InfoWorld articles from April 2006

InfoWorld archives from April 2006

HP 4730mfp delivers low-cost, low-frills color printing - MFP compensates for fewer features with ease-of-use and a nice price.(Hewlett-Packard Co.)
April 24, 2006... Most high-performance, full-featured color MFP (multifunction printer)/copier systems cost well over $10,000, plus you have to procure them through a leasing program. HP's Color LaserJet 4730mfp delivers many of the same capabilities at the...

Virtuozzo commands virtual server stage - SWSoft offers an innovative, low-overhead approach to server virtualization.
April 24, 2006... If you think of server virtualization in terms of VMware, SWSoft Virtuozzo will turn that thinking around. Whereas VMware virtualizes and emulates the hardware layer, Virtuozzo runs with the native OS on the host server and creates VPSes...

Testing Apple's Intel transition: iMac and MacBook Pro - New iMac proves stellar, whereas MacBook Pro has room for improvement.(Apple Computer Inc.)
April 24, 2006... Apple's first Intel-based Macs, iMac and MacBook Pro, were born into a position of advantage. OS X Tiger, a loyal base of customers and developers, firm ownership of high-margin specialty markets, and high regard in the mainstream have turned...

Workshare keeps sensitive information out of e-mail - Policy-enforced protection sanitizes Office docs, PDFs.(Workshare Protect 4.5)(Editorial)
April 24, 2006... Dig beneath the headlines of recent data security breaches and you'll discover many are the result of hidden metadata left in documents, such as tracked changes or authors' names. Most data-leak products will catch these problems, but they...

Google unveils new search appliance - Search update captures business intelligence.(OneBox for Enterprise )
April 24, 2006... Google shored up its enterprise-search portfolio on Wednesday, announcing Google OneBox for Enterprise, a new feature for doing real- time searches on business-application data. Leading application vendors such as Cisco Systems, Cognos,...

Oracle plugs 36 security holes in quarterly patch - Fourteen database holes fixed, some serious.(Brief article)
April 24, 2006... Oracle released a bevy of security patches for its software on Tuesday in its quarterly Critical Patch Update. The company plugged 36 security vulnerabilities in a range of products, including 14 fixes for the Oracle database, several of...

Rootkit programs benefit from open source - 42,000 developers and new tools make stealth easy.(Editorial)(Brief article)
April 24, 2006... An active, open source development community and new tools are fueling stealth "rootkit" programs. The number of stealth techniques found in malicious software surged 600 percent in the past three years, according to data published last...

VMware alliance will promote virtual desktops - Certified software, services to encourage adoption.
April 24, 2006... A new alliance headed by EMC's VMware division hopes to make it easier to deploy virtualized desktops in the enterprise and make bulky, unmanageable stand-alone PCs a thing of the past. EMC unveiled the VDIA (Virtual Desktop...

Product Previews.(new product Symantec Mail Security for SMTP 5.0)(HP unveils Control Tower for BladeSystem)(ConSentry introduces CS4048 LANShield Switch)
April 24, 2006... Symantec integrates anti-spam and SMTP security; HP tunes Control Tower for BladeSystem; Voltage clientless mail encryption turns 2.0; ConSentry announces secure LAN switch; NetContinuum revs application firewall By InfoWorld staff ...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Power to the search - Homegrown search service brings flexibility to InfoWorld.com.(Editorial)
April 24, 2006... A few weeks back, Lead Analyst and Blogger in Chief Jon Udell wrote a blog post entitled "How enterprise search could suck less." That title sums up our modest expectations: We don't necessarily expect search to be good, but passable would be...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Locking down standards for desktop Linux - Businesses will be hesitant to adopt a desktop that's always in flux.(Editorial)
April 24, 2006... Say what you will about Windows' lack of openness or its seemingly never-ending software flaws. If you double-click on an installer and the version of Windows you're using is reasonably up-to-date, your software will install. This is even...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Apple suit comes to a head, BlackBerry execs see Red - Rumormonger to Google: It's time to buy Sun.(Sun Microsystems Inc., Google Inc., acquisition deal)(Research in Motion Ltd. forecasts its BlackBerry email service)(Dell Inc. talks about its computer systems)
April 24, 2006... Will filthy-rich Google buy beleaguered Sun Microsystems? That rumor has been kicking around the blogosphere for a while now. But how about this scenario: Google buys Sun, then teams up with a major broadband ISP to distribute Sun Ray thin...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Fine-tuning your supply chain - Are you capturing the data that matters most? New research can help you reconnect the dots.
April 24, 2006... The McKinsey Quarterly is out with an interesting look at the challenges of consolidating supply chain data -- and some advice for focusing IT resources to make sure you're capturing the data that matters most. The problem, according to...

