InfoWorld.com articles from April 2007

InfoWorld.com archives from April 2007

Tibco adds AJAX test tool; Technology works with company's General Interface product.
April 2, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Tibco Software is debuting on Monday an open-source test tool for AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) applications built with the company's General Interface toolkit. The Tibco General Interface Test Automation...

IBM targets India with Autonomic Computing Center; As India IT grows, IBM markets self-managing systems.
April 3, 2007... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz India is not just home base for the largest number of outsourcing companies and high-tech workers assembled in a single country to accommodate America's thirst to move IT offshore, it has also become a huge market...

Debate lingers over federal data-handling laws; As Congress mulls a handful of bills that propose national standards for consumer data protection, business leaders and privacy advocates are still contesting potential risks and benefits of the legislation.
April 3, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Even as the federal government appears poised to create new consumer data protection laws in 2007, businesses and privacy advocates in the United States remain at odds over the parameters of such legislation and its...

Microsoft adds Expression tools to MSDN; Company also addresses challenges to the FoxPro discontinuance.
April 3, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft is making changes to the distribution model of its Expression application design tools and also is fending off a challenge to the recent discontinuance of the Visual FoxPro developer tool. In a departure...

Update: Web services security document published; WS-I technology backed by Microsoft, IBM, Oracle.
April 3, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) announced on Tuesday publication of its WS-I Basic Security Profile 1.0, serving as a guide to enable secure, interoperable Web services. The profile builds on...

Spammers feast on ANI vulnerability; Vulnerability in numerous Microsoft products lets spammers, botnet herders, and malware distributors target unsuspecting end users, experts contend.
April 4, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Microsoft moved to fix the critical .ANI vulnerability that affects roughly a dozen of its most popular products, including Vista, but spammers and malware brokers are already tapping into the flaw to infect unprotected...

Apple unveils octa-core Mac Pro; Company targets developers, animators, and other high-end workstation users with its 2 quad-core Xeon processor option.
April 4, 2007... Byline: Gregg Keizer FRAMINGHAM, MASS. -- Apple Inc. Tuesday added an option to its Mac Pro desktop line that lets customers build out systems equipped with two of Intel's fastest quad-core Xeon processors, marking the first time users...

Negative votes prompt BPEL 2.0 review; OASIS to investigate tally on Web services specification.
April 4, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Although the WS-BPEL (Web Services Business Process Execution Language) 2.0 specification was approved in an organizational vote, OASIS has postponed any formal announcement while it investigates some negative votes, a...

Forrester: Today's NAC is whack; A new research report contends that current network access control solutions won't survive, and predicts that future device authentication efforts will be centered on technologies residing on end points.
April 5, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Today's NAC (network access control) technologies will fail and disappear as companies move to device authentication systems that operate on the end point, according to a new report issued by Forrester Research. ...

IRS still losing laptops; Agency admits it misplaced almost 500 devices over the last three years, some with sensitive taxpayer data.
April 5, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines A new report filed by federal security auditors finds that that the Internal Revenue Service has had almost 500 laptop computers lost or stolen over the last three years, many of which were loaded with sensitive taxpayer...

Windows, Java get incremental boosts; Longhorn precursor offered; Java spruced up for Daylight Saving Time.
April 5, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Incremental updates to the latest Windows and Java technologies have been made available recently with Microsoft offering a new preview of its upcoming Longhorn server platform and Sun Microsystems adding a fix for...

Microsoft patching five flaws, two critical; The software giant returns to its monthly security update schedule, announcing plans to ship fixes for five vulnerabilities including four issues in Windows -- one of which it ranked as critical.
April 6, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Microsoft announced in its monthly Patch Tuesday preview that it plans next week to release security updates for five individual product vulnerabilities, including two critical issues. After failing to release any...

Finding security in Windows Mobile monoculture; While experts have long highlighted OS diversity as a major benefit to mobile device security, some enterprise users have actually been waiting to adopt Microsoft's mobile OS, based on concerns for protecting their smartphones.
April 6, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Without a doubt, the most influential factor driving the current state of IT security is the ubiquitous presence of Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system on a vast majority of the world's PCs. Since an...

