InfoWorld.com articles from January 2005

InfoWorld.com archives from January 2005

MySQL readies beta of enterprise open source database; Version 5.0 to feature stored procedures, other enhancements.
January 4, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill MySQL at the end of January is expected to release a beta version of its MySQL 5.0 open source database, which is to feature enterprise-level functionality such as stored procedures and triggers, according to a company...

Adobe's Policy Server tightens document privacy; LiveCycle Policy Server applies security policies to electronic documents.
January 5, 2005... Byline: Cathleen Moore Adobe Systems on Wednesday rolled out its LiveCycle Policy Server, which lets enterprise users apply policies to PDF documents to improve regulatory compliance and information privacy efforts. Adobe's new...

FreeBSD Foundation, Sun working on Java license; Pact to boost apps development on open source OS.
January 6, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill The FreeBSD Foundation and Sun Microsystems are negotiating a new license to continue distribution of binaries for the Java runtime and the JDK, for use with the FreeBSD open source operating system, according to the...

Liberty Alliance elects new president; Alliance taps Goodman, director of Intel's Visualization and Trust Lab, for one-year position.
January 6, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis The Liberty Alliance has announced a new president to head the organization designed to create open standards and business guidelines for federated identity management. George Goodman, director of Intel's...

In Brief: BEA acquires Swedish telco software company; Also in Brief: Sonasoft, St. Bernard Software team up on security solution for Windows servers; NEC-Mitsubishi launches wide-format 23-inch monitor.
January 7, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff BEA Systems this week announced that it has acquired Incomit, a Swedish company that provides infrastructure software for the telecommunications industry. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The...

StreamBase eyes real-time streaming apps; Data management veteran Stonebraker forges new venture.
January 7, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill StreamBase Systems, the brainchild of data management technologist Michael Stonebraker, is looking to reach new heights in the area of high-speed, real-time data streaming applications. Although already in business...

SECURITY ADVISER: New year, same spyware; Forecast for 2005: Continued showers of spam, followed by heavy bouts of adware and phishing.
January 7, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis It's the New Year, so of course we have plenty of looking back and looking forward to do. Let's look backward first courtesy of McAfee, which has tallied reports for the past year from its corporate users and...

STORAGE INSIDER: Addicted to portable drives; Seagate's snazzy 5GB device brings a new spin on pocket drives.
January 7, 2005... Byline: Mario Apicella What could you do with a 5GB pocket drive? Obviously, I am not referring to USB Flash drives because -- as you probably know -- they don't come in that capacity yet. I already have a handful of those Flash drives...

Extreme offers new Aspen switch; Two-tier network designs in the offing.
January 10, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis Extreme Networks will debut its line of high-performance Aspen 8800 enterprise LAN switches this week designed with a two-tier network architecture aimed at delivering voice-class availability and high levels of...

EMC, Cisco join forces for backup; New product aimed at remote offices.
January 10, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis EMC and Cisco on Monday announced they are working together on an end-to-end storage consolidation solution for remote offices and long-distance data. The product will combine Cisco's WAFS (wide are file services)...

Oracle hails grid computing in mobile database upgrade; Small-footprint offering set for laptops, PDAs.
January 10, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill Oracle on Monday is announcing shipment of Oracle Database Lite 10g, an upgrade to its small-footprint database that the company says extends grid computing to the mobile workforce. Built to run on laptops and PDAs,...

In Brief: Comcast moves into phone service; Also in Brief: Senior Intuit executive to leave company; China taps AMD for distance education project; Nortel restates 2001-2003 results; BEA acquires Swedish telco software company.
January 11, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff Cable operator Comcast plans roll out a VOIP service reaching 15 million homes by the end of this year, and offering unlimited local and domestic long-distance calls for $39.95 per month. The company aims to...

Business Objects completes Crystal Reports integration; Business Objects XI will integrate with Microsoft Office.
January 11, 2005... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz On Tuesday Business Objects will unveil Business Objects XI (Extreme Insight), the first version of its software following last year's acquisition of Crystal Decisions, to completely integrate Business Objects BI...