SECURITY ADVISER: Go hack yourself - Metasploit tips make it easy to learn about tools that hackers may use against you.(Metasploit Framework)(Column)
April 24, 2006... I've always been a firm believer in the concept of hacking yourself. After all, if you don't hack yourself, the hackers will. So if you're a good security administrator, you must learn about the various hacking tools that might be used...

STORAGE INSIDER: Get ready for the virtualized enterprise - Neterion, Emulex, and others are quietly building the virtual I/O infrastructure.(Neterion and its 10 GbE Xframe HBA )
April 24, 2006... You may remember Neterion and its 10 GbE Xframe HBA from some of my previous columns or blogs. At the latest Storage Networking World, Neterion was showing off not only the exceptional speed of its adapters but also the flexibility to...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Dell strikes gold by acquiring Alienware - It captured the rarest of finds: genuinely unique, truly innovative PC technology. Should you care?
April 24, 2006... This week's spike in my job-satisfaction index is sponsored by that least likely of catalysts, Dell Computer. Dell's acquisition of the low-volume, high-end PC maker Alienware is so strategically brilliant that I may have to find a new...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: New screencasts and podcasts from Jon Udell - New content will show, as well as tell, the latest in enterprise IT.(Column)
April 24, 2006... One of my New Year's resolutions for 2006 was to produce more regular screencasts and podcasts. On the screencast front, I've launched a monthly series called The Screening Room. The first three installments are interviews about, and...

REALITY CHECK: Is extreme outsourcing and consolidation worth it? Aggressive reorganization moves may not yield all the hoped-for benefits.
April 24, 2006... Last week, Accenture signed a seven-year applications outsourcing deal with Unilever to run all of Unilever's application development, implementation, and support. Unilever believes it can save approximately $700,000 in the first year. ...

OFF THE RECORD: The hidden costs of offshoring - Saving money south of the border can be an expensive proposition.
April 24, 2006... By Anonymous Back in the early 1980s, I worked for a company that made high-speed assembly machines. I don't mean that the machines used "assembly language"; they were designed to assemble things, like desks, sinks, and garbage cans....

Sun streamlines identity flows - Sun Java System Identity Manager 6.0 tunes tools and templates for faster configuration.
April 24, 2006... In our oct. 10 comparative review of identity management heavyweights, Sun Java System Identity Manager 5.5 wasn't the flashiest solution, but it stood out from competitors in overall completeness and maturity. From what we've seen of the...

3G today: Broadband on every corner - Compared with Wi-Fi hotspots, 3G provides a hassle-free wireless broadband experience. But is it worth the price?
April 24, 2006... Mobile 3G wireless has had more ups and downs than a Six Flags thrill ride. First, it was built up as a fast-approaching broadband panacea that would keep us connected, outdoors and in, all the time. Then it plunged into ridicule and...

3G vs. Wi-Fi hotspots - Wi-Fi is cheaper, but 3G is potentially much more convenient. Will WiMax change the equation?
April 24, 2006... Now that 3G is becoming a viable wide-area wireless solution, is it time to kiss Wi-Fi hotspots goodbye? Not likely. Both will be around for a long time, and each has its distinct advantages and disadvantages. For your company, the choice...

The long, winding road to today's 3G broadband - It's taken awhile for 3G to arrive, and the standards are still confusing. They're only going to get more so.
April 24, 2006... Compared with Japan, Korea, and Europe, America's mobile carriers have taken their time rolling out mobile broadband. The prime reason is the split in 2G digital mobile phone technologies among U.S. carriers, which has meant the networks...

