InfoWorld.com articles from September 2003

InfoWorld.com archives from September 2003

Sun, Siebel strengthen ties; Companies seek to enhance apps performance.
September 1, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Siebel Systems and Sun Microsystems are forging a software development partnership with a goal of boosting performance of Siebel CRM applications running on Sun's Solaris operating system and Sun ONE middleware stack....

Borland adds 'Track and Trace' to apps testing tool; Optimizeit ServerTrace upgrade due.
September 2, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Borland Software on Wednesday is upgrading its Optimizeit Java application testing tool, adding "Track and Trace" functions for distributed performance analysis. The company's Optimizeit ServerTrace DataCenter 2.0...

IP Wireless to launch portable hot spots; Partnership with Possio lets mobile workforce set up WLANs on the fly.
September 3, 2003... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz IP Wireless, a manufacturer of wireless wide area network modems, announced this week a partnership with Possio, a Swedish maker of access points, to incorporate IP Wireless PCMCIA WAN cards inside the access...

Borland, IBM team for .Net apps; DB2 database is paired with C#Builder IDE.
September 4, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Borland Software and IBM are teaming to boost development of database applications for the Microsoft .Net Framework. The agreement between the two companies, to be announced Thursday, is intended to provide customers...

Microsoft releases Windows Rights Management client; Download is first piece in company's DRM lineup.
September 4, 2003... Byline: Cathleen Moore Microsoft this week made available the first product in its digital rights management strategy that was announced back in February. The Microsoft Windows Rights Management Client 1.0 was posted for free download...

IBM experiments with Socializer technology; Users could communicate, share files.
September 5, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill IBM wants to make it easier for technology buffs to socialize. Big Blue this week has made available on its alphaWorks site for emerging technologies software called Socializer, a peer-to-peer application that...

OracleWorld: Quest, GoldenGate, others to boost Oracle; Linux backing is key.
September 5, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Quest Software, with its package for migrating Oracle databases to Linux, is among a variety of third-party vendors launching offerings at the OracleWorld conference in San Francisco next week. Quest will announce...

Beer, hacker roasts, and peace of mind; The teen who unleashed Blaster-B deserves punishment, but it's high time Microsoft took security seriously.
September 5, 2003... Byline: Oliver Rist "Fry him!" That was a popular sentiment of what to do with the teenager recently arrested for deploying the Blaster-B virus, a conclusion reached after several hours spent drinking Bass with fellow IT workers. ...

More than worms; If you think your challenges are SoBig and its friends, check out the bigger picture.
September 5, 2003... Byline: Wayne Rash For the security staff, it's been one hell of a month. The past couple of weeks have produced an unprecedented series of worms and related threats: there was Blaster, then Nachi (or Welchia or whatever), then the latest...

Complex, ergo simpler; Maxxan proposes simpler storage via more complex switches.
September 5, 2003... Byline: Mario Apicella If you have the feeling that the intelligent SAN switch space is getting crowded -- well, join the party. From where I stand, the market is filling up faster than a stadium parking lot before the big ballgame. ...

Business Objects, Cognos beef up reporting; Cognos combines business, production reporting in one Web services-enabled app.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz On Tuesday Cognos will formally unveil ReportNet, a query and reporting engine that has been written to support Web services, Java, and XML. At the same time, Business Objects will unveil Version 6.1 of its...

Oracle launches the grid; OracleWorld keynote outlines company's role in grid computing.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz SAN FRANCISCO -- Chuck Phillips, executive vice president at Oracle, kicked off the company's big OracleWorld customer show this week with a preview to the coming week that focused on the importance of grid...

Microsoft pondering code-checker releases; Software vendor using anti-bug technologies.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft is considering making commercially available advanced code-checking tools used mostly by in-house developers thus far. The tools have been under the purview of the Microsoft's Programmer Productivity...