GE completes trial of smart shipping containers; Secure containers will detect unauthorized breach of doors.
January 11, 2005... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz In an effort to shore up a huge security issue in international trade, General Electric announced today it has completed commercial field testing of its Tamper Evident Secure Container (TESC) initiative. GE worked...

BakBone enhances Mac enterprise backup; Software is targeted at businesses that use OS X.
January 11, 2005... Byline: Peter Cohen, MacCentral.com SAN FRANCISCO - BakBone Software will showcase this week at Macworld Expo new storage backup systems designed for small- and medium-sized businesses that rely on Mac OS X, using its NetVault software,...

Microsoft, Siemens ink collaboration partnership; Companies joining IM and presence awareness with PBX phones.
January 11, 2005... Byline: Cathleen Moore Microsoft and Siemens Communications on Tuesday plan to unveil an alliance designed to bring together the two vendors' collaboration and communications products. The companies will align market development and...

StreamBase’s Stonebraker touts streaming apps; Startup's CTO reflects on past and present ventures.
January 11, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill Mike Stonebraker has had a well-traveled career in IT, specifically in the area of data management. He was the main architect of the Ingres relational database, the Postgres object-relational database, and the Mariposa...

In Brief: Rambus appoints new CEO; Also in Brief: Motorola President Zafirovski resigns; Microsoft working with Indian government on GIS project; Sharp to invest $1.45 billion in advanced LCD plant; SAP software sales rose 8 percent in Q4; Comcast moves into phone service.
January 12, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff Memory technology provider Rambus announced a series of changes to its top management as the company's chairman, Bill Davidow, stepped down from his position. Davidow, who had served as the company's chairman...

Serena, MKS stress requirements management; Unified Web interface, collaboration touted in separate unveilings.
January 12, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill Serena Software and MKS are improving requirements management in their application life cycle wares, with Serena touting its Web interface and MKS emphasizing collaboration. Available now, Serena RTM 5.5...

Steve Case looks back on AOL's turbulent history; Co-founder said he probably was not the right person to lead after merger with Time Warner.
January 13, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- America Online co-founder and former AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case on Wednesday evening reflected back on the legacy of AOL, including its merger with Time Warner and battles with...

Update: Apple ups the ante with Mac mini, iPod, and Xsan; Proprietary technology, company-owned brick and mortar stores, and fixed pricing are exactly what the market's looking for.
January 13, 2005... Byline: Tom Yager A year ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs cut Pixar's ties with Disney, opting to handle its own marketing and distribution. With that move, the animation shop that made a name for itself with a hopping lamp became its own studio,...

Nokia to launch all-in-one enterprise VPN solution; Family of products includes gateways, client and management software.
January 13, 2005... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz With security concerns still the number one issue swirling around wireless systems, Nokia's announcement this week of Nokia IP VPN, a family of IPSec virtual private network products, should be welcome news to the...

In Brief: eBay buys e-commerce tools from Kurant; Also in Brief: Google settles with SEC over stock options; Motorola President Zafirovski resigns; Microsoft working with Indian government on GIS project; Sharp to invest $1.45 billion in advanced LCD plant.
January 14, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff EBay will buy the technology assets of Kurant, a company that makes e-business software for small and medium-size businesses. The online auction company was primarily interested in acquiring Kurant's software...

Compuware readies fault simulation, security analysis tools; Offerings set for Microsoft apps development platform.
January 14, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill Compuware on Tuesday will announce tools providing fault simulation and security analysis for developers building applications on the Microsoft platform. DevPartner Fault Simulator tests and debugs error-handling...

Finally, 7-Eleven drops DOS, moves to .Net; Convenience store giant will modernize inventory management.
January 14, 2005... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Giant retailer 7-Eleven announced this week that it will transition its 5,300 convenience stores from using a DOS-based batch data-processing handheld to a somewhat newer CE.net-based device. The store that...