The long road to RFID interoperability - The Gen2 standard means vendors and customers finally have a common platform.
April 17, 2006... Software isn't the only factor driving wider adoption of RFID. Perhaps the largest single enabler has been the emergence of Gen2 -- officially known as the EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 UHF RFID Protocol for Communications -- which is the...

CollabNet offers software version control service - Subversion On Demand service enables developer collaboration.(Brief article)
April 17, 2006... CollabNet this week is unveiling a hosted service for Subversion, an open source version-control system for enterprise software development. CollabNet Subversion On Demand supports team-based collaboration but lacks features such as...

Product previews.
April 17, 2006... NetSuite unveils process customization and vertical SaaS; Pegasystems announces autonomic BPM; PolyServe clusters SQL Servers; ActivIdentity smartens SSO By InfoWorld staff NetSuite Flexes Process Automation, Woos Verticals ...

Open source goes big time with Red Hat-JBoss Deal - Customers, experts optimistic, but wary on integration.
April 17, 2006... Red Hat's surprise announcement that it's acquiring JBoss could upend accepted wisdom about both the size and function of open source software companies. Still, some customers are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the deal. The $350...

Salesforce.com buys Sendia and goes mobile - AppExchange Mobile may help bring the business Web to handheld devices.(Brief article)
April 17, 2006... The long-heralded promise of wireless access to enterprise applications got a boost last week when Salesforce.com announced the acquisition of wireless infrastructure provider Sendia and the launch of AppExchange Mobile using Sendia's...

MIT simulation suggests avian flu outbreak can shred supply chain - Center for Transportation and Logistics studies H5N1's impact on business.
April 17, 2006... At first, the reports from your supplier in China seem innocent enough: an assembly line worker has become very ill and is hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. Before you know it, workers are dying, the government has quarantined your factory...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Merged Red Hat and JBoss could be headed for a fall - Can the open source vendor handle competition from the big leagues of enterprise IT?
April 17, 2006... Red Hat's acquisition of JBoss came as something of a surprise. Like many others, I expected Oracle would be the one to snap up the open source J2EE vendor. Still, stranger things have happened. With JBoss under its wing, Red Hat gains a...

EDITOR'S LETTER: More Votes for Mac - The Apple-Microsoft debate remains passionate after all these years.(Editorial)
April 17, 2006... I touched a nerve two weeks back, when I asked readers whether Chief Technologist and Ahead of the Curve columnist Tom Yager has been paying too much attention to Apple. After reading dozens of e-mails, plus comments posted to InfoWorld...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Turning outsourcing into a plus takes time and skill - As jobs hopscotch across the globe, the outsourcing model will still face obstacles.
April 17, 2006... I made my annual trip to Florida's Walt Disney World last week. I'd been there as a kid, but funny how it wasn't till 30 years later that Disney's "small world" theme really sank in -- at the Gartner Outsourcing Summit. At the conference...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Apple shakes its Boot; Sony's meager loot - Note to OS X users: If it ain't broke, don't break it.(Apple Computer Inc.'s Boot Camp software)(Sony BMG hired Rust Consulting to solve its class action lawsuits)(Editorial)
April 17, 2006... Editor's note: The management would like to announce that the next major rev of Notes From the Field (to be called A Vista From the Pasture) will not be ready for publication later this year as scheduled. However, future issues of InfoWorld...

SECURITY ADVISER: Tracking malware with honeyclients - Sweet success over client-side attacks is possible, thanks to group efforts.(Editorial)
April 17, 2006... I've been a big fan of honeypots ever since I first learned about them in Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg. His story about catching German hackers because of a 75-cent accounting error is a thrilling forensics journey. Today, I support...