BEA taps AmberPoint for SOA governance; Product to be rebranded and sold as expansion of AquaLogic family.
April 9, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Offering greater control over SOA, BEA Systems has enlisted AmberPoint to provide SOA runtime governance capabilities to users of BEA's middleware. Under an arrangement being announced on Monday, BEA will rebrand...

Does ERP matter? Best-of-breed applications are chipping away at the foundations of enterprise software.
April 9, 2007... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz If there was any question about whether the ERP market was in turmoil, the recent shakeup in senior management at ERP stalwart SAP that pushed out rising star Shai Agassi should have answered it. If you recall,...

McAfee: Cyber-crime will continue to pay; The security company predicts that everything from spam to spyware to botnets will become more dangerous this year.
April 10, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines The latest research report from McAfee's Avert Labs paints a frightening picture for enterprise IT administrators and end-users, predicting continued maturation of cyber-crime and the technological means being used to...

Update: Apache battles Sun over Java license; Open source organization protests IP rights restrictions.
April 10, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill The Apache Software Foundation is in a dispute with Sun Microsystems over a license for the Java technology compatibility kit needed for the Apache Harmony project. Harmony is an open source implementation of Java...

IBM conference tackles system complexity; Evolution of software the problem, making 'reactive firefighting' the solution.
April 11, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Technology experts at an IBM event Wednesday acknowledged the problem of growing IT complexity, noting causes and consequences but also suggesting approaches to lighten the burden. Hailing from different segments of...

OASIS advances SOA standards; Open CSA will promote SOA development standards to industry.
April 11, 2007... Byline: Paul F. Roberts OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards , said on Wednesday that it was launching a new effort to simplify the development of standards-based SOA applications, according to an...

OASIS approves BPEL 2.0; Web services specification gets the nod.
April 12, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) 2.0 has been approved as an OASIS Standard, providing an officially ratified version of this specification for describing business process activities as Web...

More security OEM deals to come; Licensing agreements are seen as the best way to increase marketability amidst increased enterprise demands.
April 12, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines With enterprises demanding more tightly integrated security products than ever before and pressure increasing on vendors in the space to offer as many tools as possible to win deals, experts say that an increasing number...

Leopard delay jeopardizes Apple Boot Camp users; Users' rights to program may run out before new OS ships.
April 13, 2007... Byline: Gregg Keizer, Computerworld When Apple Thursday announced it would delay the release of Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" until October, it also put users now running Windows on their Macs in a bind. By the licensing terms of Apple's...

Judge orders CA's Kumar to repay $800M; Former CEO will surrender $52M over the next 18 months.
April 13, 2007... Byline: Paul F. Roberts A Federal judge has approved a deal that orders convicted tech executive Sanjay Kumar to repay almost $800 million to a fund set up to repay victims of financial improprieties at Computer Associates International...

Bottom line impact of data breaches unclear; Despite dire predictions of massive financial consequences for breached companies, TJX's business has grown in the wake of its data breach.
April 13, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Despite the fact that unwanted exposure of consumer data has become a hot-button issue in the media and among legislators nationwide, experts admit that it remains unclear just how much damage the events will cause to...

Windows XP to be discontinued in early 2008; Microsoft plans to phase out OEM shipments of the older generation of Windows in order push Vista, upsetting many XP users.
April 13, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft's plan to phase out OEM shipments of Windows XP, the predecessor to the new Windows Vista platform, is not sitting well with some observers, based on Internet-driven feedback. According to a Microsoft...

BEA pitches Web 2.0 theme for portals; Company's upgraded portal software sports AJAX capability and portlet functionality.
April 16, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill With an upgrade to its portal software, BEA Systems on Monday is touting a Web 2.0 interactivity theme with the product able to expose portlets, which can be produced for use in mashup apps, to other applications. The...

EMC taps users to expedite e-discovery; User input and full-text indexing fuel upgrades to company’s archiving governance initiative.
April 16, 2007... Byline: Jason Snyder Seeking to improve enterprise governance of e-mail and file archiving systems, EMC today announced upgrades to its EmailXtender e-mail management and DiskXtender file archiving products. EMC says the updates will...

Oracle's Project X revealed; A new Application Integration Architecture coupled with process integration packs promise a new class of tailored composite application.
April 16, 2007... Byline: Eric Knorr Like the mainframe, ERP (enterprise resource planning) software soldiers on, though companies complain bitterly about its inflexibility. Oracle just took a significant step toward softening that rigidity with its new...