WhereNet adds BI to RFID asset management; Rules-based engine uses wireless tags to help companies keep track of resources.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz WhereNet, a Santa Clara, Calif., company that helps companies wirelessly track the location of everything from shopping carts to shipping containers, will announce this week that it is adding a business...

Ellison champions grid; Concept ends 40 years of bigger-box approach, he says.
September 9, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Championing what he called the IT industry's first new architecture in 40 years, Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison at OracleWorld on Tuesday formally introduced the company's grid-enabled database and application...

Oracle preps Web services-ready dev tool; JDeveloper upgrade due by year's end.
September 9, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill San Francisco- Oracle by the end of the year plans to release an upgrade of its JDeveloper tool for Java that backs the latest J2EE standard, which focuses on Web services. JDeveloper 10g will support J2EE 1.4, the...

Oracle readying standard for grid data movement; Proposal expected in October.
September 9, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill San Francisco - Oracle plans to propose a standard for data movement in computing grids to the Global Grid Forum next month, an Oracle official said Tuesday at the OracleWorld conference here. The proposal, to be...

Borland brings UML approach to .Net; Together Edition for Visual Studio .Net enables modeling.
September 10, 2003... Byline: Tom Sullivan Borland is bringing modeling and designing capabilities to the .Net development community in a new incarnation of its Together tool. Together Edition for Microsoft Visual Studio.Net integrates UML (Unified Modeling...

Oracle says grid software can save money; Running multiple versions of database called costly.
September 10, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill San Francisco - Upgrading to Oracle's grid-based software actually can save money by providing for system uniformity, an Oracle official stressed during a panel session at the OracleWorld conference here on Wednesday....

Cisco expands storage switch line; Networking giant hopes latest switches bring new opportunities.
September 10, 2003... Byline: Scott Tyler Shafer What was once just a two-horse race now has three runners. Filling out its storage switch family, Cisco Systems can now compete with McData and Brocade Communications on the edge through the core of storage...

Beware of 'Pass the Monkey'.
September 10, 2003... Taking on an ongoing project requires planning and skill. So does dealing with an internal candidate who wanted the job you just got. Bob, I thoroughly enjoy reading your weblog and KJR and am taking much of your advice to heart. I...

OracleWorld: HP's Fiorina stresses grid challenges; Exec's speech continues conference theme.
September 11, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill SAN FRANCISCO -- Continuing the conference's theme of grid computing, Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina at the OracleWorld conference here Thursday stressed that challenges must be met in order for computing...

Sun previews J2EE 1.4; Licensees get preliminary release.
September 11, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems on Thursday announced availability of a preliminary, "qualification" release of Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 source code for J2EE licensees. The source code provides support for the...

Revisiting the Patriot Act; Anti-terrorism measure still stirs controversy.
September 11, 2003... Byline: Bill Wallace, PC World It has been nearly two years since the Patriot Act's swift adoption in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. But whether the law is the boon to law enforcement claimed by...

Send p-to-p packing; Make sure your company does take the blame for employees who swap music files.
September 12, 2003... Byline: Oliver Rist When he got fed up, Mr. E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad Company hired a permanent posse of enforcers to chase down Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It looks like the recording industry has reached the...

The death spiral; Will IT ride today's approach to anti-worm and anti-virus software to certain doom?
September 12, 2003... Byline: Wayne Rash Occasionally, an airplane pilot will perform a series of maneuvers that result in the plane entering a steep spiral from which there is no escape. Due to a number of factors, including airspeed that is too high,...

Smaller is better; Fujitsu bets on small drives for new storage devices.
September 12, 2003... Byline: Mario Apicella The most intriguing part of my job is the opportunity to preview new products and technologies early. The interesting thing about looking at products early is that any given one could turn out to an immediate...

Making the choice: Clustered servers vs. fault-tolerant server; What's the best strategy for ensuring hardware reliability?
September 12, 2003... Byline: Alan Zeichick Today's server hardware is very reliable, more so than most commercial operating systems. But it's not infallible. When "hardware failure is not an option," there are two general ways of improving system reliability:...