STORAGE INSIDER: The last word on SNW Spring - When old-school storage meets up-and-coming technologies, users reap the benefits.(Storage Networking World)
April 17, 2006... If you were at the Storage Networking World (SNW) Spring show, you may have noticed a wall covered with life-size photos of some large cabinets containing storage gear and servers. Those photos were stand- ins for the actual equipment, which...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Top six steps toward disaster-recovery - Too many companies lack a basic plan for bouncing back from worse-case scenarios.(Column)
April 17, 2006... I recently got to write a fun piece for InfoWorld called "Stupid user tricks" about protecting your network from human error. Researching the article revealed to me how many variables folks tend to miss when running a network, as well as when...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Windows Boots on a Mac - Boot Camp means Intel- based Macs can boot XP, and Windows' sworn enemy made it happen.(Apple Computer Inc. introducing Boot Camp software)
April 17, 2006... On April 4, a date chosen because April Fools' Day fell on a Saturday, Apple released a freely downloadable beta utility called Boot Camp. Boot Camp has one astonishing, if not bizarre, purpose: To give Intel- based Macs the capability of...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Set my data free - Companies should be able to deliver personal data in the form that most benefits the customer.(Column)
April 17, 2006... Last weekend I helped a friend categorize her Schedule C expenses. All of her business income is in QuickBooks, but the expenses aren't. I would have to reconstruct those from bank and credit card records. Although this friend has online...

REALITY CHECK: Coping with the compliance headache - The economic issue of regulatory compliance is a problem for IT to solve.
April 17, 2006... More and more, business is being driven through regulation. Multiple regulations, from Sarbanes-Oxley to HIPAA and beyond, will have a big impact on cost but will do nothing for the revenue side. The question becomes how to minimize the...

OFF THE RECORD: How to exit a doomed IT project - Three years after starting a one-month, quick-hit assignment, it was time to jump off the runaway truck.(Column)
April 17, 2006... By Anonymous I work for a large trucking company in Chicago. These days I'm head of information services. But many years ago, right after I was hired as one of the low-end IT guys, I was asked to take on a month-long, "quick-hit" project...

Iomega lightens the autoloader - Iomega REV Loader 280 brings disk backup to small shops.(Brief article)
April 17, 2006... For small businesses that have depended on the ease of use of Iomega's 35GB REV removable hard disk drive but are outgrowing that solution, the new REV Loader 280 offers larger capacity at an affordable price. The Loader 280 can mount as...

ClickTracks and HitsLink cull Web site stats without the stress - Midrange offerings provide easy-to-use analysis tools at an affordable price.
April 17, 2006... Web sites are an important conduit between customers, potential clients, and employees, so it's not surprising that organizations invest heavily in watching how their sites are used. For this job, enterprises often turn to the big guns in Web...

Google Sitemaps provides better, fresher crawls of Web pages - Free beta service helps you find and fix problems that hurt your search rankings.
April 17, 2006... Web analytics products such as ClickTracks and HitsLink indicate how sites fare in search rankings, but they do little to help fix poor- performing Web properties. Google Sitemaps fills that void. Currently in beta, Google Sitemaps allows...

Next-gen RFID tools expand the market - New standards, software help RF-enable businesses of any size.
April 17, 2006... Despite the hype, the truth is that RFID deployments made little headway in 2005. New standards, prohibitive costs, and the lack of upper-level business context left most companies tuned out to this much-ballyhooed technology. Larger...

NetBeans attempts to eclipse Eclipse - Java IDE market gets tighter with Version 5.0's tech upgrades, new Matisse GUI builder.
April 17, 2006... NetBeans 5.0 is a substantial upgrade to what was already a very solid IDE. This release reveals many new features, enhancements, and a slight repositioning, as Sun attempts to shine the spotlight on aspects that take NetBeans beyond the...

RSA polishes its smart token system - Web-based management tools improve SecurID's small office/branch office potential.
April 10, 2006... Branch offices aren't always just nests for employees further down the food chain. Sometimes they comprise critical pieces of business infrastructure that are just geographically removed from HQ. Unfortunately, managing high-end...

Building the branch office from the ground up - Successful management of a remote office starts with the right infrastructure and tools.
April 10, 2006... Inevitably, the call comes in at 4 p.m.: problems at a remote site. The network seems OK, but one server is completely inaccessible. One switch is pingable but isn't answering a Telnet connection. There's no IT staff at the site, and this...

