch a security management initiative that will leverage the scalability of its Netcool event handler to centralize security management. As part of the initiative,...

Companies join to make combo handheld.
February 4, 2002... Trying to fill the same niche as Handspring Inc.'s Treo, a carrier and two hardware manufacturers are pooling efforts on a combination handheld. Nextel Communications Inc., Research In Motion Ltd. and Motorola Inc. are developing a device...

Pulse adds sound to site.(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... In an internet cluttered with millions of Web sites, it's best to have as many bells and whistles as possible. Pulse Entertainment Inc. this week is introducing what it said is an easy, fast way to get a small or midsize company's Web site...

VPNs for your WAN.(Adtran NetVanta 2300 and NetVanta VPN Client)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... If you're looking for a new way to extend the security of your WAN to mobile workers and branch offices, Adtran Inc. plans to roll out two additions to its NetVanta line of VPN products this month. For branch offices, the Huntsville, Ala.,...

Secure enough for government.(F5 Networks Big-IP FIPS e-Commerce 540 network management device)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... F5 networks inc. this month will release an Internet traffic and content management product, Big-IP FIPS e-Commerce 540, with an accelerator that meets federal specifications for security. The Secure Sockets Layer accelerator runs with the...

Adding J2EE to the mix.(Chordiant 5.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... Java is getting its tentacles into everything, including CRM. Customer relationship management software developer Chordiant Software Inc. has claimed the J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) mantel for itself with the release late last month of...

LAN access for everybody.(3Com Access Point 2000 and 3Com Access Point 8000)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... 3Com to ship its AP 2000 and AP 8000 Wireless 3Com Corp. this month will ship two 802.11b wireless LAN access points aimed at both sides of the economic spectrum. The Access Point 2000 is a no-frills, plug-and-play product that comes with...

A penny for e-biz thoughts.
February 4, 2002... I've often predicted that Amazon.com would never turn a profit. I'll continue to say that the company will never yield a competitive return, but I'm not going to hedge: I said that it would never make money, and I was wrong. Never mind...

The statistics do not lie.
February 4, 2002... Fellow columnist Peter Coffee commiserated with us recently on how hard it is to form any opinion these days that doesn't involve Microsoft. He's right. Whether we are taking the company to task or, less often, praising it, the fact is that...

Cashing in on smarts.(using Saba's Learming Management System software for employee training)
February 4, 2002... An excel spreadsheet. a pad of paper and a Bic pen. And a total of seven-count 'em, seven-disconnected systems containing training information. Is this any way to keep track of employees' course registrations and transcripts and do everything...

After the fall.(Wynn Design and Development designs a new resort)
February 4, 2002... In Las Vegas, where the gambling odds seem to favor the house, few people have hit the jackpot as often as Stephen Wynn, the former chairman of Mirage Resorts Inc. For example, Wynn sold the Mirage in May 2000 to MGM Grand Inc. for $6.4...

A little slice of the UDDI pie - Global Business Registries remain on the table while small, private exchanges snap up other UDDI features.(Universal Description, Discovery and Integration)
February 4, 2002... Sometimes, funny things happen to a technology on the way to becoming the next big thing. Take UDDI. The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration standard, which hit the scene in September 2000 amid much hoopla, was created to solve the...

The importance of 'green' hardware.
February 4, 2002... Remember the new economy? turned out to be nothing more than a barnacle on the butt of the old econ omy-painful but probably inevitable. Human progress seems handcuffed to human error. At any given moment, it's hard to distinguish vision from...

Gerstner's vision got IBM on course.
February 4, 2002... For someone who once scoffed at the idea of needing a vision for the company, IBM Chairman Lou Gerstner is leaving Big Blue with a mighty big vision. In the history of corporate success stories where a floundering giant is saved by an outsider,...

More eyes on Passport.(50 attorneys general complaining to Electronic Privacy Information Center)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Aprivacy group is taking another shot at Microsoft's Passport service over the familiar issue of security. In a letter sent last week to the attorneys general of all 50 states, the Electronic Privacy Information Center claims Microsoft's...

Peace, love and $120,000.(in wake of IBM's sidewalk ads in San Francisco)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Ibm and two of its advertising agencies last week agreed to pay $100,000 in fines related to an ad campaign that included covering sidewalks in San Francisco last year with graffiti. The black-stenciled graffiti was part of IBM's "Peace, Love...

Groove adds more muscle.(Chuck Teubner as president and CEO and Kelly Collins VP government systems)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Peer-to-peer software bellwether Groove Networks has brought in a couple of seasoned IT executives to bolster the business side of its operations. Groove has appointed Chuck Teubner president and chief operating officer. He will report to CEO...

