Computerworld articles from March 2004

Computerworld archives from March 2004

R&D starts to move offshore: outsourcing evolves beyond low-wage programming jobs.(News)(research and development)
March 1, 2004... As corporate America becomes increasingly comfortable with offshore development, it's sending substantially more sophisticated IT work overseas. Companies such as Google Inc. are turning to foreign workers not for their willingness to work for...

HP bows to users, opts to offer Opteron: embrace of chip it once dubbed 'unnecessary' surprises, pleases customers who asked for it.(News)(Hewlett-Packard)
March 1, 2004... Bill Thompson, a senior Unix systems administrator at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., was among the users who were as pleased as they were surprised by Hewlett-Packard Co.'s announcement last week that it will offer Opteron-based servers. ...

Talk of VoIP regulation vexes users: IT managers fear higher costs, need for system changes.(News)(voice over internet protocol)
March 1, 2004... Federal and state government officials are starting to weigh how to regulate voice-over-IP services, and some corporate users of the technology are steeling themselves for what they think will be inevitable price increases. "You have to...

VeriSign sues ICANN.(At Deadline)(cases against Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... VeriSign Inc. filed a lawsuit accusing the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers of overstepping its authority and improperly attempting to regulate VeriSign's domain name services business. Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign is...

Japanese officials investigate Microsoft.(At Deadline)
March 1, 2004... Microsoft Corp. confirmed that eight officials from Japan's Fair Trade Commission conducted an investigation at the company's Japanese offices as part of an ongoing probe of possible anticompetitive practices. The officials examined provisions...

Microsoft reaudits leaked source code.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... In other Microsoft news, the company said it's reviewing the Windows 2000 and NT 4.0 source code that was leaked onto the Internet last month, to determine whether the incident poses any security risks for users. The code was checked prior to...

Short takes.(At Deadline)(contracts and acquisitions)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... GEAC COMPUTER CORP. said it has signed a deal to outsource some of its business application development and testing work to a company in India during peak demand periods.... Seattle-based CRAY INC. said it's buying OCTIGABAY SYSTEMS CORP., a...

Big companies turn to packaged Sarb-Ox apps: many take off-the-shelf approach, citing cost, time and IT resource constraints.(News)(Sarbanes-Oxley Act, information technology)
March 1, 2004... MOST LARGE companies that have begun addressing the first leg of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance are buying packaged software to document and track their financial controls instead of developing such systems inhouse, corporate executives and analysts...

DOJ files suit to block Oracle's bid for PeopleSoft: PeopleSoft users applaud antitrust move; Oracle plots its strategy for fighting back.(News)(United States Department of Justice)
March 1, 2004... The U.S. Department of Justice last week filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in an effort to block Oracle Corp.'s $9.4 billion takeover bid for business applications rival PeopleSoft Inc., a move that buoyed PeopleSoft users who oppose the hostile...

Target issues RFID mandate to suppliers.(News)(radio frequency identification)
March 1, 2004... The top suppliers of consumer goods may have to start opening their wallets a lot wider to accommodate the mandates retailers are asking them to meet with respect to RFID tags. Minneapolis-based Target Corp. confirmed last week that it will...

Sun adds ID tools for Windows ...(Briefs)(identity management software)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Sun Microsystems Inc. announced identity management software for Windows systems. Sun Identity Manager for Microsoft is a new version of a tool set that Sun acquired when it bought Waveset Technologies Inc. in December. The software supports...

... And says it will still sell secure OS.(Briefs)(operating system)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Sun also said it will continue to offer its Trusted Solaris operating system despite plans to add some of the software's advanced security features to the standard version of Solaris. In addition, the company said Patricia Sueltz has resigned...

Microsoft, Sun ink deals with VeriSign.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... VeriSign Inc. announced IT security deals with Microsoft and Sun. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it's developing end-user authentication services for Windows Server 2003, using Microsoft protocols. VeriSign also said it will take...

Novell posts profit after five losses.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Novell Inc. ended a string of five quarterly losses and returned to profitability in its first quarter, which ended Jan. 31. Novell CEO Jack Messman said he was encouraged by the results "in what remains a challenging IT business environment."...

