InfoWorld.com articles from April 2006

InfoWorld.com archives from April 2006

JBoss enhances middleware line; Company to release rules engine, transaction server.
April 3, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill JBoss on Monday will bolster its open source middleware stack with the release of a JBoss-branded version of a formerly commercial transaction server. The company will also unveil a new business process management...

PHP extended to IBM midrange line; System i computers getting Web development via arrangement with Zend Technologies.
April 3, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Extending Web enablement to IBM's midrange systems, Zend Technologies and IBM are porting PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) development offerings to IBM System i computers, formerly known as the iSeries and, prior to that, as...

Mercury focusing on SOA with software quality package; Integration with SAP, Microsoft platforms also is cited.
April 3, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Mercury Interactive on Monday is taking the wraps off an upgraded version of its Mercury Quality Center software quality testing platform, which is geared toward SOA and Web services. Mercury Quality Center 9.0 helps...

IBM makes broad SOA rollout; WebSphere, services key to the effort.
April 3, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Building on its SOA emphasis, IBM unveiled on Monday a slew of WebSphere software and professional services intended to overcome "barriers" to SOA success. These barriers were listed by IBM as making determinations...

GUEST COLUMN: Letters to the Editor; Readers react to a letter criticizing columnist Tom Yager’s fondness for Macs.
April 3, 2006... Here’s the letter that sparked the controversy: Yager's article on the various flaws in OS X was laughable. His arguments could be applied to nearly every security flaw on any operating system. Most Windows flaws are just overhyped...

Former Oracle president: Software landscape has changed; Ray Lane cites issues, opportunities.
April 4, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Although the economic landscape of the enterprise software industry has changed, there are still opportunities for those who adapt, said Ray Lane, venture capitalist and former Oracle president, at the Software 2006...

Oracle exec says PeopleSoft, Siebel customers happy; Thomas Kurian says renewal rates since the acquisitions were higher than in the previous year.
April 4, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Santa Clara, Calif. - Oracle's new customers, gained with its acquisitions of Siebel and PeopleSoft, are very satisfied based on renewal rates, Oracle Senior Vice President Thomas Kurian said at the Software 2006...

Agassi: SAP undaunted by Oracle; Executive also touts NetWeaver, ESA strategies.(Company overview)
April 5, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill SANTA CLARA, CALIF. -- SAP is undaunted by Oracle's moves in the application space, said SAP's Shai Agassi, president of the company's Product and Technology Group. Speaking at the Software 2006 conference on...

Microsoft eyes "people-ready" software; Role-based Office versions also touted.
April 5, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill SANTA CLARA, CALIF. -- Microsoft is focused on providing a "people ready" software environment geared for Web 2.0, said Simon Witts, corporate vice president for Microsoft's Enterprise and Partner Group, at the Software...

STORAGE INSIDER: SNW Spring: Talking 'bout a revolution -- or two; New SAS switches and AMD-based NAS are ready to give competitors a run for their money.
April 6, 2006... Byline: Mario Apicella This year's spring edition of SNW will be about to close -- or will have already closed -- its doors by the time you read this column, but it's still steaming full speed ahead while I write. I'll save the...

Salesforce.com takes hit from outage; The company's stock was down almost five percent in midday trading, with news of another service outage a likely source.
April 7, 2006... Byline: Paul Roberts On-demand software vendor and Wall Street darling Salesforce.com took a hit on Friday just one day after the company acknowledged yet another service interruption which affected customers in North America. The...

Open source BI tool to target enterprise customers; Executives claim package is ready to play with the big BI boys.
April 7, 2006... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz The open source software model will continue its assault on traditional applications deployed by the enterprise when Pentaho unveils Business Intelligence Professional Edition Platform next week. The...

SECURITY ADVISER: Gearing up for hacking takedowns; Wrestling malicious phishing and bot sites into submission requires a group effort.
April 7, 2006... Byline: Roger A. Grimes Tracking hackers and their malware is a difficult job. It’s difficult to prove who is doing the hacking, and even more difficult to prosecute. But whether it is under the CAN-SPAM Act (albeit a horrible...

AmberPoint, Iona link up on ESB management; Partnership follows merger between rivals.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Web services and SOA management vendor AmberPoint is teaming with Iona to provide deep integration between the Iona Artix ESB (enterprise service bus) and the AmberPoint SOA Management System, enabling a more granular...

Oracle Server flaw sparks warning; A security expert says Oracle has identified a security hole that allows Oracle users with read-only privileges to delete or modify data.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Paul Roberts A software security expert warned users of Oracle Server that a software flaw could allow any user to read, modify, and delete data used by Oracle applications; he also says that Oracle may have unwittingly shown...

SPML 2.0 ratified as OASIS Standard; The standard includes features such as password management and user account deprovisioning.
April 11, 2006... Byline: Paul F. Roberts In a move that could open the door to more user account provisioning in the enterprise, the OASIS consortium approved the SPML (Service Provisioning Markup Language) version 2.0 specification as an official OASIS...

Fleury: JBoss to scale its business; Executive also denies BEA claim of acquisition of opportunity.
April 12, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Look for JBoss to scale its business now that it has the backing of Red Hat, JBoss Chairman and CEO Marc Fleury said on Wednesday. Fleury, who will be senior vice president and general manager of the JBoss division...