Zeroing in on B2B integration - IPNet, Commerce One, Valdero unveil suites.(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... As more e-businesses turn to business-to-business collaboration for linking partners in the supply chain, developers IPNet Solutions Inc., Commerce One Inc. and Valdero Corp. are looking to oblige. The three companies are rolling out...

Lotus angers developers - New support for J2EE in Notes and Domino will mandate a switch to WebSphere server.
February 4, 2002... IBM's Lotus Software division ignited a developer revolt last week by announcing plans to support J2EE 1.3 in future versions of its Notes and Domino groupware platform. Developers of applications that run on Domino were upset that, as a...

AMI bids to expand storage presence.(releases StorTrends 1.1)(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... American Megatrends Inc., best known for making computer BIOSes, plans to expand its role in enterprise storage technology. AMI already sells NAS (network- attached storage) software with a Free BSD operating system called StorTrends. ...

Palm gets i705 right (almost) - Slow net, limited browsing mitigates the handheld's always-on capability.(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... For handhelds to develop into a key enterprise asset, wireless access must be speedy and well-implemented. Palm Inc.'s new i705 wireless handheld provides one of the two, but that may not be enough to open corporate billfolds. The i705,...

ITSMA releases services pricing study.(Information Technology Services Marketing Association)
February 4, 2002... Although clients are looking for business value from professional service providers, those same providers are relying on pricing discounts to win new business, according to the second part of a study released last week by the Information...

IM interoperability hits entanglements - Business and security issues remain after AOL, Lotus test SIMPLE protocol.
February 4, 2002... While momentum is building for a standardized protocol for instant messaging, interoperability among IM applications continues to be vexed by unresolved business and security issues. As recently as December, an IETF (Internet Engineering...

Europe OKs HP-Compaq deal.(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... European regulators last week approved the controversial proposed merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq. The European Commission approved the $25 billion deal without asking concessions from the two companies. The approval allows HP and...

Verizon reports $2 billion loss.(in Q4)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Verizon last week said it recorded a $2 billion loss-or about 75 cents a share-in the fourth quarter, adding that revenues remained flat. However, officials said they expect to meet Wall Street analysts' expectations for the company's 2002...

WSDL gets close look - W3C to examine Web services specifications, including WSDL.(Web Services Description Language)
February 4, 2002... Major software vendors have touted WSDL as a key specification for driving the interoperable world of Web services. But some developers say its patrons are using Web Services Description Language and other standards to force enterprises...

Linux raking in enterprise support.
February 4, 2002... Much of the talk that Linux isn't ready for the enterprise was put to rest last week as a string of large companies, ranging from E-Trade Group Inc. to DreamWorks SKG, announced deployment plans for the operating system. At the LinuxWorld...

Virtual storage still on horizon.
February 4, 2002... A year since the promises began, storage virtualization is still little more than a blip on the screen, though some vendors are trying to push ahead. Hitachi Data Systems Corp. will gradually add virtualization through new releases of its...

Integrated Pocket PC devices in the works.
February 4, 2002... Having kept their initiatives on hold while competitors tested the waters, Microsoft Corp. and its licensees are readying Pocket PC handheld devices that feature integrated wireless voice and data capabilities. The move comes as interest...

Palmisano gets the IBM puzzle - Hardware, software remain key concerns.
February 4, 2002... When Sam Palmisano takes over as CEO of IBM next month, he will lead a company still in the midst of a business and cultural transformation set in motion by his predecessor, Louis Gerstner. According to IBM customers and observers,...

Rounding out product design early - New Parametric and MatrixOne middleware gets customer feedback into the production process.
February 4, 2002... A pair of product life cycle management developers are bolstering their products with new middleware that lets users add customer feedback to the production process. Parametric Technology Corp. and MatrixOne Inc. are adding middleware to...

WLAN security: Help on the way - Funk's Odyssey taps new authentication scheme.(Product Announcement)
February 4, 2002... A small Cambridge, Mass., developer this week will introduce software designed to lock down notoriously insecure WLAN systems. Funk Software Inc.'s Odyssey includes server and client software and is based on a new authentication scheme...

Big Blue's big bet: Services - New challenge for former IGS head Palmisano: Maintaining margin growth.
February 4, 2002... In the early days of IBM's services organization, executives such as Sam Palmisano brashly claimed that their unit would someday make up half of IBM's revenues. Now, with services veteran Palmisano taking over the company's top spot next month,...

Security is main focus - Microsoft names new chief security strategist; directive also targets privacy.(Scott Charney to lead its security strategy)
February 11, 2002... Microsoft Corp. is forging ahead with a corporate directive to improve security and privacy, instituting a companywide development policy and naming a new chief security strategist. The moves come just weeks after Microsoft Chairman and...