P2P worms get their turn; Security experts warn of dangerous new threats arising from new botnet techniques and the consolidation of fraudulent organizations.
April 16, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Massive networks of infected computers controlled by attackers worldwide will serve as a powerful engine for the new breed of so-called P2P worm that is currently echoing across cyberspace. Security experts have...

Web 2.0 Expo draws startups, superstars; Overflow crowds expected at DIY Web conference.
April 16, 2007... Byline: Paul F. Roberts If anyone knows about the potential of what has been dubbed "Web 2.0" it's the folks over at O'Reilly Media. Heck, company founder Tim O'Reilly himself coined the phrase back in 2003 to describe the emergence of a...

Verizon to offer CaaS, computing as a service, later this year; SaaS spurs new ideas: Savvis to offer "temporary computing" service.
April 17, 2007... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz As SaaS (software as a service) permeates every corner of the user community, two companies, Verizon and Savvis, will announce later this year new services that extend the SaaS model well beyond application...

Large enterprises still serving up spam; Despite lots of security measures, major corporations are still having internal IP addresses hijacked by spammers.
April 17, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Well-known enterprise companies are still having their IT systems hijacked by spammers despite investing in many different types of technologies aimed at stopping the problem. Last week, researchers at network...

Symantec takes initial step into SaaS; Symantec introduces set of hosted data storage and disaster recovery services for SMBs.
April 17, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Symantec took its initial step into the software-as-a-service market on April 17, introducing its maiden set of hosted applications for small and medium-sized businesses. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said that...

Consumer data protection faces legal, tech hurdles; Experts agree that much work needs to be done by lawmakers and technology providers to foster an online environment in which consumer data is better defended from cyber-crime and misuse.
April 18, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines BOSTON -- Lawmakers and technology providers concede that they must create stronger mechanisms to improve protection of electronic consumer records, but claim that members of private industry must aid in the effort if...

CDT preps new authentication and ID policies; The Center for Democracy and Technology will introduce a 10-point set of authentication and identity management guidelines to the FTC next week.
April 18, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines The CDT (Center for Democracy and Technology) offered a sneak peak at a new list of guidelines it will present to the FTC next week that are meant to help businesses and consumers balance issues of online privacy and...

Microsoft eyes datacenters in a box; Redmond says that with datacenter growth defying Moore's Law, it is responding with design alternatives.
April 18, 2007... Byline: Jason Snyder Fast, cheap and all over the place. That's how technology experts behind Microsoft's fast-growing Live offerings envision the future of the enterprise data center in a Web 2.0 driven world. Faced with a shortage...

Panelists say IT can't stop Web 2.0; Google exec says IT couldn't stop instant messaging and they won't stop other Web apps either.(Discussion)
April 18, 2007... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz At the Web 2.0 Expo at Moscone Center in San Francisco on Wednesday, three thought leaders in the Web 2.0 space, Ross Mayfield, CEO of Socialtext, Satish Dharmaraj, CEO of Zimbra and Matthew Glotzbach, business...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: No warm fuzzies for iSCSI? SMBs have been slow to adopt iSCSI so far, but that may change as virtualization spreads.
April 18, 2007... Byline: Oliver Rist Lately, it seems like it's all about disk space. They're no longer file servers but document repositories with multiple versions of single documents saved ad infinitum -- just in case of a finger-pointing fest. Not so...

Enterprises seek social-network effect; Organizations use Web 2.0 tech to tap knowledge resources.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Jason Snyder Social bookmarking and IRC (Internet relay chat) top the list of must-have tools for organizations that want to leverage Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise, according to a Web 2.0 Expo panel moderated by Rob...

ENTERPRISE INSIGHT: Corporate librarian replaced by Web app; Lesson learned from the Web 2.0 Expo: Tags rule, top-down taxonomy is dead.
April 19, 2007... Byline: David L. Margulius I’m just back from the Web 2.0 Expo love-fest down the street here in San Francisco, where I stumbled into an interesting session on something I thought was ‘Taxonomy.’ I was hoping to learn...