Benchmarking the rules engine; Miss Manners and Waltz put rule-base systems to the test.
September 12, 2003... Over the years developers in the rules-management business have tried to establish a set of benchmarks that will allow the users to test various systems for speed and efficiency on different, complex problems. The two most famous tests are the...

AMD, Intel add to their processor families; Companies each release two new chips.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Scott Tyler Shafer The competition between AMD and Intel in the server chip market was ratcheted up last week as each company released two processors. AMD introduced two models in its Opteron line, and Intel expanded its Itanium 2...

Borland builds out C++ wares; Tools maker offers C++ IDE, lifecycle management suite.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Tom Sullivan Borland on Monday bolstered its C++ toolbox with the introduction of a new IDE and an application lifecycle management suite. Borland C++BuilderX is a multiplatform IDE for Windows, Linux, and Solaris that provides...

McNealy touts utility computing, outsourcing, Unix; SunNetwork conference extols benefits of outsourcing application services.
September 16, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill SAN FRANCISCO -- Sun Microsystems Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy at the SunNetwork conference here Tuesday preached the mantra of utility computing and lashed out at rivals who call his company's technology proprietary....

Pumatech to acquire Synchrologic for $60 million; Deal gives desktop vendor enterprise access.
September 16, 2003... Byline: Ephraim Schwartz Pumatech, a leading provider of mobile synchronization software, announced an agreement this week to buy Synchrologic, a leader in mobile management software products. The acquisition of the privately held...

Sun rolls out reference architectures; Plans unveiled for anti-virus, application services.
September 17, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems at the SunNetwork 2003 conference here Wednesday introduced eight Sun Reference Architectures featuring repeatable methodologies to boost business processes in several network computing arenas. ...

Solaris getting security improvements; TCP/IP boost also planned.
September 17, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill SAN FRANCISCO -- Sun Microsystems is mapping out near-term improvements to its Solaris Unix operating system that include enhanced security and network performance. The next version of Solaris will feature role-based...

Sun still evolving N1; Ease of management touted.
September 17, 2003... Byline: Scott Tyler Shafer More than a year and a half after introducing its N1 strategy, Sun Microsystems is ramping up efforts to reach customers. During a keynote address entitled, "The N1 platform - The OS for the Next Generation...

Xerox eyes the enterprise with software; Upgraded document management product includes workflow engine, developer environment.
September 17, 2003... Byline: Tom Sullivan NEW YORK -- Xerox used the PCExpo show here to pry the lid off a new version of its document management software that the company hopes will help it better compete at the enterprise level. New to DocuShare 3.1 are...

DemoMobile: Wireless applications set sail; Conference touts emerging mobile applications and infrastructure layer innovations.
September 18, 2003... Byline: Cathleen Moore SAN DIEGO, CALIF. -- Although much work remains to be done to sort out the hodgepodge of standards and outstanding technology hurdles in wireless infrastructure, the infrastructure layer groundwork is now solid...

Sun chief, writer debate: Does IT matter? McNealy comes to the defense of technology innovation.
September 18, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill San Francisco -- Does IT matter? This was the question panelists sparred over during a debate at the SunNetwork 2003 conference here Thursday, featuring Sun Microsystems Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy and writer Nicholas...

IBM, Microsoft band together to talk Web services; Gates, Mills eye paradigm as means to spawn IT spending.
September 18, 2003... Byline: Ed Scannell NEW YORK -- In a rare public display of camaraderie Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and IBM software chief Steve Mills further cemented the commitment of their respective companies to work together to accelerate the...

NetLedger upgrades suite, takes new name; Company rechristens itself NetSuite after its product name.
September 18, 2003... Byline: Tom Sullivan NEW YORK -- In conjunction with upgrading its integrated ERP and CRM suite, NetLedger on Thursday rechristened itself. The ASP, in fact, assumed the name of its software product: NetSuite. In its first official...

