InfoWorld.com articles from January 2004

InfoWorld.com archives from January 2004

Grand Central launches next service platform version; Company targeting VANs.
January 5, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz A new breed of Internet company is emerging to challenge the traditional private VANs (value added networks) that connect trading partners. Grand Central Communications, a business services network launched...

MySQL extending 64-bit support for database; Open source software being fitted for Intel Itanium 2 chip on HP-UX, Windows XP.
January 5, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill MySQL on Tuesday will announce a port of its MySQL open source database to the HP-UX operating system on the 64-bit Intel Itanium 2 chip, with a Windows XP version soon to follow. The 4.0 version of the database for...

Sun readies Java development initiative; Analyst expects effort to eliminate fragmentation.
January 5, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems on Tuesday plans to announce an effort to boost Java tools standards development and interaction. A Sun representative said the effort pertained to a Java tools community, albeit one that would not...

Sybase delivers Panther-ready database; Company adds increased performance, asynchronous disk I/O.
January 6, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Sybase will continue to add an enterprise sheen to the Mac environment this week with the unveiling of the next version of Sybase ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise) 12.5.1 at the MacWorld Conference & Expo, in San...

Java Tools Community formed; Sun-led group looks to boost interoperability, but Borland, IBM are absent.
January 6, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Eleven software companies, led by Sun Microsystems and BEA Systems, on Tuesday unveiled the Java Tools Community (JTC), which is intended to promote interoperability of Java-based tools. Absent from the mix, however,...

Apple unveils dual G5 Xserve; Company also introduces RAID storage system with 3.5 TB capacity.
January 6, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple continues to muscle its way into the enterprise this week as it unveiled at the MacWorld Conference & Expo here three new models of its Xserve with 2GHz, G5 processors from IBM at its core....

Update: Microsoft, BEA, Tibco tout Web services events spec; WS-Eventing communications proposal is forged.
January 7, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft, BEA Systems, and Tibco Software on Wednesday published a specification, WS-Eventing, which is intended to provide a common way of communicating events within and between Web services. The companies plan to...

IBM offers sneak peek at J2EE 1.4 app server; Big Blue rolls out WebSphere technology preview.
January 8, 2004... Byline: Ed Scannell IBM on Thursday made a technology preview of its upcoming version of its WebSphere Application Server 6.0 due later this year. The new preview version, available now as a free download at IBM's developerWorks site,...

IBM, SuSE team up on point-of-sale server; Turnkey system Is Linux-based.
January 8, 2004... Byline: Ed Scannell Trying to deepen its presence in the POS (point-of-sale) market, IBM on Thursday unwrapped a Linux-based solution that ties together SuSE Linux with Big Blue's eServer hardware and middleware applications. Called...

Sun may change Linux desktop platform; Long-term strategy overhaul may alter SuSE relationship.
January 8, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems is pondering a long-term desktop strategy for Linux that may mean changing its arrangement with SuSE, which currently provides the Linux distribution for Sun's desktop platform. Sun sells the SuSE...

Mindreef boosts Web services diagnostics; SOAPscope 3.0 being released.
January 9, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Mindreef on Monday is announcing availability of SOAPscope 3.0, a Web services diagnostics system that features life cycle interoperability testing and troubleshooting. Also in the release are integration with...

PocketPCs: Small, smart, and coming on strong; Formerly the also-ran of the PDA ranks, Microsoft's handheld platform has evolved dramatically.
January 9, 2004... Byline: Oliver Rist The insurance industry needs a technology upgrade. Hanging around waiting for the adjuster to roll off the couch and waddle over to take a gander at the physical and emotional turmoil that was once your pride and joy is...

Security in a spam-filled world; It's more than just an annoyance: Spam can be your worst security nightmare.
January 9, 2004... Byline: Wayne Rash The computer was purely analog and made by Ford. The images on the analog radar screen looked like an Excel line graph, and I was learning how to identify chaff. Back when I was learning naval gunnery, radar-directed...

The year of the disk drive; New technologies spur growth.
January 9, 2004... Byline: Mario Apicella According to the Chinese calendar, 2004 is the year of the Monkey. I'll refrain from making cheap jokes or try to contradict a several millenniums-young culture, but from a storage point of view, we will probably...