Digg floats API, phishing mashups to come; Identity, copyright remain top concerns for those looking to make good on fledgling API model.
April 20, 2007... Byline: Jason Snyder Digg is just the latest in a raft of Web 2.0 darlings to open their data doors to developers by way of APIs. The Digg API -- announced yesterday at a party to celebrate Digg's 1 millionth registered user -- will allow...

Experts: No easy ride for Symbian in U.S. The mobile device OS maker is betting that it can become a leader in the U.S. market, but experts say it must overcome several hurdles to win over enterprise customers.
April 20, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Handheld software maker Symbian currently provides the operating system used on the lion's share of the world's smartphones, but the company will need to overcome competition from Microsoft and other hurdles in...

SECURITY ADVISER: Time for a pervasive emergency alert system; The Virginia Tech tragedy highlights the need for a warning system that cuts across all devices and systems.
April 20, 2007... Byline: Roger A. Grimes I’m writing this column on the day of the Virginia Tech national tragedy. Aside from the natural emotions from this overwhelming, random act of violence, this event struck even closer to home because one of my...

Enterprise mobility is nascent reality; Adoption of wireless technologies will continue to move slowly as vendors tie themselves more closely to vertical markets, according to Forrester.
April 23, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines The concept of enterprise mobility has been maturing for years, but large companies are only just beginning to get their hands around wireless technologies, according to the latest report from Forrester Research. ...

Salesforce.com launches SaaS platform; Company hopes to become the hub for future SaaS development.
April 23, 2007... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz With the announcement on Monday of Salesforce Platform Edition, Salesforce.com finally unveiled its long-term strategy to become the sun around which revolves an infinite number of SaaS (software as a service)...

HP blends Mercury, Openview software; HP unveils new hardware, software for data warehousing, BTO.
April 24, 2007... Byline: Eric Knorr Did HP swallow Mercury, or did Mercury swallow HP? Since the acquisition was completed last November, you have to wonder. After all, HP has adopted Mercury's nomenclature and now talks a lot about BTO (Business...

McAfee unveils DLP gateway; The security vendor launches the second piece of its data loss prevention architecture, adding a network gateway to its existing endpoint DLP host tools.
April 24, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines McAfee introduced its newest data leakage prevention technology on April 24, taking the wraps off a gateway package meant to compliment its existing host-based DLP (data loss prevention) software. Labeled as DLP...

Future of NAC pits host against network; Product confusion, incompatibility constrict demand for NAC products, endpoint security vendors stand to benefit.
April 24, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Makers of network access control technologies find themselves dividing along familiar lines within the world of IT security as some providers evangelize a centralized, network-based approach for enforcing device...

Red Hat chides Oracle over Linux; Official questions database giant's motives, saying it merely wants to contain open source and push its own OS.
April 24, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Oracle's venture into the Linux market was called "a bit disingenuous" by a Red Hat executive speaking at the MySQL Conference & Expo in Santa Clara, Calif. on Tuesday. The executive, Michael Evans, Red Hat vice...

OFF THE RECORD: Why it's worth taking risks; Sometimes being an IT guy means going the extra mile -- even if it's on your own time.
April 24, 2007... Byline: Anonymous Almost 20 years ago, I signed on as director of inventory management and operational analysis at a large chain of bookstores (let's call it C&O Books) headquartered in New Jersey. Being an IT guy, I had plenty of...

Dell brings solid state to Latitude; SanDisk SSD option beefs up durability of laptop line.
April 25, 2007... Byline: Jason Snyder Not to be outdone by laptop rival Sony, Dell yesterday announced the availability of SSD (solid-state drive) technology for its Latitude D420 and D620 notebooks. Aimed at enhancing the durability and performance of...

Gartner analyst warns of IT irrelevance; Senior VP lays out four major business and IT trends.
April 25, 2007... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz At the Gartner Symposium ITXPO 2007, Peter Sondergaard, senor vice president of global research, gave a keynote address on emerging IT trends and how they will affect IT on a personal and professional level. ...

Startup pitches smarter AV; Robot Genius claims to vastly improve on traditional products' ability to find, block, and remediate desktop malware.(Company overview)
April 25, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines With a name like Robot Genius you wouldn't expect the company's leaders to be modest, but the more you hear the firm's Chairman Stephen Hsu talk about his startup's new approach to anti-malware, the more you believe the...