Sun introduces Soft Ray; Universal Client Mark Up Language could be in the future.
September 18, 2003... San Francisco -- Sun Microsystems wrapped up its SunNetworks 2003 Conference this week, leaving one of the final keynotes to Sun Fellow and director of its research lab, Jim Mitchell. Mitchell highlighted two lab projects, one that will go...

DemoMobile: Pulling mobile workers into the enterprise flow; Field force management, mobile workflow technologies make a strong showing at conference.
September 19, 2003... Byline: Cathleen Moore SAN DIEGO -- Early wireless applications focused on pushing corporate data out to the mobile workforce, but did little to integrate those applications and workers into existing enterprise processes. But the next...

Sun touts Fast Web Services plan; Binary encodings key to proposal.
September 19, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Researchers at Sun Microsystems are working on an initiative called Fast Web Services, intended to identify and solve performance problems in existing Web services standards implementations. Key to Sun's approach is...

ZENWorks and the art of Windows desktop maintenance; Though Oracle is quiet about it, ZENWorks 6 is an excellent desktop-management tool.
September 19, 2003... Byline: Oliver Rist After a recent column discussing low-cost ways to flesh out a systems administration plan based on Microsoft's SMS (System Management Server), I received a small deluge of reader e-mails chastising me for not suggesting...

Fixed wireless future takes shape; Fixed wireless providers can give relief to your company, and you don't have to give up security to get it.
September 19, 2003... Byline: Wayne Rash Out in the area west of Washington Dulles International Airport, a rapidly growing community of technology companies is trying to build on the already burgeoning technology corridor a few miles to the east. One feature...

Affordable HBAs on the way; At $800 to $1,000 per port, FC connectivity gets more attractive.
September 19, 2003... Byline: Mario Apicella Ask an economist you trust for the most effective way to promote demand in a sleepy market and the answer will invariably be: lower the price. Consider that Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, has...

Sonic beefs up integration suite; Company adds BPM, XML, and development environment to suite.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Ed Scannell Sonic Software on Monday put the final piece of its Business Integration Suite in place, rolling out three products that add BPM (business process management), XML-based storage and processing, and an IDE to its...

Dell downplays PDA opportunities.
September 24, 2003... Byline: Ed Scannell Despite rapid success in the handheld computing market, Dell doesn't see a large opportunity in that market over the short term and will continue to focus the majority of its efforts on the servers, storage and...

IBM rolls out grid apps; Company aims to fuel momentum in grid computing market.
September 24, 2003... Byline: Ed Scannell Trying to further fuel its momentum in the grid computing market, IBM on Wednesday rolled out two new offerings aimed at the banking and financial markets and announced a handful of new grid projects among both...

Java panel pondering Web services, portal proposals; J2EE 1.4 readied for approval.
September 24, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Proposals to boost Web services and portal capabilities in Java are up for imminent votes by stewards of the programming language, according to an official at Java inventor Sun Microsystems. Java 2 Platform,...

Interview: Schwartz smells the services; Sun's software VP reveals his services strategy.
September 24, 2003... Byline: Mark Jones Sun Microsystems set tongues wagging last week with the launch of its Java Enterprise System and Java Desktop System. InfoWorld's Executive News Editor Mark Jones sat down with Sun's Executive Vice President of Software,...

IBM, Microsoft get cozy over Web services; Bill Gates and Steve Mills shun rivalries for public display of cooperation.
September 25, 2003... Byline: Ed Scannell In a rare display of public camaraderie, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and IBM Software Chief Steve Mills today cemented their respective companies' commitment to working together on accelerating the creation and...

IBM cuts 380 software jobs; Employees asked to find other IBM jobs.
September 26, 2003... Byline: Joris Evers IBM is cutting about 380 U.S.-based jobs in its software division in an effort to eliminate overlapping positions and increase efficiency, the company said Thursday. The cuts affect about 1 percent of IBM's 38,000...

