InfoWorld articles from February 2005

InfoWorld archives from February 2005

IBM readies WebSphere upgrade - New version, code-named Pyxis, improves integration.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Taking another step towards gluing together heterogeneous environments, IBM is building a new version of WebSphere that will better leverage Web services to tie together a patchwork of server-based environments. The upcoming version,...

Service is new tale of the tape - ADIC adds management software, diagnostic services to make tape library easier to use.
February 7, 2005... As companies move to consolidate tape and disk storage systems, tape storage vendors are offering additional options to increase the value and flexibility of their systems. One such vendor, Advanced Digital Information (ADIC), last week...

Borland readies customized ALM suites - Core SDP suites tailor application lifecycle management for specific organizational roles.(application lifecycle management, Software Delivery Platform)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Borland Software on Monday will introduce software suites customized to specific roles in ALM (application lifecycle management), as part of the company's SDO (Software Delivery Optimization) strategy. Featuring bits of functionality from...

Macromedia heats up ColdFusion MX 7 - Version 7 gains reporting, mobile enhancements.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Macromedia this week will ship a major upgrade to its ColdFusion MX Internet application platform, improving mobile applications, reporting, document generation, and forms development. ColdFusion MX 7, previously code-named Blackstone, is...

Microsoft unveils MSN Search.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Microsoft announced that its Internet search engine, in the works for almost two years, is ready for its big-time debut. MSN Search is available at the company's Web portal, MSN.com, which previously had relied on search technology from rival...

SAP inks deal with Mercury.(Mercury Interactive Corp.)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... SAP America said it will integrate a component of Mercury Interactive's LoadRunner performance-optimization product into its NetWeaver platform. The LoadRunner component will give SAP's global technical support team the ability to run a remote...

F5 adds speed to switches.(F5 Networks Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... F5 Networks announced a high-end version of its Big-IP layers 4 through 7 switch, a compression card, and an updated version of its software, all of which were designed to improve performance. F5's new flagship switch, the Big-IP 6800...

SBC, AT&T merger presents full menu of converged services - SBC's acquisition of AT&T creates corporate data, wireless, cable options.(SBC Communications Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... SBC Communications' acquisition of AT&T last week signals a new era for telecommunications -- one in which IT managers can expect converged communications services from what will be the largest company of its kind in the United States The...

Sun flips switch on grids - Company offers new products that further its utility computing strategy.
February 7, 2005... Sun Microsystems expanded on its plan to offer gridlike computing resources at the rate of $1 per CPU, per hour, including storage at the rate of $1 per gigabyte, per month. It will also offer grid-based desktop and developer products in the...

CTO CONNECTION: IT's moment of truth - It all comes down to where you focus your efforts and where you should relinquish control.
February 7, 2005... Judging from the e-mail about my recent columns on open source and outsourcing, a battle is on for the soul of the IT professional in corporate America. In a rapidly changing technology and business environment, where the excitement of...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Automation is like riding a bike - Watching how humans learn can teach us a lot about effective scripting.(Column)
February 7, 2005... One of my new year's resolutions was to automate a bunch of routine tasks that have been sucking up too much time and effort. Examples this time around included: moving online banking transactions into QuickBooks, synchronizing my online...

REALITY CHECK: The new outsourcing - Tighter integration, higher fees for applications and business processes.(Industry Overview)(Column)
February 7, 2005... It's been almost a year since i looked at outsourcing, either on shore or off, and, as you might have guessed, things have changed. I spoke with Arkadiy Dobkin, CEO of Epam, an outsourced software services provider headquartered in New...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Dell prices out of whack, security company fights back - New cures for the Geek Flu.(Column)
February 7, 2005... Thanks to the many readers who offered cures for the Geek Flu that's been kicking my behind for the past few weeks. Most of the cures seem to operate by drowning the flu virus in alcohol. You don't necessarily get better; you just don't mind...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Barriers to SOA entry.(Editorial)
February 7, 2005... Often it's human habit -- not technical difficulty -- that slows the adoption of a promising new technology. Such is the case with SOA (service-oriented architecture), where issues of governance pose significant obstacles. To see why, says...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: No magic IT formulas - Technology is designed to be a means to an end when it should be crafted to be a creative partner.(Column)
February 7, 2005... Technology workers who don't see themselves as passionate, creative professionals, and who lack commitment to their work, will inevitably occupy the lower strata of the future job market. I've said that before. My new corollary to that is that...