CIO power is fading along with ...(On the Mark)(Chief Information Officer)
March 1, 2004... ... client/server technology, claims Steve Savignano. Years ago, when client/server was king, says the CEO of Ketera Technologies Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., it made sense to put a company's intellectual property (i.e., custom code and...

Delphi cuts 148 IT jobs, sends 20 abroad.(News)(layoffs)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Auto parts giant Delphi Corp. last week said it's cutting 148 IT jobs--and sending 20 of those jobs offshore--as part of a consolidation and restructuring of its IT organization in the U.S. About 30 of the IT jobs being cut will be...

Users weigh merits of 'Windows lite': Microsoft's 'tailored and limited' offering in Thailand spurs discussion.(News)
March 1, 2004... MICROSOFT CORP. said the "tailored and limited" language-specific version of Windows XP Home edition that it plans to offer in Thailand is currently the only one of its kind. But what's happening in Southeast Asia has been catching the...

Microsoft shows off new security features: Gates unveils protection technologies, antispam initiative at RSA conference.(News)(Rivest, Shamir, & Adleman (public key encryption technology))
March 1, 2004... MICROSOFT CORP. gave every indication that it's keeping security on the front burner, as Chairman Bill Gates made the trip to last week's RSA Conference in San Francisco to preview upcoming features in Windows, new protection technologies and...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2004... The director of global network services at Extreme Networks Inc. was misidentified in the Feb. 23 column "Don't Ignore IP VPN Security." His name is Carlos Sanchez. In last week's cover story on instant messaging, the location provided for...

Hyperion upgrades data analysis tools, blends in Brio Technology: rollout adds new modeling features, user dashboards.(News)
March 1, 2004... Hyperion Solutions Corp. is rolling out a revamped line of business intelligence software that's designed to make it easier for users to prepare corporate performance scorecards and extend the use of analytical tools via dashboard-style...

Hospitals eye wider use of wireless IP phones: FDA bar-code rule provides impetus for more WLANs.(News)(internet protocol, Food and Drug Administration, wireless local area networks)
March 1, 2004... ARULING LAST week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that requires the use of bar codes on drugs in hospitals may also help spur the use of IP-based wireless phones by health care providers, according to IT managers and analysts. The...

HP agrees to buy IT services firms.(Briefs)(acquires Triaton GmbH)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Hewlett-Packard Co. said it has agreed to buy German IT services firm Triaton GmbH as well as affiliated companies in the U.S. and France. HP is purchasing the services operations from Thyssen-Krupp AG, a steel maker in Germany, for an...

AOL makes fix to block ICQ worm.(Briefs)(America Online Inc. ehhanced its ICQ instant messaging servers )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... America Online Inc. said it has updated its ICQ instant messaging servers to block further distribution of a worm that began attacking the systems of ICQ Pro users last Tuesday. The worm, dubbed Bizex, was activated through a message that...

MCI, AT&T settle call-routing claims.(Briefs)(cases settlements)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... WorldCom Inc. (now doing business as MCI) and AT&T Corp. said they have agreed to settle several legal claims against each other, including a lawsuit filed last September in which AT&T charged that MCI had fraudulently redirected millions of...

Short takes.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... London-based SYMBIAN LTD. released an upgrade of its Symbian OS smart phone operating system that can use a single processor to run applications and initiate calls. ... White Plains, N.Y.-based OPTUM INC. said it has acquired Charlotte,...

Watching your career.(Opinion)(information technology careers)(Editorial)
March 1, 2004... HAVE YOU HEARD that 77% of high-tech companies are planning to increase their U.S. hiring this year? Did you know that dot-com companies created only 2,000 new jobs in 2003? Or that 106,000 new network systems jobs will be showing up over...

The hosting of content management.(Opinion)(CurtCo Media Labs LLC)
March 1, 2004... GETTING A HANDLE on content management can free up your IT staff, improve the consistency of your corporate Web sites and rein in outsourcing costs. At Fountain Valley, Calif.-based Hyundai Motor America Co., e-business manager Paul Juedes...