Startup edging to close the gap on NAS.(BlueArc Corp's Si7500 1.2 data storage device)(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... The typical startup's mantra in the storage industry is to complement the incumbent leaders, not entertain illusions of beating them. But that's not the case at NAS maker BlueArc Corp. The privately owned San Jose, Calif., company plans to...

Firms push Web analytics - NetIQ, DigiMine release software, services to take advantage of market.(WebTrends Intelligence Suite from NetIQ, DigiMine Advisors suite of managed services from DigiMine Inc)(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... New releases of web site analytics software and services highlight a resurgent market once thought to be subsumed by CRM and business intelligence software vendors. NetIQ Corp. last week unveiled its WebTrends Intelligence Suite, which...

New J.D. Edwards module forecasts demand changes.(Advanced Planning 4.0 supply chain suite)(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... J.D. Edwards & Co. early this month began shipping a product demand forecasting module for its Advanced Planning 4.0 suite. The Demand Consensus module provides users of the company's Advanced Planning, OneWorld and WorldSoftware enterprise...

Hosting the accounting side.(Intacct Cash Management)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... Small businesses have a hard-enough time trying to stay afloat in a competitive world. Intacct Corp. wants to make things a little easier with its Intacct Cash Management hosted accounting application. The new release, targeted at small to...

A growing business.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... For Peoplesoft Inc. and its application hosting business, bigger is better. PeopleSoft is expanding its application hosting arm, PeopleSoft eCenter. The Pleasanton, Calif., company said it will expand its business globally to companies...

Bringing the data together.(Service Assurance Manager 2002 from ARTS Inc)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... System management ARTS Inc.-or Smarts-this month will release a new version of its Service Assurance Manager 2002 that can import management and operational data from a variety of management tools and devices. The latest version of SAM 2002...

Keeping the documents safe.(FileSurf 7.4 from MDY Advanced Technologies Inc)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... Embattled Enron Corp. was having a tough-enough time trying to explain why it collapsed so suddenly into bankruptcy. Adding fuel to that fire were reports that its auditors had destroyed critical documents detailing the reasons for the fall....

BluePaq offering for Bluetooth.(TDK Systems' BluePaq)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... TDK Systems takes wraps off expansion sled for iPaq handhelds More connections Giving another nod to the short-range wireless technology, TDK Systems Inc. has introduced a Bluetooth expansion sled for Compaq Computer Corp.'s iPaq handheld...

Wiping the PC slate clean.
February 11, 2002... Do you remember the "magic slate" devices that you probably used as a child? A translucent sheet, attached to a black, waxy background, with a stylus that made lines by pressing the top sheet against that foundation? When you pulled up the...

Highlights at linuxworld.
February 11, 2002... In case you missed it-and many of you did-here are some product highlights from LinuxWorld in New York earlier this month. I won't make any more claims about the future of Linux on the desktop, other than to say there are many more users...

Picking up on Web services tools - How fast will developers take up Microsoft's new Visual Studio .Net?(Microsoft Visual Studio .Net)(Evaluation)
February 11, 2002... Where's the gratitude? after complaining for the last 10 years about Microsoft Corp.'s Visual Studio application development tool set, programmers this week will fi nally get what they asked for: Visual Studio .Net, a redesigned development...

Web services lead the bidding - uBid uses SOAP, WSDL for partner integration.
February 11, 2002... Since its founding in 1997, uBid Inc. has played the role of a full- service provider to better-known, self-service, online auctioneers such as eBay Inc. and Yahoo Inc.'s auction site. While the eBays of the world expect buyers and sellers to...

XML users consider nonstandard thrid-party software to ease update process.
February 11, 2002... It's a classic it dilemma: should you wait for a standard to emerge and risk losing your competitive advantage, or should you get the technology you need now in a pre-standard product that might later cause incompatibilities? The lack of...

Standards up against free market again.(World Wide Web Consortium's XQuery Working Group)
February 11, 2002... The free market is a darwinian marvel, built on trial, error and persistent competition and fueled by self-interest, a process at odds with consensus-based standards. Unless a more efficient mechanism can be developed, the result will be...

Cutting fat from supply chain - Sun's ONE initiative will help food service industry increase efficiencies.
February 11, 2002... A network of major players in the food service arena last week tapped Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Web services initiative as the tool for reducing costs and squeezing inefficiencies from the supply chains in the arena. EFS Network Inc. has...