Startup introduces license management for open source; Black Duck package helps manage code for compliance with open source licenses.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Ed Scannell A small software startup will make its debut at LinuxWorld next week by rolling out a package it believes can help developers manage and mitigate the intellectual property risks of reusing and mixing both open source...

DreamFactory readies browser tools for Web interfaces; Suite enables aggregation of data sources.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill DreamFactory on Monday is shipping its DreamFactory 6.0 suite of browser-based tools for developing rich client user interfaces for enterprise Web applications powered by XML documents and Web services. The tools are...

Search vendor iPhrase acquires Banter; Banter's classification software automates inquires from e-mail, chat sessions.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Cathleen Moore Search technology vendor iPhrase Technologies on Monday announced the acquisition of Banter Systems, a maker of automatic classification software used to understand unstructured content and informal communications....

Kana to extend self-service reach; Three new apps expose, integrate knowledge services to contact center agents.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz CRM company Kana will unveil this week three self-service applications that extend the concept of knowledge-management-to-knowledge-services from the end-user to the customer service agent, heralding a new trend...

MySQL adding stored procedures to database; Open source platform also gets server-side cursor capability.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Looking to bolster the enterprise-readiness of its open source database, MySQL on Monday will preview an update to its platform that adds stored procedures and server side cursor capabilities. Version 5.0 of MySQL...

Old Windows to get a little older; Microsoft extends Windows 98 support to June 2006.
January 12, 2004... Byline: Ed Scannell Doing an about-face at the eleventh hour, Microsoft on Monday decided to extend its support of Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Windows Millennium until June 30, 2006 -- support that was scheduled to be...

Developers getting information boosts for Java, .Net; Web sites being improved, launched.
January 13, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Web sites featuring resources for developers on the Java and .Net platforms are being unveiled Tuesday in separate announcements. On the Java side, Sun will announce a consolidation of the multitude of developer...

FineGround unfurls Velocity appliance; Device provides plug-and-play Web application optimization and monitoring.
January 13, 2004... Byline: Cathleen Moore FineGround Networks on Tuesday introduced Velocity, an appliance version of its application optimization and monitoring software suite. Velocity is designed to improve the performance of enterprise Web...

IBM to preview Stinger version of DB2; Big Blue to show off next generation of database at LinuxWorld.
January 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Scannell At next week's LinuxWorld, IBM will show off some of the new capabilities expected to be in the next version of DB2 Universal Database, code-named Stinger, which reportedly will help corporate users build more scalable...

Wireless ISPs make preemptive spam strike; Cable modem operators concerned.
January 14, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Wireline and wireless companies joined forces on Wednesday as an ISP Messaging Anti-abuse Working Group to develop methods to shut down spammers before they appear on the networks. The founding members include...

Sun still pondering Eclipse participation; Company also provides NetBeans road map.
January 14, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Despite recently rejecting an invitation to participate in the IBM-led Eclipse open source Java tools initiative, Sun Microsystems may still join the organization, Sun officials said on Wednesday. The company, during...

Interview: Sun to focus on cost reduction at LinuxWorld; VP Jonathan Schwartz discusses Sun's commitment to Linux and takes IBM, HP to task on their Linux strategies.
January 14, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems, long a hard-line Unix vendor, is becoming a player in the Linux market as well, offering Linux on both the server and desktop. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill recently discussed Sun's Linux...

Novell touts services-oriented apps development; exteNd 5 suite set to ship this month.
January 16, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Novell on Jan. 21 will ship its exteNd 5 suite for development of service-oriented Web applications, featuring boosts in security, productivity and Linux platform support. The product helps build identity-enabled Web...

States want Microsoft licensing program improved; Part of the antitrust settlement is not working.
January 16, 2004... Byline: Stephen Lawson A program intended to level the playing field in the software business in the wake of the U.S. antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp. doesn't seem to be working as intended, the states that have settled with...

Despite some potential blemishes, Longhorn's WinFS looks attractive; API and natural-language queries are a plus, but app compatibility and slow performance could be troublesome.
January 16, 2004... Byline: Oliver Rist From now on, I want no more reader e-mails accusing me of taking a Microsoft payoff. Here I am, publicly writing about the loss of my beloved Cherokee, and do I hear word one from the company? Does a FedEx box from...

Catching flies with honey? Some experts suggest honey-pot technology might be right for the enterprise -- but is it?
January 16, 2004... Byline: Wayne Rash The concept of the honey trap, or honey pot, has been around Washington for a long time. During the Cold War, the practice of seducing spies, government officials, and others to use it as leverage against them became...