Web 2.0: First of all, what is it? IT officials offer definitions, predictions.
April 13, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Menlo Park, Calif. - IT dignitaries discussing Web 2.0 in the enterprise during a panel session Wednesday debated, for starters, what exactly Web 2.0 is and then pondered where it is headed. Officials including...

MIT simulates bird flu; Mock outbreak shreds the supply chain.
April 17, 2006... Byline: Paul F. Roberts At first, the reports from your supplier in China seem innocent enough: an assembly line worker has become very ill and is hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. Before you know it, workers are dying, the government...

Borland offers software requirements definition; Combined package for management and definition also on tap.
April 17, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Not to be confused with requirements management, Borland Software on Monday is introducing a requirements definition package as part of the company's application lifecycle management arsenal. Borland's Caliber...

BEA warms to ColdFusion users; Apps can be run natively on WebLogic Server without rewrites.
April 17, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill BEA Systems hopes to lure users of ColdFusion applications to BEA's WebLogic Server platform by licensing New Atlanta's BlueDragon software. BlueDragon, BEA WebLogic Edition, enables users of CFML (ColdFusion Markup...

VersionOne enhances agile development; Hosted, locally installed product is upgraded.
April 17, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill VersionOne is upgrading its platform for agile software development on Tuesday, adding improvements for managing defects and projects. The spring 2006 edition of the company's V1: Agile Enterprise product provides an...

Siemens building compliance into Wi-Fi; Management solution will report on key regulatory requirements.
April 18, 2006... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Siemens will announce this week HiPath Wireless Advanced, a management package for its family of Wi-Fi LAN products. The solution follows the trend of adding reporting functionality for compliance with...

Microsoft, IBM seek to entice beginning developers; Visual Studio 2005 Express products to stay free.
April 19, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill In separate initiatives, Microsoft will make its Express developer tools for beginners free permanently while IBM is seeking to boost computer science skills among high school students. Citing 5 million downloads...

Bad karma surrounds e-mail authentication plans; The authentication landscape is still hopelessly crowded, says Meng Wong, who developed the Sender Policy Framework standard.
April 20, 2006... Byline: Paul F. Roberts This week's powwow of e-mail heavyweights in Chicago returned the IT community's attention to the issue of e-mail message authentication, but the messaging community has too little to show for a year's worth of...

AJAX in the spotlight next week and beyond; Jesse James Garrett to speak on "phenomenon".
April 20, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill When is a technology officially hot? Perhaps when it starts getting trade shows and other industry events named for it. If so, then AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) Web application scripting technology definitely...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Dark tales from your friendly IT help desk; Abused PCs and slowed-down networks rank among user transgressions.
April 20, 2006... Byline: Oliver Rist The features I normally tend to write for InfoWorld are … well, let’s call them "technically thick" … somewhat dense studies in micro- and macro-IT management issues. Good reads if your life revolves...

Fujitsu to push for higher profile, profits in North America; Company introduces host of enterprise products and alliances.
April 21, 2006... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Fujitsu, the third largest IT infrastructure service provider in the world, is unveiling this week a slew of IT partnerships and products that company executives expect will raise the company’s profile and...

WS-I eyes asynchronous Web services; The interoperability organization said it is moving forward with IBM's RAMP proposal.
April 21, 2006... Byline: Paul Krill Looking to boost Web services deployments in business-to-business commerce, the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) this week took steps toward providing how-to documents for asynchronous Web services. ...

RSA buys PassMark for $44 million; RSA said that the acquisition will help the company become a strategic hub for the financial marketplace.
April 24, 2006... Byline: Paul F. Roberts RSA Security said on Monday that it acquired PassMark Security, a maker of lightweight authentication technology. RSA paid $44.7 million in cash and stock for PassMark, of Menlo Park, Calif., and plans to add...

Cisco to partner with Nokia on dual mode phones; Two giants team up to increase battery performance for VoIP, cellular handsets.
April 25, 2006... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz With three new Wi-Fi technologies set to bolster VoIP quality, Cisco will announce this week partnerships with Nokia to build dual-mode VoIP and cellular handsets, and with Intel to create VoIP-enabled notebook...

WebSideStory marries analytics with search; Search 4.0 can rank results based on product and page views.
April 25, 2006... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz WebSideStory this week is announcing that it will marry its back-end Web analytics engine with consumer-facing search engine technology in Search Version 4.0. Company executives believe the shaping of site...

Antispyware vets launch anti-0day startup; SocketShield blocks against a select group of 0day attacks and prevents users from visiting malicious sites.
April 28, 2006... Byline: Paul F. Roberts Bob Bales and Roger Thompson hit it big with their last venture, antispyware company PestPatrol. Now the two have launched a new company. Their target: drive by downloads and zero day exploits, like the recent...

SECURITY ADVISER: Core Impact puts a vise grip on vulnerabilities; A deeper look at Core Security's long-standing scanner shows the value of commercial vulnerability solutions.
April 28, 2006... Byline: Roger A. Grimes Last week’s column talked about the Metasploit Framework vulnerability scanner. Although the interface is a bit cumbersome, it’s an excellent free tool for testing single exploits and can do more with...