Effective long-distance data protection - Keeping data safe and available is a unique challenge at remote offices.
April 10, 2006... Protecting data properly is challenging in any circumstances but can be even more difficult to do at a remote office. It's easy to understand why: Most data-protection tasks require both human labor and the computing power necessary to move...

Product previews.(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... EMC intros low-end SAN hardware and enterprise archiving software; Splunk launches community knowledgebase; Symantec secures real-time communications; Check Point extends the SEM By InfoWorld staff EMC rolls out entry SAN and...

Business Objects to launch BI for SaaS - Business intelligence vendor preps online version of Crystal Reports.(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... Business intelligence vendor Business Objects is dipping its toe into the SaaS (software as a service) market with CrystalReports.com, a new version of Crystal Reports that the company says will appeal to SMBs. Business Objects unveiled...

Cisco unveils ACE app acceleration blade - Catalyst Module, AVS put Cisco back into fray with Juniper, others.
April 10, 2006... Citing an epidemic of "fat and chatty" enterprise applications from Oracle, SAP, Siebel, and others, Cisco Systems on Monday unveiled a new product called ACE (Application Control Engine) and an update to its FineGround AVS (Application...

IBM gets its SOA story straight - WebSphere releases push process integration.
April 10, 2006... IBM sharpened its message about SOA last week with a slew of WebSphere software and services to overcome barriers to SOA success. IBM introduced 11 new products, 20 product enhancements, and eight service enhancements focused on SOA...

Virtual gets real at LinuxWorld Boston - New technology driving virtualization push.(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... Software virtualization plans from a number of vendors were looking pretty real at the LinuxWorld Expo and Conference in Boston last week, as new hardware and software drives a renewed interest in virtualization. New multicore...

When starting a new branch office, don't forget the wiring - Remote administration won't take you far if you can't keep the packets flowing.(Editorial)(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... One of the most overlooked aspects of remote-office builds is the wiring. Servers, racks, power, and cooling should top the list, but never assume that the building's wiring is up to par. Many corporate office parks have been around since the...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Microsoft fights fire with fire in server virtualization market - Redmond about-faces, supports Linux under Virtual Server, waits for customers to come knocking.(Editorial)
April 10, 2006... Virtualization-related announcements were flying at this year's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Boston. Given a flurry of new products and initiatives from the likes of Virtual Iron, VMware, and XenSource, I guess it should have come as no...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Managing disruption - In IT, getting the better of bedlam requires a second-nature approach to change.(Editorial)
April 10, 2006... Let me take you back to a dinner conversation from roughly five months ago. InfoWorld had just finished day two of our SOA Executive Forum in New York, and the editors were dining with a subset of the InfoWorld CTO Advisory Council. We...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Investing in data management - Companies own up to their need for better data strategies.
April 10, 2006... Ever wonder how we so-called professionals tell the difference between real analyst research and thinly disguised marketing pitches? The line between the two is getting finer all the time, and frankly there's no reliable sniff test. So this...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Okie calls cops, Dell's Ditty flops - Apple marks landmark birthday with a yawn.
April 10, 2006... It seems the joke's on us. Apple's 30th birthday passed without fanfare -- no 4-inch video iPod, iTunes movie service, or music-enabled iPhone was unveiled. And technical difficulties may delay the Apple handset until next year. Maybe Apple's...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Microsoft to admins: Rootkit means rebuild - Thanks to Windows' unprotected kernel, recovering from a rootkit infection could require a full OS wipe.
April 10, 2006... So I was skimming Slashdot the other day and found this gem: Seems a program manager in Microsoft's Security Solutions Center came out and said that recovering from the newest breed of malware may be impossible. You know, time and again, I've...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Reinventing the intranet - Modern social software could be the key to building effective enterprise knowledge systems.
April 10, 2006... In an interview long ago, Marc Andreessen told me about the moment he knew Netscape's business plan would succeed. That plan, as you may recall, was modeled on Gillette's: give away razors (browsers and mail/news clients) and sell blades...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Virtualization and I/O - You can virtualize a system, but I/O is always there, keeping it real.
April 10, 2006... There is one area where the DOS era's "I own the whole system" attitude persists, and it's a virtualization millstone: device drivers. You may not realize how ugly the problem and present solution are, or how simple and elegant the real...