Product previews.
February 7, 2005... Stellent upgrades CMS, Symphoniq unveils Web app performance tools, StoredIQ boosts compliance wares, and Foundry adds to switch family By InfoWorld staff Stellent Upgrades Content Management Offering Stellent last Tuesday rolled...

Kavado extends Web app defenses - Defiance TMS takes Web application firewalls enterprisewide with centralized management, passive monitoring, and coordinated prevention.
February 7, 2005... Kavado's Web application firewall, InterDo, combines granular defenses, easy management, and a clever configuration wizard that smoothes initial setup dramatically -- a powerful formula that earned Version 3.0 InfoWorld's 2004 Technology of the...

ClearCube makes good blade system even better - New features in Version 4.0 include beefier blades, improved connection management.(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 7, 2005... In the year since we reviewed its first-generation product, ClearCube has pushed its blade workstation architecture concept even further on both the hardware and software fronts, and we like the results. ClearCube pioneered the blade-based...

McData switch simplifies SAN expansion - New Intrepid i10K steamrolls SAN congestion with high port count, enterprise feature set.
February 7, 2005... As SANs expand, it's not uncommon for a significant portion of switch ports to be consumed by connections to other switches. This is due not only to the relatively low port counts of typical FC (Fibre Channel) switches, but also because of the...

Two plug-ins rev up Eclipse - M7 NitroX 2.0 and MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench 3.8.3 smooth Java and JSP development.(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 7, 2005... Anyone who wonders whether there is any middle ground between the rough- and-ready approach of open source and the staid polish of proprietary software should examine the MyEclipse and NitroX development environments. Both are commercial...

SSL VPNs come of age - We see how six leading appliances measure up to one another and to IPSec.(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 7, 2005... Traditionally, providing road warriors and business partners with access to back-end servers and resources has meant deploying an IPSec VPN. For site-to-site communication, IPSec remains the only game in town, but for client-to-enterprise...

Toward an end-point security standard - Cisco and Microsoft want to keep your client PCs clean.
February 7, 2005... VPNs, whether IPSec- or SSL-based, allow remote PCs access to the network. Sometimes these computers are under corporate management, but many times they are not. They are home-office PCs, business partner systems, or public Internet terminals....

LinuxWorld: Top players take it higher - HP, IBM debut server, clustering products.
February 14, 2005... At the annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo this week, top-tier vendors in the Linux space will roll out a raft of enterprise products, with a few vendors laying out road maps for pushing their open source strategies higher in the enterprise....

HP to keep strategy, adjust focus on operations - Product strategies should remain intact.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... In the wake of Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina's resignation last week, most industry observers believe the first order of business for her successor will be to deal with a number of operational issues. Although the company...

RSA show spotlights pragmatic solutions - Microsoft, Symantec, HP, CA push new products, strategies.
February 14, 2005... This week's RSA Conference will showcase enterprise security products designed to fortify existing security investments and fight common threats such as viruses. The parade of vendors touting offerings includes Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft,...

Demo@15 show introduces on-demand applications - Startups vie for venture capital at annual event.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... At the Demo@15 show this week in Scottsdale, Ariz., more than 70 startups will unveil new technologies, several of which tap the current interest for on-demand and software-as-a-service products. "Without a doubt [software as a service] has...

Indigo to enhance productivity.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Microsoft vowed dramatic productivity gains with its Indigo communications infrastructure for Web services; early versions will be delivered via a Community Technology Preview in March and a beta release by June. Set for general availability in...

IBM unwraps eServer P5.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Targeting the low end of the Unix market, IBM rolled out its first pSeries server priced less than $4,000, which the company hopes will attract first-time users looking to blend existing Unix- and Linux-based environments. The eServer p5 510,...

Intel to ship multithreaded Pentium.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Intel will release a version of its Pentium desktop processor this year that can run as many as four software tasks at the same time. The Pentium processor Extreme Edition chip will include two processor cores, each of which will support Intel?...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: 64-bit traffic jam - As vendors play down their own 64-bit technologies and wait for Microsoft, Linux and OS X roll along.
February 14, 2005... In hardware vendors' marketing materials, you won't find much more than buzzwords a-buzzin' over 64-bit technology. Vendors' lack of enthusiasm has buyers shrugging. Do we need 64 bits to run 32-bit operating systems and applications? Let's put...

CTO CONNECTION: Get your IT house in order - As my closet demonstrates, organization products aren't enough to get you organized.(Column)
February 14, 2005... One recent Saturday morning, I woke with one seemingly simple thing in mind: cleaning out and organizing the closets in my bedroom. If my closets were a database system, the contents would be stored as BLOBs (binary large objects) of varying...