Filling your web needs with RSS.(Opinion)
March 1, 2004... YOU MAY HAVE HEARD a new buzzword making the rounds. RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, could change the way we aggregate and read information from the Web and give companies a new way to deliver their messages directly to...

CIOs mean business.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... MY JAW DROPPED when I read the Feb. 2 "Think Tank" column [QuickLink 44159]. Conventional wisdom does indeed say that CIOs are responsible for making sure that IT spending is properly aligned with business strategy, just as it says that CFOs...

DBAs are essential.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... FOR SOME TIME NOW, I have noticed a trend of thinking of the DBA as a techie. In fact, a top-flight DBA must have more intimate business knowledge than most application managers and analysts. It's up to the DBA to make sure all the company's...

Branding losers.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... MANY quality companies selectively outsource various components of their IT mix with excellent success. Tarring most companies as "losers" with the broad brush of a title like "Most Outsourcing Is Still for Losers" on Paul Strassmann's Feb. 2...

Market forces.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... I EMIGRATED from India in 1969 with no job and no friends or relatives in the U.S. to fall back on. I did have an engineering degree, and through persistence, I have not only survived but thrived in the ever-changing U.S. economy. I have...

Winning ways to stop spam: these IT organizations took different approaches, but they all successfully controlled spam. Here's how they did it.(information technology)
March 1, 2004... AFTER TWO FAILED ATTEMPTS to control spam, Lyndon Brown thinks he's finally licked the problem. The manager of property and electronic messaging systems at the Dallas-based Wyndham International Inc, hotel chain is typical of many IT managers...

Sense this: sensors get smarter and more powerful and learn to share.(Future Watch)
March 1, 2004... THEY'RE EVERY WHERE. Tiny wireless micro-electromechanical sensors--also known as "smart dust" or "motes"--are monitoring temperature, humidity, stress and motion in settings as diverse as crop fields, bridges, factories, warships and the...

Adobe's Suite ambitions: with Creative Suite, Adobe strives to offer everything designers need in a single, well-integrated package.(Hands on Reviews)
March 1, 2004... ADOBE CREATIVE Suite (CS) from Adobe Systems Inc. is like a Swiss Army Knife for designers. Tucked inside are updated versions of the Adobe Illustrator drawing program, Photoshop image editor, GoLive Web page designer, InDesign page design...

Technology by the book: some recent works about Linux, Unix, XML and OpenOffice.org offer guidance on complex topics.(book review)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... From configuring and using Linux on mainframes to finding ways to use XML with older, critical business applications, the books reviewed below provide context, background and practical advice. If, like most IT managers, you're short on time and...

SOA.(Quick Study)(service-oriented architecture)
March 1, 2004... DEFINITION An SOA (service-oriented architecture) is a computing structure in which a software application contains only the logic specific to its immediate task and uses a set of services on a network to do more generic tasks. GIVEN...

Overwhelmed by Sarbanes-Oxley: the security-related controls required for a successful compliance audit can be substantial.(Security Manager's Journal)
March 1, 2004... WE'RE JUST finishing up the integration of an acquisition's poorly secured IT infrastructure into our information systems. We've disabled almost all external access to its network, except for two services. The first is a virtual private...

Dell adds remote management.(Briefs)(to single Pentium 4 tower and rack-mounted servers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Dell Inc. has added remote management capabilities to single Pentium 4 tower and rack-mounted servers. The servers, which start at $699, include tools and management capabilities for remote management over a network.

Ariba ships tools to manage spending.(Briefs)(Ariba Category Procurement, Contract Workbench and Settlement)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Ariba Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif., plans by the second quarter to ship three new applications: Ariba Category Procurement, Contract Workbench and Settlement. They are designed to help customers better manage their spending habits by improving...

IBM offers Linux on all pSeries servers.(Briefs)(enhancements)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... IBM is now selling Linux on all of its pSeries servers and is making its 1.9-GHz Power4+ processor available on its high-end eServer p690. The company also said it is lowering prices on its p650, p670 and p690 Unix servers, with reductions in...