OFF THE RECORD: When your VoIP vendor goes bye-bye - References and specs aren't enough; check the financials before hiring a company to do a major installation.
April 10, 2006... By Anonymous A few years ago, I was IT manager at a small bank with five branches in three counties. We were looking for a way to standardize our phones as well as cut costs, and after some research we pretty much decided on a VoIP...

REALITY CHECK: Budgeting for security breaches - Losing customer data is a huge headache for which businesses must be prepared.(Editorial)
April 10, 2006... It appears, according to a reliable source, that a national retailer has lost the debit card information from thousands of its customers, but as we go to press, it has still refused to fess up. The debit card numbers are being used to...

ILOG extends the tools for rules - JRules 6.0 brings tools to Eclipse, repository to the Web, and friendly syntax to business analysts.
April 10, 2006... ILOG delivered JRules 6.0 at the end of March, just a little more than a year since the introduction of Version 5.0. JRules 6.0, in keeping with the company's push to extend development and maintenance of business applications to business...

Secure remote access to small and branch offices - SonicWall SSL-VPN 200 connects with nice features and low price.(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... SonicWall made its name in the small office market, and although the company is expanding rapidly into the enterprise, products such as the SSL-VPN 200 show that it hasn't lost the value touch. SonicWall has positioned this VPN appliance to...

Mergers and other IT disruptions don't have to spell chaos - IT pros are usually the ones introducing disruptive technologies into the enterprise. But what happens when the disruptors are the disruptees?
April 10, 2006... When mortgage lender Master Financial moved from a traditional PBX switch to a Sphere Communications VoIP system in 2002, it did so for three reasons: "Cost, cost, and cost," says then-CIO Chris Mullins. Using VoIP over a wide area...

10 tips for easing IT change management - Those potentially messy transitions demand clear communication and taking a long view.
April 10, 2006... Whether you're shifting to a new technology framework or outsourcing key IT functions, implementing change can be unsettling for everyone -- and not just those who may find themselves in a new job when the dust settles. Here's how to survive...

IT portfolio management can ease change - Combining skills and software can pave the potholes of mergers, consolidations, and other disruptive events.
April 10, 2006... Managing your IT assets as you would an investment portfolio is an excellent way to prioritize projects, cut costs, and boost ROI. But it's also crucial for surviving disruptive events such as mergers and consolidations, or when phasing out...

Cyclades fleshes out IP KVM for full remote connectivity - AlterPath OnSite 841 shows there's more to remote access than just VPN.
April 10, 2006... With the AlterPath OnSite, Cyclades offers a useful remote access option -- basically, secure remote KVM over IP. The concept isn't a new one, but Cyclades has done its homework and fleshes out the OnSite 841's feature set in a practical way,...

Raritan keeps close eye on infrastructure - Open source tools form solid base for foray into network management with CommandCenter NOC 250.
April 10, 2006... The Raritan company name is absolutely synonymous with KVM switching. In fact, I've heard more than a few admins use the word Raritan to describe KVM switches made by another manufacturer, and Raritan's MasterConsole KVM switches can be found...

Cisco delivers service-stuffed routers - ISR line leverages hefty horsepower to deliver VoIP, firewall, VPN, and more.
April 10, 2006... Not that long ago, a small-office router handling a single T1 was more or less fully consumed by that task. Throwing more features into the software to support services such as VoIP or firewalling just wasn't practical, given the cost of CPU...

Clementine 10 reinforces defensive analytics - Upgrades to SPSS's BA app power anomaly detection, faster answers in graphical modeling system.(Column)
April 3, 2006... When I last reviewed SPSS's Clementine BA (business analytics) application in 2004, I found great virtue in its effective graphical interface and its capability to systemize the building and storage of analytical routines for later reuse or...