SECURITY ADVISER: Welcome to the big time; IE isn't alone -- Firefox and Mozilla aren't completely immune to security flaws.
January 14, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis I received a variety of responses to my column on the Penn State's advisory to switch from Internet Explorer to another browser. Some noted, correctly, that there have been security flaws found in Firefox, the currently...

STORAGE INSIDER: Spotlight on storage security; Neoscale appliance offers seamless encryption between remote sites; new storage blog debuts.
January 14, 2005... Byline: Mario Apicella One of my pet projects for this year is to promote The Storage Network, a new InfoWorld Weblog dedicated to storage topics. I won’t be the only author on The Storage Network because InfoWorld wants to make that...

Empirix cites collaboration boost in Web apps testing suite; Users in multiple locations can work together.
January 17, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill Empirix on Monday is adding collaborative load testing for Web applications and Web services to its e-Test suite. Featured in e-Test suite 8.0 is a new version of the company’s e-Load enterprise load tester...

HP rolls out Itanium 2 servers; New software added for Integrity series.
January 17, 2005... Byline: Ed Scannell Hewlett-Packard hammered home its commitment to the Itanium 2 chips this week, announcing new mid- and high-end members of its Integrity family of servers with the Madison chip, along with new support for OpenVMS 8.2,...

McData offers storage director; Company also announces its acquisition of CNT.
January 18, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis McData on Tuesday announced its Intrepid i10K Backbone Director, a 256-port director targeted at Global 500 enterprises that want to consolidate multiple storage networks and manage them as a single SAN. The company...

Wireless MAN achieves 300Mbps performance; Orthogon Systems set to deploy high bandwidth point-to-point networks.
January 18, 2005... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Orthogon Systems, a wireless, point-to-point provider of MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) on Tuesday announced OS Spectra, an enterprise version of its current broadband solution. Although the company's OS...

In Brief: Spanish police nab suspected creator of webcam Trojan; Also in Brief: Nanosys, Sharp collaborate on nanotechnology fuel cells; Lucent revenue rises, but profit takes a dive; Eiffel Software ships EiffelStudio.
January 19, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff Spanish police have arrested a man suspected of creating a Trojan horse software program capable of making secret recordings of Internet users through their webcams. The 37-year-old suspect, a computer...

Open source panelists tout business models, pan patents; Dignitaries from JBoss, Mozilla, Apache offer perspectives.
January 19, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill STANFORD, Calif. -- Dignitaries from the open source and venture capital communities serving on a panel Tuesday evening tossed around perspectives on building a business in open source, but essentially were in agreement...

PostgreSQL open source database boasts Windows boost; Developers of platform seek enterprise play.
January 19, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill The PostgreSQL Development Group on Wednesday is releasing PostgreSQL 8.0, an upgrade to the open source object-relational database featuring native support for Windows. The Windows functionality means users do not...

In Brief: China sees slower increase in new Internet users; Also in Brief: Spanish police nab suspected creator of webcam Trojan; Nanosys, Sharp collaborate on nanotechnology fuel cells; Lucent revenue rises, but profit takes a dive.
January 20, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff Fewer new Internet users got online in China during 2004 than during the previous two years, even as the number of people accessing broadband connections continued to soar, according to survey results released...

Novell, Red Hat ready for OS battle; Linux distributors upgrade open source servers.
January 20, 2005... Byline: Robert McMillan Red Hat and Novell will ratchet up their one-on-one competition in the Linux operating system wars next month when each company delivers significant upgrades to their respective server-based products. At the...

In Brief: Grokster gets a date with the U.S. Supreme Court; Also in Brief: Samsung ships Macromedia Flash Lite 1.1-enabled handsets; Wipro posts strong growth in revenue; China sees slower increase in new Internet users; Spanish police nab suspected creator of webcam Trojan.
January 21, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff The U.S. Supreme Court has set March 29 as the date for oral arguments on whether companies providing peer-to-peer file trading software should be held responsible for copyright infringement committed by users...