GigaTrunk Probe manages links.(Briefs)(intorduces)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Network Instruments LLC in Minneapolis, last week announced the release of a new GigaTrunk Probe designed to manage trunked Gigabit links located at the core of the network. GigaTrunk Probe enables wire-speed capture and passive analysis with...

Measuring information work productivity.(Technology)
March 1, 2004... A REMARKABLE EVENT took place in New York on Feb. 2. The Microsoft-guided Information Work Productivity Council convened an invitation-only forum to discuss what's known about the contributions of information technologies to productivity. Key...

Can't hide your prying eyes; new technologies can monitor employee whereabouts 24/7, but cios must be prepared for the backlash.(Management)
March 1, 2004... EVERY POLICE OFFICER'S nightmare is to be wounded on the streets--alone. So when the Orlando Police Department pilot-tested new Global Positioning System (GPS) units, which let the central office track officers' locations, you'd think the...

Battlefield leadership: IT executives find lasting lessons at Gettysburg.(Management)(information technology)
March 1, 2004... ON JULY 3, 1863, 12,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of Gen. George S. Pickett charged the Union troops on Seminary Ridge at Gettys burg in the bloodiest battle ever fought on U.S. soil. A collage of misunderstandings, misinformation...

The payoff from IT marketing.(Steal this Idea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Medical staffers at Children's Hospital Boston are far more interested in treating children than in learning new IT procedures, which they avoid like the plague. But the IT department recently learned that by making the work of the busy doctors...

Best bits.(Think Tank)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... The most useful parts of recent business and IT management books: THE BOOK: Technology Paradise Lost: Why Companies Must Spend Less to Get More From Information Technology, by Erik Keller (Manning Publications Co., 2004) The...

The IT economy.(Think Tank)(jobless employees)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Tracking the economy could give you whiplash these days. The dollar is falling. The stock market is rising. There are huge trade and budget deficits--and record-low interest rates. Corporate profits are up, and the recovery is jobless. "I don't...

Corporate technology confidence index.(Think Tank)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The index rebounded in January, as corporate IT buyers decided that they'll be spending more on hardware and software in the coming months. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Base: 201 Corporate IT buyers. An above-zero score indicates more positive...

Career watch.(Q & A)
March 1, 2004... My career goal is to be a CIO of a major corporation. I have been working in IT for over 20 years and hold a master's degree in computer information systems. Would it be to my advantage to earn an MBA? At this point in your career, having an...

Managing your business priorities.(Management)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... * As IT organizations look beyond cost-cutting to focus more on creating and demonstrating business effectiveness, IT managers should have four primary objectives, according to Meta Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn. They are creating an IT culture...

Where CIOs come from ...(Management)(IT industry)(Illustration)
March 1, 2004... Larger companies are more inclined than small and midsize enterprises to cherry-pick from among their own executives for a new CIO. Nevertheless, two-thirds of all senior IT executives are recruited from outside, according to a just-released...

What kind of manager are you, anyway?(Management)
March 1, 2004... IT'S OFTEN SAID that there are two types of managers: those who manage things and those who manage people. And a great divide of misunderstanding lies between them, rarely to be crossed or reconciled. The managers of things are those who...

CA, Network Associates let CDW track licenses.(News; Computer Associates International Inc. )
March 1, 2004... TECHNOLOGY reseller CDW Corp. last month announced that Computer Associates International Inc. and Network Associates Inc. have agreed to support a browser-based tool that it offers for free to IT managers who need to track their software...

Fighting offshore.(Frankly Speaking)
March 1, 2004... WORRIES ABOUT OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING aren't just for IT people anymore. Last week, a new anti-offshoring coalition rolled out its agenda--a group led by midsize manufacturers, along with labor unions, professional organizations and small...

Er, thanks, but no thanks.(The Back Page)
March 1, 2004... We need a generic log-in for testing this software, developer tells manager pilot fish. "I'd reluctantly done this in the past, but I could see it was becoming a trend," fish says. "I told him I would create this generic user only if the...

SCO sues two Linux users, warns about further action: Daimler Chrysler, AutoZone hit with charges; Linux user community remains defiant.(Copyright infringement.)
March 8, 2004... Following through on threats it started making 10 months ago, The SCO Group Inc. last week filed its first lawsuits against corporate Linux users, targeting automaker DaimlerChrysler AG and auto parts retailer AutoZone Inc. The twin...