Reducing storage pollution; iSCSI storage arriving in 2004.
January 16, 2004... Byline: Mario Apicella If we believe the predictions from various sources, hybrid cars will graduate this year from being toys for eccentric people to mainstream vehicles for gas-efficiency-conscious drivers. This cheery forecast is based...

AppForge ships cross-platform .Net environment; Crossfire 5.0 will run on Palm, Symbian, Nokia.
January 20, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz AppForge, under new CEO Gary Warren, who has a mandate to refocus the company's target market from consumer to enterprise developers, this week began shipping Crossfire 5.0, a mobile and wireless cross-application...

IBM proposes convergence of Web services, grid computing; Big Blue unveils three specifications to meld Web services with grid computing.
January 20, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill SAN FRANCISCO -- IBM and several other vendors on Tuesday unveiled three specifications intended to converge Web services and grid computing. Introduced at the GlobusWorld 2004 conference here were WS-Notification,...

Red Hat offers infringement warranty for Linux; Linux distributor guarantees that its code is free of infringement issues.
January 20, 2004... Byline: Todd R. Weiss, Computerworld With competitors Novell, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems all offering legal indemnity for users of their Linux products, Linux vendor Red Hat on Tuesday hopped on the bandwagon and unveiled a...

Siebel buys Ineto, extends hosted reach; Company's CRM OnDemand service gets call center support.
January 20, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Siebel Systems pulled another hosted rabbit out of its CRM hat today by announcing the acquisition of Ineto Services, a hosted contact center service that will be integrated into its CRM OnDemand service. ...

Can IA-32 cut it as big iron? Intel's Xeon processor outlasts expectations .
January 20, 2004... Scott McNealy experienced a rare moment of humility on stage at Comdex in November. Speaking before several thousand of the show's attendees, Sun's chairman and chief executive officer admitted he had made a mistake in underestimating the...

Microsoft still pursuing Java developers; Code conversion tool being upgraded.
January 21, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft is continuing its pursuit of Java developers. The company on Wednesday issued a beta release of Version 3.0 of the JLCA (Java Language Conversion Assistant) tool, which is designed for moving Java code to...

LinuxWorld: Novell joins Eclipse consortium; Company also enhancing GroupWise messaging.
January 21, 2004... Byline: Ed Scannell NEW YORK -- Novell used LinuxWorld Expo here to deepen its commitment to Linux and open source development by unveiling a handful of products and announcing it has joined the Eclipse consortium. In joining Eclipse,...

Confluent, Compuware boosting Web services, drivers; Best-practices enforcement, content-based routing highlighted.
January 23, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Confluent Software and Compuware are boosting Web services management and Windows driver development, respectively. Confluent on Monday will ship Confluent Web Services Management Platform 3.5, featuring...

Citrix's sweet MetaFrame Access Suite boosts collaboration for remote users; Handy-dandy applications include Secure Access Manager and Password Manager.
January 23, 2004... Byline: Oliver Rist A shiny new car awaits me back home in the garage. As of two hours ago, my beloved Patriots are officially in the Super Bowl. Earlier today, I gleefully played golf in Hilton Head's 70-degree weather, while my...

Return of the worms; They're baaa-aaack! After a period of relative quiet, worms are once again gearing up to attack your enterprise.
January 23, 2004... Byline: Wayne Rash A couple of months ago I wrote that the appearance of worms and viruses seemed to be somehow related to those times when computer science students had too much time on their hands. I noted that the last major worm...

How much IT can you manage? Veritas delivers utility computing basics.
January 23, 2004... Byline: Mario Apicella Let's face it; without IT, many business transactions such as managing production cycles, purchasing over the Web, or automating order management between buyers and vendors would not be possible. And without IT, we'd...

Interview: VoIP set to transform communications in the enterprise; CommuniTech CEO Neal Shact discusses the FCC hearings and the coming wave of VoIP solutions.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Wayne Rash Voice over IP (VoIP) is set to transform telecommunications in the next five to 10 years. And with telecom companies moving their telephone calls from circuit-switched telephone networks to packet-based data, there have...

PeopleSoft launches hosting for mid-market; Turns from HP to Surebridge to lower infrastructure costs.
January 26, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz PeopleSoft will set its sights a bit lower this week when it announces a hosted solution targeted at the mid-market. Calling it a better fit for the mid-market than their current offering, the new offering has...