SECURITY ADVISER: Living on the Razor edge; Mark Loveless offers words to live by: 'To catch a hacker, think like a hacker'.
January 21, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis I went to a local meeting of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) to hear a presentation by Mark Loveless, who heads up Razor research for BindView. It promised to be an enlightening evening....

STORAGE INSIDER: Apple quietly raises the stakes; An almost timid announcement adds the new SAN file system to Xserve RAID.
January 21, 2005... Byline: Mario Apicella Normally I don't cover Macworld Conference & Expo, not because it's not an interesting show but because until now Apple had not much to propose about storage. Things have changed. Not everyone has realized this...

In Brief: Microsoft dedicates salesman to U.K. government; Also in Brief: Nokia to use new TI chip for low-cost mobile phones; Nokia, Vitelcom settle over GSM, GPRS; patents Grokster gets a date with the U.S. Supreme Court; Samsung ships Macromedia Flash Lite 1.1-enabled handsets.
January 24, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff Microsoft has appointed a National Technology Officer (NTO) in its U.K. division, charged with developing and promoting the Redmond, Washington, software company's strategy for a more modern and efficient U.K....

Compuware, Infragistics bolster dev tool interfaces; Vendors unveil development products for Java, .Net.
January 24, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill User interface building is a focal point of announcements Monday by Compuware, which is introducing Java products, and Infragistics, which is unwrapping tools for .Net developers. Compuware is releasing a new version...

Good launches wireless application access; GoodAccess products builds on mobile messaging platform.
January 24, 2005... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Good Technology on Monday launched GoodAccess, a middleware platform for accessing corporate data on wireless devices. Lending their support to Good at the announcement were ISVs Oracle, Salesforce.com, and...

HP introduces life cycle tools; Wares aim to reduce maintenance.
January 24, 2005... Byline: Ed Scannell Hoping to suck out costs associated with production and maintenance over an application's life cycle, Hewlett-Packard on Monday strengthened its OpenView software portfolio with a raft of products and programs designed...

Low-cost PowerOpen servers roll from IBM; New machines go after Hewlett-Packard, Sun.
January 24, 2005... Byline: Ed Scannell Hoping to pick off those users looking to consolidate aging servers, IBM on Monday rolled out two low-cost, two-way, Power5-based machines specifically tuned to run versions of Linux distributed by Novell and Red Hat...

In Brief: U.S. security expert sues Japanese government; Also in Brief: IBM, Chartered extend technology development pact; Valogix to bring inventory forecasting to SAP Business One; Microsoft dedicates salesman to U.K. government; Nokia to use new TI chip for low-cost mobile phones.
January 25, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff A U.S. security expert is suing the Japanese government for [yen]30 million ($291,000) for allegedly censoring his criticisms of Japan's online citizens registry database, called Juki Net. In a lawsuit filed...

Sun introduces OpenSolaris, releases 1,670 patents; McNealy says the company is likely the world’s largest code donor.
January 25, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems on Tuesday launched its OpenSolaris program, which provides access to the Solaris operating system via an open source format, and also announced the release of 1,670 patents to the open source community....

W3C addresses Web services bandwidth; Standards body issues three specifications that focus on binary files, XML.
January 25, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on Tuesday published three specifications intended to make it easier to incorporate binary data such as graphics or photos into Web services applications. Improved processing of bulky...

In Brief: Workers hospitalized after gas leak at chip factory; Also in Brief: Earthlink, SK Telecom reportedly in cellular deal; SAP reports strong profits as Q4 revenue rises; U.S. security expert sues Japanese government; IBM, Chartered extend technology development pact.
January 26, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff Twenty-one Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) employees were taken to the hospital on Wednesday because of a gas leak at a chip fabrication plant in Hsinchu, Taiwan, a company spokesman said. The...