Users getting new benefits from BizTalk: update goes beyond application integration.(News)
March 8, 2004... For years, companies have used Microsoft Corp.'s BizTalk Server primarily for application integration, to transform data from the widely varying formats of their business applications so it can be routed to other systems inside and outside...

IT struggles to become more agile; adapting to business needs is a rocky road.(News)(information technology)
March 8, 2004... Many companies are eager to make their IT departments more agile so they can respond faster to changing business demands. But getting there is likely to be a long, arduous process, said about a dozen attendees at Meta Group Inc.'s Metamorphosis...

DHS gets relegated to the corporate security margin; one year after the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace was released, IT professionals suggest that it may be a waste of taxpayer dollars.(Investigative Report)(Department of Homeland Security)
March 8, 2004... WHEN THE White House released the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace in February last year, the guiding principle was to make it a "living document" capable of changing with the times and meeting the needs of a diverse Internet community....

Security grants up for grabs.(Q&A)(video surveillance software)(ObjectVideo)
March 8, 2004... ObjectVideo provides intelligent video surveillance software used at airports, seaports, U.S. borders, oil refineries, chemical and nuclear plants, and public water supply facilities. Raul Fernandez, the Reston, Va.-based company's CEO, who...

Yoran grilled at senate hearing.(News)
March 8, 2004... WASHINGTON -- It was an inauspicious moment for Amit Yoran, the federal cyber-security czar. "Have you focused on a threat assessment?" asked Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and...

CPAs set an industry example.(News)(American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Inc. teams up with Center for Internet Security for cybersecurity guidelines)
March 8, 2004... The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Inc. (AICPA) has had a strategy for improving national cybersecurity for more than five years. The New York-based organization is now working with the Center for Internet Security on...

Windows XP SP2 could break apps.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... Microsoft Corp. warned last week that Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, to be released later this year, could render some applications inoperable. Because of security enhancements made at the expense of backward compatibility, Microsoft is...

Dell President to become new CEO.(At Deadline)(Michael Dell will remain the chairman and Kevin Rollins will take CEO charge)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell will relinquish his CEO title to current President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Rollins, the company announced last week. Dell will remain chairman of the company's board of directors. The move will become...

Code inspection tool makes debut.(At Deadline)(Reasoning Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... Reasoning Inc. today will unveil a security inspection service aimed at companies that develop C or C++ code. Mountain View, Calif.-based Reasoning's service will help companies find and fix root-cause security vulnerabilities that are the...

Short takes.(At Deadline)
March 8, 2004... The U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION has requested information regarding Electronic Data Systems Corp.'s Navy/Marine Corps Intranet contract.... SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC. appointed Marissa Peterson as executive vice president for Sun...

Offshore advocates Woo Silicon Valley ...(On the Mark)(Software 2004 conference )
March 8, 2004... ... execs and denounce politicians who campaign against the shipping of U.S. high-tech jobs abroad. At the Software 2004 conference in San Francisco last week, Romesh Wadhwani, chairman of Symphony Technology Group LLC in Palo Alto, Calif.,...

Actuate readies reporting tools upgrade.(News)(Actuate 8 upgrade)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... Actuate Corp. is upgrading its server-based reporting applications to help streamline the process of developing frameworks for generating reports and to let IT staffers more effectively monitor the software's use. Company officials last...

IT Leader survey shows upbeat outlook for '04: but attendees of this year's Premier 100 conference still see security as key issue.(News Premier 100)(information technology)
March 8, 2004... IN AN EXCLUSIVE SURVEY in advance of Computerworld's 5th Annual Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference, a large majority of the IT executives who responded to the poll said they're very optimistic about the future of IT as a strategic contributor to...

Cargill chooses Dell in $30m deal.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... Cargill Inc. last week said it has standardized on Dell Inc. in a $30 million revamp of its IT infrastructure. Following an eight-month assessment, Cargill plans to standardize globally on approximately 30,000 Dell systems in 61 countries over...