Fast accelerates enterprise search; ESP search platform aims for single point of access to corporate data.
January 27, 2004... Byline: Cathleen Moore Fast Search and Transfer on Tuesday introduced an expanded search platform designed to provide a single point of access to all enterprise information regardless of data format, structure, or location. Dubbed Fast...

Oracle launches data integration initiative; Company comes around to reality.
January 27, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz San Diego -- After years of repeating, mantra-like, the Oracle message of one database, one data model, Chuck Phillips, Oracle's new president, delivered an updated, more inclusive message to 10,000 Oracle...

Parasoft touts security, WS-I in Web services test tool; Web services product complies with industry efforts.
January 27, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Parasoft on Tuesday is releasing SOAPtest 2.5, an upgrade of the company's Web services testing tool that sports security enhancements and adherence to upcoming WS-I test tool functions, the company said. Looking to...

Web services security spec moves toward approval; OASIS braces for membership vote.
January 27, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill WS-Security, a widely supported proposal for securing Web services, could become an official OASIS standard by March. OASIS in mid-February anticipates a full-membership vote on the WS-Security specification, which...

Oracle previews E-Business Suite 11i.10; Integration is the message, exec says.
January 28, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz SAN DIEGO -- Oracle continued to promote its new capabilities to integrate its products with applications from other vendors at the AppsWorld conference here this week by offering a sneak peak of those...

IBM takes steps toward On Demand vision; Service helps manage datacenters.
January 28, 2004... Byline: Ed Scannell IBM took another small step toward bringing its 15-month vision of On Demand computing to the real world on Wednesday, rolling out an IT service that helps corporate users remotely automate and manage datacenters made...

Partners add fuel to Lotus technologies; iAnywhere, PureEdge, DYS Analytics, Relavis tout wares at Lotusphere.
January 28, 2004... Byline: Cathleen Moore Orlando, Fla. --- Alongside IBM Lotus Software's forward looking Workplace collaboration road map that is unfolding here, several Lotus partners rolled out offerings that extend and strengthen Big Blue's new and...

IBM linking database upgrade to Eclipse; Plug-ins to be shown at conference next week.
January 28, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill IBM next week will offer early versions of plug-ins for the upcoming Stinger release of IBM DB2 Universal Database, which would link the database to the Eclipse open source toolkit. Set for release at the EclipseCon...

Update: Microsoft delays IE changes; Company will wait on Patent Office decision.
January 29, 2004... Byline: Ed Scannell Microsoft on Thursday said it would not, "for now, implement modifications" to Windows and Internet Explorer as demanded by the patent suit it lost to Eolas Technologies last August, because of many requests made by its...

Interview: How Lotus fits into IBM's On Demand vision; Ambuj Goyal discusses the future of Lotus' collaboration technology within IBM.
January 29, 2004... Byline: Cathleen Moore and P.J. Connolly This week at Lotusphere, Ambuj Goyal, general manager of Lotus Software, met with senior writer Cathleen Moore and test center analyst P.J. Connolly to discuss the future of Lotus' collaboration...

Oracle's Ellison talks up application integration; CEO uses keynote to promote Customer Data Hub.
January 30, 2004... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz SAN DIEGO -- Citing the Global Credit Database as the "most interesting application in the world," Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said his company used that database as the model to create its Customer Data Hub,...

Borland readies apps deployment tool; Company seeks to smooth transition from development to deployment.
January 30, 2004... Byline: Paul Krill Looking to smooth the transition between application development and deployment, Borland on Friday will introduce Borland Deployment Op-Center for application lifecycle management. The infrastructure software is...

Winternals Recovery Manager saves us from certain Mydoom; Admins can roll back to previous system snapshots and modify them at a granular level.
January 30, 2004... Byline: Oliver Rist It's barely the end of January, but the bloom is definitely off the New Year's rose. First, the accounting crows are already gathering for the annual tax feast. People say I'm wasteful because I drive a 4x4, but just...

CNT offers one ounce of prevention; Troubleshooting for long distance storage.
January 30, 2004... Byline: Mario Apicella You do remember CNT, don't you? In brief, CNT makes storage hardware and accompanying services to build storage networks that span multiple sites. Although CNT offers a variety of storage products, of its own or...