Teradata will bulk up product line - Warehousing vendor's upgrades to include boosting speed of database.(Teradata Database 2 4.1 slated for upgrade)
February 11, 2002... Data warehousing player Teradata will spend this year bolstering itself against rivals Oracle Corp. and IBM and with major upgrades to its entire product line. Later this year, the San Diego-based company-a division of NCR Corp.- plans to...

A backup plan for Intel - Itanium alternative reportedly under development.
February 11, 2002... While Intel Corp. has spent the past eight months touting its Itanium pro cessor, it reportedly also has recently been developing an alternative 64-bit chip it can turn to should the Itanium flop. Analysts have long suspected that Intel was...

Siemens expands hipath line - American Freightways deploys the IP convergence product line, saving the company time and money.(American Freightways deploying HiPath 3500)
February 11, 2002... At American Freightways Inc. there is no room for error in voice communications, so when the company began replacing traditional PBX systems with VOIP platforms at some of its older customer centers, it chose an IP product line from a vendor...

Novell joins Liberty Alliance Project - Brings identity management experience, endorses open standards.
February 11, 2002... Novell Inc. last week joined the Liberty Alliance Project single-sign- on effort, adding yet another marquee name to what is shaping up to be a partisan fight over the future of identity management on the Web. The Provo, Utah, company will...

Tool set eases integration - PowerDesigner 9.0 enterprise modeler unifies business planning with IT systems design.(Evaluation)
February 11, 2002... Sybase Inc.'s Sybase Power-Designer 9.0, released last month, does more than any other tool set eWeek Labs has seen to coordinate the definition of business goals, the specification of enterprise systems, and the development of specific...

AdminStudio helps IT roll with changes.(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... Installshield Software Corp.'s AdminStudio 3.0 takes some of the sting out of packaging software applications for deployment to the ever- changing corporate desktop. The product fits in best at midsize to large organizations that need a...

Pings&Packets - Searching the industry for technical connections and returning analysis in byte-size packages.(Evaluation)
February 11, 2002... Secure links for small sites Zyxel's latest zywall Internet Security Gateway appliances are well- suited to tackle broadband sharing for the home office as well as small companies with built-in firewall and VPN capabilities. I looked...

Gadgets have taken over the world.(Column)
February 11, 2002... It annoys the heck out of me, but I've finally realized that gadgets are the future. It took 20 years of messing around with them and seeing how others gloat about the latest addition to their arsenal to realize how important they are, but...

Storactive's strongbox for client data - LiveBackup software streamlines backup at Windows sites, but it's costly.(Evaluation)
February 11, 2002... It managers seeking comprehensive, robust, client/server backup software for Windows networks should consider Storactive Inc.'s LiveBackup 2.5. Prices for the latest version of LiveBackup, released last month, start at $129 per client....

Web services standards can't be rigged.
February 11, 2002... Curse those big software vendors. now they're out to take over the world by rigging the standards for Web services so that they lock developers into proprietary languages and keep the little guys out of the lucrative Web services market.At...

HP, Compaq set votes for March.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Shareholders for hewlett-packard and for Compaq will get their chance next month to vote on HP's controversial $25 billion bid to buy Compaq. HP shareholders will vote March 19 in Cupertino, Calif.; Compaq stockholders will vote a day later in...

Sun tightens its embrace of Linux.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Taking aim at microsoft and ibm, Sun last week announced it will expand its commitment to Linux across its product line and will, for the first time, ship a full implementation of the Linux operating system. Sun will broaden its offerings...

PalmSource frustrates developers with slow Palm OS 5 upgrade path.
February 11, 2002... Palm Inc.'s software subsidiary has a new name, but many of the same old Palm OS problems in the eyes of developers and enterprise customers. PalmSource Inc., the new name of the operating system company announced at the PalmSource...

Developers flock to reusable components.
February 11, 2002... With businesses still feeling the economic squeeze, developers are gravitating toward reusable components as a quicker and easier alternative to doing their own programming. Major industry players, meanwhile, are poised to take advantage of...

PKI maker turns to services - Baltimore undergoes restructuring to focus on repeatable security solutions.
February 11, 2002... In an attempt to resurrect itself after a disastrous 2001, security developer Baltimore Technologies plc. is orchestrating a massive reorganization. At the heart of its reorganization is a shift of focus from PKI (public-key infrastructure)...

Kyberpass plugs PKI into Outlook.(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... PKI Products have a reputation for being expensive, tortuous to implement and lacking in applications. But an Ottawa developer is hoping to change that with a public-key infrastructure plug-in for Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook mail client. ...

IT is recruited for U.S. defense - Federal government reaches out to tech industry.
February 11, 2002... Because information technology is a cornerstone of the homeland defense initiative, the Bush administration seeks $52 billion for it in fiscal year 2003-a 15 percent increase over the previous budget. As a result, after a decade of leaving IT...