Citrix to ship new MetaFrame release.(Briefs)(Citrix Systems Inc.'s MetaFrame Secure Access Manager Version 2.2.)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... Citrix Systems Inc. last week announced MetaFrame Secure Access Manager Version 2.2. The new release provides mobile users with secure remote access for Microsoft Outlook synchronization and more flexibility in user-interface options, company...

WorldCom's Ebbers charged with fraud.(Briefs; Bernard Ebbers)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... Bernard Ebbers, the former CEO of WorldCom Inc., last week was charged with conspiracy and securities fraud in connection with accounting misstatements of $11 billion at his former company. Scott D. Sullivan, WorldCom's former chief financial...

Short takes.(Briefs)(PeopleSoft Inc.'s EnterpriseOne 8.10 due to be released)(Gateway Inc. plans to cut 1,000 jobs)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... PEOPLESOFT INC. said its EnterpriseOne 8.10, due to be released this quarter, will run on RED HAT INC.'s distribution of Linux.... GATEWAY INC. said it plans to cut approximately 1,000 employees from its workforce over the next several months....

Mixing voice and data staffs can be volatile; clashes hamper efforts to support converged nets.(News)
March 8, 2004... THE POPULARITY of voice-over-IP systems is growing, but some IT managers are wrestling with the process of merging their voice and data communications staffs, according to attendees at last week's VoiceCon 2004 conference here. Voice and...

Sun plans per-citizen pricing for governments.(News)(Sun Microsystems Inc.)
March 8, 2004... Taking the per-employee pricing model it introduced last September a great leap forward, Sun Microsystems Inc. last week said it's readying a per-citizen licensing plan for countries using its Java Enterprise System and Java Desktop System...

Great moments at work. Success stories of an IT hero.(Betty Johnson, vice president of Information Technology at Nonprofits' Insurance Alliance of California)(Brief Article)(Advertisement)
March 8, 2004... Betty Johnson Vice President of IT The NIA Group of Cos., Santa Cruz, CA Betty Johnson is vice president of Information Technology at The Nonprofits Insurance Alliance (NIA) Group of Companies, which provides liability insurance for...

Offshoring debate continues amid backlash: IT decision-makers deal with political, emotional issues.(News)
March 8, 2004... Although the backlash from offshore outsourcing is doing little to slow the accelerating trend, it's increasingly noticeable at conferences attended by managers who make and execute offshoring decisions. The focus on political and...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
March 8, 2004... The name of Palo Alto Research Center Inc. principal scientist Feng Zhao was misspelled in the March 1 story "Sense This." Also, the information-driven sensory-querying algorithm with which Zhao's team is experimenting would enable sensors to...

Fidelity National revamps IT with single-vendor tack.(News)(information technology)
March 8, 2004... Fidelity National Financial Inc. has undertaken a four-year project to replace its distributed, multivendor computing environment with a centralized infrastructure based on IBM technology. Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National said the...

GAO faults IT security at Agriculture Dept.(News)(General Accounting Office, information technology)
March 8, 2004... The U.S. Department of Agriculture has "significant, pervasive information security control weaknesses" stemming from the lack of a fully implemented IT security management program, according to a report from the U.S. General Accounting Office....

Domain registrars sue ICANN, VeriSign.(News)
March 8, 2004... Just a day after being sued by VeriSign Inc. over delays in approving a new service for back-ordering Internet domain names [QuickLink 45059], ICANN, the organization that controls the Internet's Domain Name System, found itself being sued by a...

DHS: dumb, huge, slow.(Opinion)(Department of Homeland Security)
March 8, 2004... IF YOU'VE BEEN AT ALL WORRIED that the Department of Homeland Security might be doing something worth paying attention to, rest easy. When it comes to having any significant impact on corporate IT security plans, the $36 billion federal agency...

Reusable integration with an SOA.(Opinion)(service-oriented architecture)
March 8, 2004... MANY WEB SERVICES are merely APIs wrapped up in some Web interfaces; they can make only single-point connections to legacy systems. They are but a shadow compared with the larger vision embodied in a service-oriented architecture (SOA), which...