Kazaa files copyright complaint against RIAA, others; Peer-to-peer player sues over copyright infringement.
September 26, 2003... Byline: Grant Gross The maker of the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer software has turned the tables on the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and a number of entertainment companies by suing them for copyright infringement. ...

Low-cost, high-functionality LAN Suite rivals Exchange on a small scale; Software 602 packs impressive capabilities into a $60 server package.
September 26, 2003... Byline: Oliver Rist Enterprise IT managers just nod their heads sadly when confronted with Microsoft server package price tags, but small-business owners or managers with tight departmental budgets tend to shout things like, "Exchange 2000...

Not rocket science; Wireless security may be vital, but that doesn't mean it's a mystery.
September 26, 2003... Byline: Wayne Rash I was on my way to the Raleigh-Durham airport, chatting with a colleague. I asked him about a presentation he was planning for Chicago in a couple of days. "It's wireless security," he said. Then he noted that he was...

New models of storage for the masses; NetApp takes unified storage platform down.
September 26, 2003... Byline: Mario Apicella If you still don't believe the low end of the market is the next big untapped networked storage opportunity, then take a peek at what Network Appliance is doing. In a nutshell, the company has added two new...

Web services players push management barrow; Actional, AmberPoint, Empirix separately unveil wares.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Web services vendors Actional, AmberPoint, and Empirix this week will attempt to improve Web services management capabilities with a host of product releases. AmberPoint on Tuesday will unveil Exception Manager for...

Layer 7 secures Web services; SecureSpan Solution reduces risk, cost of deploying Web services.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Scott Tyler Shafer Layer 7 Technologies on Tuesday will introduce a solution for securing and connecting Web services. The startup company will introduce its SecureSpan Solution, a set of technologies that Layer 7 co-founder...

AT&T developing early warning tool; Internet Protect intended to detect network attacks.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World AT&T Labs is developing a new kind of traffic analysis tool - dubbed Internet Protect - that is designed to provide corporate customers with earlier indications of network attacks. Although...

SuSE rolls out Linux Desktop 9.0; Latest iteration bridges gap between 32- and 64-bit computing.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Ed Scannell SuSE Linux on Tuesday will do its bit to bridge the 34- and 64-bit worlds when it makes available its SuSE Linux 9.0 desktop operating system that supports 32- and 64-bit applications running on AMD's Athlon 64...

IBM beefs up modeling tools; Big Blue issues new WebSphere Business Integration Monitor and Modeler tools.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Ed Scannell IBM on Monday delivered improvements to its WebSphere Business Integration portfolio designed to help corporate users better carry out business process modeling and monitoring capabilities. With the improvements to...

Google grabs search start-up; Newcomer Kaltix makes personalized, context-sensitive search technology.
September 30, 2003... Byline: Cathleen Moore Google on Tuesday announced it has acquired Kaltix, a search technology start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif. The terms of deal were not disclosed. Kaltix is a developer of context-sensitive and personalized search...

Windows to Lindows: lay off; Lindows told to stay out of antitrust settlement process.
September 30, 2003... Byline: Ed Scannell Despite the efforts of Microsoft lawyers to stop them, the Linux supplier, Lindows, on Tuesday said it will continue to help Californians with their legal claims against Microsoft. Microsoft lawyers demanded that...

OASIS to build Web services framework; Committee will define vendor-neutral methodology.
September 30, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill Members of OASIS this week announced plans to develop a global Web services framework to define a methodology for a broad-based, multiplatform and vendor-neutral implementation. The OASIS Framework for Web Services...

Economic model urged for Web services; Amazon exec makes electric comparison.
September 30, 2003... Byline: Paul Krill SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Comparing Web services to the advent of electricity in homes, an Amazon official at the Web Services Edge 2003 West conference here Tuesday stressed that an economic model must emerge to proliferate...