Sun eyes a JavaScript alternative to AJAX; Company hopes to release an early version of Project Flair, a self-supporting programming kernel meant to streamline development and collaboration, later this year.
April 26, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems is working on Web application development technology that presents an alternative to AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), a Sun official said on Thursday. The company's Project Flair is an...

Experts: Google AdWords needs policing; Security and legal experts contend that the only way for Google to avoid badware-brokering advertisers is to more aggressively vet its AdWords customers.
April 26, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Google could avoid future malware attacks carried out using advertisements posted on its Web sites if the company more thoroughly investigated customers of its AdWords system, according to security and legal experts. ...

Sun opens doors to next-generation technology; Projects covering wire-free chip links, Web 2.0 security, and Java aired at Sun Labs Open House.
April 26, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems opened up its labs Thursday, spotlighting projects in areas ranging from wire-free chip-to-chip communications to Web 2.0 security. The Sun Labs Open House at Sun facilities in Menlo Park, Calif.,...

Zend readies PHP applications framework; The release, planned for May 2007, will simplify building PHP applications.
April 26, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Zend Technologies plans to release its Zend Framework 1.0 product by late May, a company official said at the MySQL Conference & Expo in Santa Clara, Calif., on Wednesday. The framework is intended to make it easier...

Multilingual filers shatter storage-standard barriers; Competing file sharers from Adaptec, Celeros, Dell, and NetApp speak iSCSI, NFS, and CIFS.
April 26, 2007... Byline: Paul Venezia As does a hydra, storage and file-sharing technologies have many heads, and these days, they seem to be moving in every direction at once. iSCSI is finally in the limelight and the push toward virtualization is only...

SECURITY ADVISER: How to become an exceptional security manager; Going back to basics can often improve your success rate more than buying the latest and greatest security product.
April 27, 2007... Byline: Roger A. Grimes I recently listened to a wonderful science program on National Public Radio discussing a book called Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance along with its author, Dr. Atul Gawande. The book discusses the reasons...

STORAGE INSIDER: Will SAS 2.0 grow greener storage? PMC-Sierra ships the first SAS 2.0 controller with hopes that it will be as successful as FC -- as well as more efficient.
April 27, 2007... Byline: Mario Apicella FC, SCSI, SAS, SATA... the alphabet soup of different connectivity protocols for disk drives can be confusing. Why do we have so many? The simple answer is because new technologies like SATA and SAS pop up fast, old...

Onaro looks to bridge app-storage gap; Application Insight 2.0 yields path-level visibility into SAN health.
April 30, 2007... Byline: Jason Snyder Seeking to aid enterprises in their ongoing struggle to better align storage resources with application requirements, Onaro today released an upgrade to its SANscreen Application Insight product. The new iteration,...

Spring Java framework gets a Java 6 upgrade; Improvements like annotations are meant to bolster Spring's standing as a top Java app development tool due to its simplicity and power.
April 30, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Improvements to the open-source Spring Java framework and a companion Web technology being unveiled Monday focus on annotations, scripting, and Java (Java Platform Standard Edition) 6, developers of the framework said....

Users take sides in Flash-Silverlight clash; MIX07 attendees are in Microsoft's corner in the battle for rich media apps on the Web.
April 30, 2007... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft's Silverlight technology could give Adobe's rival Flash browser plug-in software a run for its money based on attendee feedback at the Microsoft MIX07 conference in Las Vegas on Monday. Microsoft made a...

How to get bought by Google (or IBM, or Oracle); Startups are trailblazing in the enterprise sector again, but where will the trail lead?
April 30, 2007... Byline: Paul F. Roberts May is a month of rebirth and new beginnings. It's a time when flowers are blooming, trees are flowering, and young bucks lock horns in battle over the privilege of choosing a mate. Those kinds of biological...

Nokia expands security appliance line; High-end IP690 and low-end IP290 will help companies filter malware traffic before it reaches internal systems.
April 30, 2007... Byline: Matt Hines Nokia introduced two new network security appliances on April 30, adding high- and low-end models that aim to help companies filter out malware traffic before it penetrates their IT systems. The Espoo, Finland-based...