REALITY CHECK: Enterprises still waiting for cellular data - Why 2005 won't be the year you bring your enterprise apps to mobile handsets.(Column)
February 14, 2005... This year you will see a major push for wireless enterprise applications -- from the carriers, the handset manufacturers, the infrastructure providers, and yes, even the people you know the best: the major ERP vendors. They'll all be working in...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Let's hear it for screencasting - New medium offers unprecedented avenues for training, discussion.(Column)
February 14, 2005... Last January, when I first wrote about the medium that I've since come to call screencasting, it seemed an odd-enough topic that I felt obliged to justify it to my editor. A year later it's clear that my instincts weren't leading me...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Trading in Exchange comes at a price - Exchange is costly, but you get a lot for your money, like advanced integration and lots of support.(Column)
February 14, 2005... Usually, I stay away from operating system zealotry. Bring up one OS over another and suddenly you're surrounded by eerily familiar extremist rhetoric. To those of us in the day-to-day IT trenches, the question has never been about the...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Spam filters fall off cliff, RIAA sues a stiff - Nothing but paint thinner and TV.(Column)
February 14, 2005... Another Valentine's Day, another inbox full of heart-shaped spam. Memo to junk e-mailers: I do not want to "name a star" for my honey or order a dozen gourmet chocolate-dipped strawberries, thanks. My V-Day plans are simpler: I'm going to curl...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Real penguins don't use Linux - But real IT folks do, especially when upgrading to a new messaging platform.(Editorial)
February 14, 2005... Talk about dedication! In preparation for "Microsoft and Linux square off in InfoWorld's Exchange migration challenge" -- a shootout pitting Microsoft Exchange against four commercial Linux-based mail servers -- Test Center Senior Editor Ted...

Product Previews.
February 14, 2005... CA adds analytics software, IBM details forthcoming Rational Software Architect, Venafi makes digital certificates more secure, and BMC boosts Patrol with analytics By InfoWorld staff CA Takes Wraps off Asset Management Software ...

Red Hat, Suse refresh Oses - Red Hat's latest salvo hits the mark, but the open source OS battle is just beginning.(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 14, 2005... It wasn't that long ago that Linux made for a decent server and a geek's workstation. Now, Linux makes for an enterprise-class server and could be my mother's workstation -- it already runs on her TiVo. With the recent release of Novell's...

SiteDigger unearths Web information leaks - Free Foundstone tool identifies security issues exposed through public search engines.(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 14, 2005... Without search engines, the Web wouldn't be the premier information resource and significant economic force it is today. But there's a dark side: Black hats easily exploit Google, MSN, Yahoo, and others to find confidential information that...

Four AMD horses on a budget - Appro's 4148HS-82 quad-Opteron server packs punch, compromises I/O.(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 14, 2005... Most applications for four-processor servers are heavy. Big databases and HPC (high-performance computing) implementations can make the most of the horsepower provided by the bigger iron, whereas lighter-weight tasks -- such as Web serving,...

Vontu plugs information leaks - Vontu 4.0 combines flexible policy configuration, monitoring of all TCP channels, and real-time blocking of e-mail violations.
February 14, 2005... A table of HR data, a draft of an earnings report, proprietary source code -- these are just the types of sensitive information you wouldn't want to deliver into the wrong hands. Yet, unless you have policies governing who can send what...

Point/Counterpoint: Software as a service - How quickly and broadly will IT adopt hosted applications?(Industry Overview)
February 14, 2005... A few of us at InfoWorld latch onto the latest trend and run with it. Others retain their disbelief, even as enterprise IT spends big bucks on new and exciting technology. The hot trend of the moment, software as a service, has stirred...

Microsoft, Linux square off in InfoWorld's Exchange migration challenge - In a series of real-world tests, four Linux messaging servers vie to take down Microsoft Exchange. Will they fly high or crash and burn?
February 14, 2005... For IT administrators, the pressure to move away from Microsoft platforms can almost seem palpable, especially at midsize businesses where data dollars are already stretched thin. Microsoft's products, including the company's dominant Exchange...

Migrating from Exchange to a Penguin alternative can be costlier than you think - Linux means lower license fees, but there are other costs in the equation.(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 14, 2005... After you've made the technical decision to upgrade from Exchange 2000, you must examine the decision from a business perspective. Does the move make bottom-line sense? We based our business-case analysis on our test bed in our Exchange...