IBM Workplace gets new look; Workplace Collaboration Services 2.5 melds services for IM, e-mail, learning.
January 26, 2005... Byline: Cathleen Moore One of the announcements from IBM's annual Lotusphere conference this week is a new version of IBM Workplace that bundles together multiple collaborative services into a single product. Workplace Collaborative...

Savvis offers up new security services; New DDoS services planned.
January 26, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis Web hosting provider Savvis Communications announced today it is launching a new portfolio of managed security services that integrates many of the assets it acquired last year in its purchase of Cable & Wireless...

IBM, BEA Bolster SOA Services; New services help with business processes.
January 26, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill Hoping to speed acceptance of its service-oriented architecture initiative, IBM at last has rolled out a new service to help corporate users shape their projects to better fit their business goals. The new service,...

BEA boosts SOA services; Self-assessment tool is featured.
January 27, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill BEA Systems on Thursday is unveiling a free Web-based tool to measure a customer’s “baseline” for pursuing an SOA (service-oriented architecture), and also is bolstering professional service offerings....

BindView updates Compliance Center; New version adds integration features.
January 27, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis BindView has announced the availability of Compliance Center 2.0, the latest product in the company's next-generation policy compliance solutions. Compliance Center 2.0 is designed to help organizations establish...

In Brief: NetSuite announces new ERP modules; Also in Brief: Siemens: Q1 profit soars despite weak mobile phone unit; Nokia Q4 profits fall on slashed mobile phone prices; Workers hospitalized after gas leak at chip factory; Earthlink, SK Telecom reportedly in cellular deal.
January 27, 2005... Byline: InfoWorld.com staff NetSuite announced this week two advanced ERP modules, the NetSuite Revenue Recognition Module and NetSuite Advanced Financials Module. The new modules are aimed at midsized customers and provide back-office...

CA and Niku sign deal to integrate solutions; Software management and IT governance to be closely linked.
January 28, 2005... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Computer Associates International, the giant software management vendor, and Niku, an IT management and governance solution vendor, announced a deal to integrate products from both companies. As part of the...

Rally, Gupta focus on team-based apps development; Hosted service is upgraded.
January 28, 2005... Byline: Paul Krill Rally Software Development and Gupta, after making separate announcements, are looking to improve processes for team-based application development. Rally on Monday is upgrading its hosted subscription service for...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Project Elixir could prove potent; Opening Outlook to easier integration with Microsoft CRM, for free, is a smart move.
January 28, 2005... Byline: Oliver Rist There are smart moves, and there are stupid moves. For some reason, IBM is selling ThinkPad, the best business notebook brand name, to some Far East discount outfit. That can't be a smart move. As a nonsmart...

SECURITY ADVISER: Know thy hacker; The dollars and cents of hacking.
January 28, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis As I said last week, I recently attended a local meeting of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) to hear a presentation by Mark Loveless, who heads up the Razor research team at BindView. ...

STORAGE INSIDER: Microdrive battle heats up; Drives from Hitachi and a new player Western Digital further enrich this desirable market.
January 28, 2005... Byline: Mario Apicella About a year ago, I made the all-too-easy prediction that 2004 would see a boost in the sales of disk drives. That prediction proved to be accurate -- and I mention it now not to brag about it, but to note that the...

F5 adds speed to switches; Operating system gets upgrade.
January 31, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis F5 Networks this week is announcing a high-end version of its Big-IP layers 4-7 switch, a compression card, and an updated version of its software all designed to improve performance. F5's new flagship switch, the...

CryptoStor combines storage, security; Tape backup product adds encryption.
January 31, 2005... Byline: Bob Francis NeoScale Systems on Monday announced its CryptoStor for Tape 700, a new family of tape media security appliances that help organizations achieve information privacy and regulatory compliance by dynamically compressing,...

Symphoniq launches Web app performance tools; TrueView Web Diagnostics monitors real user transactions.
January 31, 2005... Byline: Cathleen Moore Symphoniq on Monday rolled out a set of Web application performance monitoring tools designed to leverage real user experience to track and manage Web-based applications. The company unveiled its TrueView Web...