Web-scouring robots anchor Kapow - Kapow's screen-scraper integrates, assembles your portal information with data from other online sites.(Web Integration Platform 6.0)
April 3, 2006... For the past few years, all the talk about Web 2.0 has centered on helping Web sites knit themselves together in sophisticated remixes. Although most of the hype concerns the use of JavaScript to add intelligence to the browser client, a...

Virtualization fever at LinuxWorld Expo - Boston conference brings new announcements from prominent vendors.(Brief article)
April 3, 2006... The most prominent names in open source descend on Boston this week for the annual LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. Highlights of the show will include a new Mobile and Embedded conference track and a Grid Solution Showcase, but the hottest...

Collapse of Check Point/Sourcefire deal raises questions - Government reviews could present obstacles for future mergers.(Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.)
April 3, 2006... Faced with resistance from the U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Israeli software company Check Point Software Technologies put its $225 million offer to purchase IPS (intrusion prevention...

JBoss, LogicBlaze introduce open source middleware - New projects deliver messaging and SOA capabilities.(JBoss ESB 1.0)(Brief article)
April 3, 2006... Last week saw the debut of two new open source products from JBoss and LogicBlaze, each aimed at the enterprise middleware market. JBoss released a new messaging system that it hopes will extend the reach of its open source enterprise...

Microsoft building out hosted CRM capabilities - Latest version includes configuration mode for service providers.(Dynamics CRM 3.0)(Brief article)
April 3, 2006... Microsoft announced a new version of its Dynamics CRM 3.0 product last week, dubbed the Professional Edition for Service Providers. Unveiled at Convergence, the Microsoft Business Solutions Group's annual customer show, the new release...

STORAGE INSIDER: An early taste of SNW Spring - SAS, iSCSI, and CDP look to be the three most-discussed technologies at this year's show.(Storage Networking World)(Symantec Corp. introducing its NetBackup PureDisk software)
April 3, 2006... Storage Networking World Spring opens its doors in San Diego this week, so yours truly has done a little pre-scouting into what the 2006 edition has to offer. In general, you can expect many new solutions built on innovative technologies...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: OpenDocument standardization effort just got harder - Is Microsoft playing the spoiler by joining a key standards subcommittee?
April 3, 2006... As of last week, there's a new participant in the process of standardizing the OpenDocument office file format: Say hello to Microsoft. No, Redmond hasn't done an about-face. You still won't be seeing an OpenDocument filter added to...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Has InfoWorld gone Mac crazy? Readers weigh in on Tom Yager's Apple fixation.(Editorial)
April 3, 2006... To say that Tom Yager has a thing for Apple is like saying Homer Simpson likes donuts. Yes, InfoWorld's chief technologist is a devotee. Yet it's "not a religious issue," Yager insists. It's just that Apple "stands as an example of how to do...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Microsoft admits defeat, Amazon hits "Delete" - Struggling software colossus seeks chimps off the old block.(Microsoft Corp dealying the release of Microsoft Windows Vista)(Quark Inc.'s new logo)(Amazon's Macy's services)
April 3, 2006... In a move that shocked practically no one, Microsoft says it won't be shipping its new Vista OS until well after Santa has come and gone -- leaving a lump of coal in the stockings of PC makers hoping to move hardware over the holidays. This...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Busting myths about CMS and Windows Vista - Excerpts from two top 10 lists can take some of the anxiety out of buying new products.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
April 3, 2006... In my experience, most Top 10 lists have only four worthwhile items. Three others are marginal, and the last three are truly worthless, made up in a rush to round out the list. This week I put this assumption to the test by examining two...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Don't blame the laptop for data theft - Common- sense planning can keep sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands.(Column)
April 3, 2006... Headlines across several business news services this week read something like "Laptops Prove Weak Point in Computer Security". No, that's not an actual headline, because I don't like getting flame e- mail from attorneys, but it's similar to...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Software vendors should optimize for Opteron - ISVs would do well to discuss the potential for a "Made for Opteron" sticker.(Column)
April 3, 2006... AMD has its hands in a lot of technology areas, and I track and report on all of them. I'm a huge fan of AMD's Athlon FX and X2 client CPUs, Turion notebook CPUs, and Geode ultra-low power technology. But I know the AMD you care most about is...