Living with worms, viruses and daily security alerts - Complicated applications and slipshod development keep security pros one step behind.
February 11, 2002... When Robert Morris unleashed the first self-propagating worm on the Internet in 1988, the state of the art in network security was callback modems, authentication servers such as Kerberos and challenge-response protocols. Technologies such as...

Spencer to AT&T Wireless: Get an mlife.
February 11, 2002... The sports-minded mouser last week noted Super Bowl marketing hype may have backfired a bit for AT&T Wireless' mLife site. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, the site received 681,000 unique visitors on Super Bowl Sunday-a big leap from the...

Palm still mired in the past.(Product Announcement)
February 11, 2002... Last week in san jose, palm's new operating system subsidiary, PalmSource, rolled out a Palm OS 5 beta. As a platform on which to build a new generation of handheld devices, the beta was underwhelming- a situation I've come to expect from Palm....

eWEEK Labs Reviesw: BizTalk Server 2002 ease b2b communication.(Evaluation)
February 11, 2002... Microsoft eyes SQL-based engine for next version of Windows, 'Longhorn' By Biztalk server-one of the first and most important products in .Net-now makes it easier for companies to create business processes and connect to business...

Microsoft eyes SQL-based engine for next version of Windows, 'Longhorn'.
February 11, 2002... Microsoft Corp. is considering bundling in the next version of Windows a pared-down version of its next- generation SQL Server database and the relational file system that goes with it. Microsoft executives have been briefing the company's...

EDS to offload desktop support.
February 11, 2002... Electronic Data Systems Corp. is quietly overhauling its Information Solutions organization to boost a key metric used by Wall Street to measure consulting performance: revenue per employee. By the end of next month, as part of the...

Combo may tame Web.(Evaluation)
February 11, 2002... Microsoft Corp.'s Visual Studio .Net, making its formal debut this week, is a good news/bad news proposition for app developers. The good news, as we'll discuss in a review next week, is that Visual Studio .Net provides impressively...

B2b extends to biz processes - Vendors add XML-based Web services capabilities to tools to simplify business process integration.
February 11, 2002... The growing trend to marry business process modeling to Web services is extending business-to-business integration beyond simple transactions between companies. Major vendors of EAI (enterprise application integration) software, such as...

Saluting products that get the work done.(Editorial)
February 11, 2002... And the winners are... well, i don't know the answer, but I do know the finalists in this year's eWeek eXcellence Awards. And you, too, can know the finalists by turning to Page 12 or by checking our Web site (www.eWEEK.com). n This is the...

The Buzz.
February 11, 2002... Google does Klingon We knew capt. Kirk and his crew never liked them-they were evil and violent-but we weren't always sure of what the Klingons were saying. But as with everything else about "Star Trek," some of the rabid fans of the...

Oracle11i Still Bugging Users.(product defects erode user confidence)
February 18, 2002... Despite notable gains in stability through point releases over the last 20 months, bugs in Oracle Corp.'s 11i suite of Web-based e-business applications are eroding users' confidence in the product. Compounding the problem, some IT...

New Security Strategy: Preventive Medicine.
February 18, 2002... As the number of security vulnerabilities continues to rise, evidenced by the flaws reported in SNMP last week, an increasing number of vendors are turning to so-called intrusion prevention technologies that identify and eliminate...

Fresh Crop of Ultradense Servers on Tap.(Dell, IBM and RLX Technologies introduce servers)(Product Announcement)
February 18, 2002... As PC sales continue to list, a handful of companies are readying high-end systems ranging from high-density, rack-mounted servers to robust mainframes to help IT better manage the enterprise. RLX Technologies Inc., Dell Computer Corp. and...

Salesforce.com Branching Out.(offers hosted customer relationship management services)
February 18, 2002... Fueled by increasing demand for its hosted CRM applications, Salesforce.com Inc. plans to challenge major enterprise software vendors such as SAP AG with hosted back- office applications. The San Francisco company, which has attracted 3,800...

Protocol Switching.(Unisphere Networks MRX multiservice edge router)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 18, 2002... To help service providers, particularly old-time incumbents, wend their way gradually into IP networking, edge router vendors are designing more products that combine ATM switching, MPLS and IP services on one platform. Unisphere Networks...

.Net Tools Get Serious.(Product Announcement)
February 18, 2002... The launch of Visual Studio .Net gives definition to Microsoft Corp.'s software-as-a-service initiative, which, until now, has been more talk than substance. Now the question is whether the tool suite will fill the needs of Web services...