Build your own open source messaging server - Stitching together a capable e-mail server with free components may be time-consuming but can save you big bucks.
February 14, 2005... After reviewing commercial Linux messaging servers, we wanted to assess the practicality of building a similarly capable e-mail solution made entirely of open source tools. Going that route means giving up having a single vendor to turn to for...

Security moving closer to OS, networks - RSA show highlights need for security companies to redefine roles.(RSA Conference 2005)
February 21, 2005... Last week's RSA Conference 2005 demonstrated that security components are moving rapidly to the OS and the network as enterprises reinforce their IT systems against a growing security threat. Major OS providers such as Microsoft are leading...

Latest merger hails new telecom era - Verizon buying MCI changes landscape of communications providers.(acquisition of MCI Inc. by Verizon Communications Inc. and of AT&T Corp. by SBC Communications Inc.)
February 21, 2005... Verizon's announcement last week that it intends to acquire MCI -- the third telecommunications merger since mid-December -- effectively ends a two-decade experiment in which the U.S. government attempted to break up a huge telecom monopoly....

IBM delivers first X3-based server - Customized Hurricane chip set aims to boost performance.(launch of IBM eServer xSeries 366)
February 21, 2005... Claiming a significant breakthrough in server-based computing, IBM this week will unveil its first Intel system based on its X3 architecture, along with a customized chip set that allows it to support as many as 32 single- or dual-core Xeon...

Microsoft Unveils Mobile Platform.(launch of telecommunications software)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Microsoft fleshed out its mobile software strategy, targeting OEMs with a mobile software platform, telecoms with applications for delivering converged services, and consumers with a glimpse devices based on its Windows Mobile software. The...

IBM Unveils 64-Bit Xeon Servers.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... IBM rolled out five beefed-up 64-bit Intel servers that feature a 2MB cache, adding 18 percent to the systems' overall performance. The servers support two new technologies, DBS (Demand Based Switching) and XD (Execute Disable Bit). The models,...

T-Mobile Ups Focus on Smart Phones.(launch of T-Mobile MDA VI )(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Intensifying its focus on corporate users, T-Mobile International announced a Windows Mobile-based smart phone that combines cellular and wireless Internet technologies. The MDA VI offers Internet connectivity over three different technologies:...

EMC issues Clariion call for iSCSI - Partner Dell will also add iSCSI product to its storage lineup.(launch of EMC AX100i, CX300i and CX500i)
February 21, 2005... EMC entered the iSCSI (Internet SCSI) SAN market with a bang last week, rolling out a new range of Clariion arrays that use IP technology. And EMC won't be alone, as key Clariion partner Dell will also add the product to its lineup of...

NextPage launches subscription service for documents - Subscription service tracks and manages document metadata.(launch of NextPage 1.5 service)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... NextPage has unveiled a subscription service aimed at the sweet spot of ad hoc document control. The NextPage 1.5 service gives users real-time status and notifications about documents stored as e-mail attachments or on hard drives or servers....

WebEx upgrades Web conferencing platform - Company expands APIs, unveils managed appliance.(enhancement of WebEx MediaTone and launch of WebEx Extended MediaTone Exchange)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... WebEx communications this week will upgrade the underlying network platform that powers its Web conferencing applications. The enhancements to the MediaTone platform will deliver an expanded API set, a managed appliance offering, and a modular...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Google Maps pushes the envelope - New service is a showcase of DHTML and XML techniques.
February 21, 2005... The instant Google Maps appeared, a lot of us knew right away that we'd never use MapQuest again. Google's mapping and direction-finding service is a stunning improvement. The maps are gorgeously readable, and they fill as much of the...

REALITY CHECK: Time to own the spyware problem - Pointing fingers won't eliminate security and privacy threats.
February 21, 2005... Last week Forrester Research released "Anti-Spyware Adoption in 2005," a study by analyst David Friedlander with Natalie Lambert, that included some surprising stats. What struck me most was that 39 percent of respondents, dubbed "technology...

CTO CONNECTION: What it takes to get ahead - Your technology chops may be second to none, but to get to the top, brush up on your people skills.(chief technology officer)(tips about career development)
February 21, 2005... As a technology columnist and working CTO, I get my fair share of requests for career advice from former colleagues and InfoWorld readers. Recently, I found myself in a mentoring role with a relatively young former colleague who was seeking...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: No accounting for taste - SCO case gets gnarly, HP ditches Carly.(Carly Fiorina dismissed as chief executive officer at Hewlett-Packard Co., cases between International Business Machines Corp. and The SCO Group Inc.)
February 21, 2005... I love it when Cringesters send fan mail. Over the years I've gotten recipes, flu cures, reams of advice, and offers of companionship from residents of women's correctional institutes. But I recently got the best compliment from a reader who...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Statistics wrapped in a red dress - Being tricked into studying unsettling numbers can do wonders for the heart.(statistics about heart diseases)
February 21, 2005... February is Heart Month, a time set aside for focused public education campaigns about life expectancies, calorie intakes, and good fatty foods and bad ones. Unfortunately, the month-long statistical assault, which is meant to educate and...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Infinite demand loops - Every advance in IT satisfies one need and creates others, which is actually good news for all.(Editorial)
February 21, 2005... Given that so much of publishing -- here, as elsewhere -- takes place on the Internet, many at InfoWorld have read with great interest Test Center Contributing Editor Mike Heck's comparison of four leading Web analytics solutions (see "Chart...

Product Previews.(launch of IMlogic IM Manager 7.0, Aprimo Marketing 7.0 and Ignite Communicator service)
February 21, 2005... Ignite Technologies delivers video across networks, IMlogic issues new version to detect worms early, Aprimo arms marketing suite with reusable architecture, and Scalix enhances calendaring By InfoWorld staff Ignite Communicator Uses...

Chart your Web site's success - Four Web analytics solutions deliver deep analysis of site performance.(Coremetrics 2005, NetIQ WebTrends 7.1 Enterprise Edition, Omniture SiteCatalyst 11 and WebSideStory HBX On-Demand Web Analytics 2.5)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 21, 2005... In the late 1990s, Web analytics packages did a respectable job crunching server logs and uncovering broad Web site trends such as page views or user clickstream behavior. Today the focus has shifted to business reporting -- pinpointing the...

Putting Web analytics to the test.(web analytics software)(Buyers Guide)
February 21, 2005... Knowing what features are available will help you make a wise buying decision What do enterprises ask of Web analytics packages? Here's a list of requirements vendors most often see in RFPs (requests for proposals). These specs formed, in...

Technologies for buying technology - E-procurement software enforces buying discipline and uncovers IT savings opportunities.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Smart IT shopping is mostly about implementing the right procurement strategy, but software itself can provide the tools to analyze spending, enforce purchasing policies, and eliminate proprietary roadblocks that oftentimes lock you into a...

VoWIP untethers the office phone - Portable office phones have instant appeal, but high costs and connectivity issues may favor gradual deployments.(voice over wireless Internet Protocol)
February 21, 2005... The basic business phone can be a real pain. You're not at your desk all day but your phone is, so callers get voice mail, everyone plays phone tag, and critical conversations get delayed. Callers try your cell phone, but if reception in your...

802.11e adds QoS to Wi-Fi networks - New standard holds promise for calls placed over wireless networks.(quality of service)(networking standards of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
February 21, 2005... The largely unsolved hurdle of contention for access-point capacity keeps voice-over-wireless systems vulnerable to poor-quality calls, as well as calls marred by dropouts if too many voice or data users are trying to connect to the network...

Add-on server routes calls and manages voice traffic - Central routing mechanism from Cisco Systems, 3Com extends the traditional PBX.
February 21, 2005... Voice over wireless requires more than wireless handsets and a wireless LAN. There also needs to be a telephony server to manage the voice traffic. The telephony server can replace or be added to a PBX, the central routing mechanism for...

JRules 5.0 comes out smokin' - ILOG's updated business rules management system for Java apps improves development tools and speed.(ILOG JRules 5.0)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 21, 2005... Business rules management systems make application maintenance faster and easier by giving programmers and business analysts a shared language for expressing business rules. So naturally, the importance of programmer views and user views in a...

Seven strategies for highly effective buyers - Before you write that check, make sure you've prepped yourself with the information you need to get the best possible deal.(Buyers Guide)
February 21, 2005... When Oracle released version 6 of its database, Jay Hemmady, then CIO of an information services provider in the trucking sector, decided it was time to take a calculated risk. Knowing Oracle was in a tough financial position, "we took the...

IBM lifts PHP in development deal - Zend partnership creates app dev environment.(Zend Technologies)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Hoping to spur its open source development strategies, IBM has announced a deal with Zend Technologies to create what it believes is among the first integrated programming solutions using the Web-based PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) language....

BPO battle heats up - Microsoft eyes BPO takeover, homing in on targeted niche solutions.(business process outsourcing)
February 28, 2005... BPO (business process outsourcing) is quickly becoming a frontline solution for CIOs desperate to reduce costs and automate business processes. Behind the lines, however, the major application vendors are increasingly viewing BPO as an...

HP unwraps storage essentials - Product suite aims to reduce storage costs and bolster availability.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Hewlett-Packard plans to integrate its server and storage management architectures with a group of products under the HP System Insight Manager. As part of that move, next month the company will begin shipping HP Storage Essentials, a suite of...

BEA, Borland endorse Eclipse platform - Open source IDE and modeling attract attention.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... BEA Systems will base the next version of its WebLogic Workshop IDE around the Eclipse open source tools platform, while Borland Software is stepping up its participation in Eclipse. Code-named Daybreak and due in fall 2005, the next...

JBoss upgrades object-relational technology - Services programs also to debut at user conference.(Hibernate 3.0)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... JBoss at its JBoss World 2005 conference in Atlanta next week will upgrade its Hibernate object-relational mapping software and debut service programs for open source projects and users of the vendor's middleware. Hibernate 3.0 features...

SOA's killer app unveiled - Rearden Commerce extends enterprise purchasing control to business services and sets a high-water mark for Internet apps with its unique SOA platform.(service-oriented architecture)
February 28, 2005... No one believes Patrick Grady at first. Why should they? He comes out of nowhere, radiating confidence, claiming his company, Rearden Commerce, has pulled off the IT coup of the new century. His triumph: a working b- to-b marketplace, fronted...

EDITOR'S LETTER: SOA apps meet reality - The visionaries at Rearden Commerce hope to succeed where Microsoft failed.(Editorial)
February 28, 2005... How does a company no one has heard of end up on the cover of a national magazine? This is not a hypothetical question: Our cover story this week tells the tale of Rearden Commerce and its just-launched EBS (Employee Business Services), built...

REALITY CHECK: Start-ups offer blog and e-mail monitoring - Responding to corporate demand for better accountability in employee communications.
February 28, 2005... I'm just back from the annual Demo conference, this year held in Scottsdale, Ariz. If you're not familiar with this 15-year-old event, the audience is usually a mixture of venture capitalists, the investment arms of high-tech companies, and the...

CTO CONNECTION: The ones that get away - Now that the IT recovery is under way, it will be harder to retain the best employees.
February 28, 2005... A couple of years ago, just down the street from InfoWorld's offices in San Francisco, an undistinguished establishment became a favorite lunch spot for InfoWorlders for one simple reason: No one was ever there. You could pick your table,...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Implementing real-world structured searches - Mixing tags with free-text search can bring the promise of XML that much closer to reality.
February 28, 2005... In the early days of XML, smart search was often cited as a key benefit. Instead of just trawling for single-celled keywords in an ocean of undifferentiated text, the story went, we'd navigate islands of structure looking for more evolved...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Apple sics the dogs on rumor sites - Someone's got Paris' number.
February 28, 2005... Well, I feel stupid. All week, people have been talking about The Gates, and the entire time I thought they meant Bill. I assumed that in an effort to appear hip, he'd adopted a mono-name, like Madonna or The Donald. Turns out The Gates is an...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Value servers feel the strain - High-priced servers with proprietary architectures have the edge in guarding against failure.
February 28, 2005... In the off-the-shelf world of value servers, surmounting challenges to high availability is your job. Management solutions make remote observation easier, and clustering is getting closer to standard fare for OSes. But I wonder: Will a...

Product previews.(Hewlett-Packard ProCurve Secure Router and Access Controller Module)(Packeteer PacketShaper 1200)(Ixiasoft TextML Server 3.5 )(Lucid8 GOexchange 3.1)
February 28, 2005... HP secures networking gear, Packeteer updates appliance, IXIASOFT releases new version of XML database, and Lucid8 issues new Exchange management software By InfoWorld staff HP fills in networking lineup Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve...

Patrick Grady's calculated debut - Rearden Commerce's launch timed for impact.(Interview)
February 28, 2005... How did Patrick Grady manage to build his service when others have failed? How did he draw in big-name customers? In addition to his forceful personality, 10 years in high-tech venture capital gave him extraordinary access. In the early...

Building on the Services Bus - Cape Clear 6 brings BPEL orchestration to its ESB suite.(enterprise service bus)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... With the release of Cape Clear 6.0, Cape Clear Software rounds out its offering in the ESB (enterprise service bus) arena -- the emerging class of middleware steering EAI toward more flexible and affordable service- oriented approaches -- with...