InfoWorld articles from March 2005

InfoWorld archives from March 2005

CA, Symantec bolster recovery, ID management - Vendors create building blocks for next-generation security.(new product from Computer Associates International Inc.)
March 7, 2005... Computer Associates and Symantec have intensified efforts to integrate security more tightly with traditional IT functions. Last week CA announced a new architecture for processing identity and access management that will become the...

SAS, Informatica buff ETL - Companies inject wares with metadata tracking, expanded integration.(extract, transform, load, SAS Institute Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Data warehousing took center stage as SAS and Informatica announced extensions to ETL (extract, transform, load) products last week. SAS Institute unveiled the newest version of SAS Enterprise ETL Server, which has a wizard user interface...

Intel, VMware team on virtualization - Deal will allow companies to exploit Vanderpool Technology for desktop and server chips.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Intel and VMware helped push virtualization technology further into the limelight last week by announcing plans to work together to optimize VMware's server product with Intel's future chip-level virtualization technologies. At Intel's...

Sonic upgrades SOA offerings - Enterprise service bus anchors product line.(service-oriented architecture, Sonic Software Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Sonic Software on Monday will unveil release 6.1 of the Sonic product line for building service-oriented architectures based on ESB (enterprise service bus) technology. Highlights of this release include a uniform service invocation model...

Microsoft Extends IE Version 7.0.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Internet Explorer 7.0, the next version of Microsoft's Web browser, won't just run on Windows XP with Service Pack 2. It will also be available for Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, the company...

Broadcom Touts Controller.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Broadcom took another step in delivering the next-generation server bus technology to network controllers. The company announced the NetXtreme II BCM5708 Gigabit Ethernet controller, the first product in its NetXtreme II line to support PCI...

EMC Storage Search Unveiled.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... EMC announced Centera Seek, designed to search, retrieve, and utilize active enterprise archives created with EMC's Centera CAS (content addressed storage) system. The software is based on the InStream enterprise search technology from Fast...

CTO CONNECTION: Your CEO, exposed! Paris Hilton's wayward handheld can teach us all a lesson about the security of mobile devices.(Column)
March 7, 2005... On a recent business trip with a couple of colleagues, I learned that my otherwise sober workmate had a special fondness for trashy tabloids like Star Magazine and Us Weekly. When offered a glance at these publications on a long cross-country...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Annotating the planet with Google Maps - Open, XML-based design makes it a service factory for the geospatial Web.
March 7, 2005... My previous column on Google Maps provoked an unusually strong response. First up was Wil Rivers, who pointed out that Telcontar's Drill Down Server is the engine that does the heavy lifting on the back end. Next was a series of gripes about...

REALITY CHECK: Secret Service cracks down on cybercrime - Recent busts are only a drop in the bucket when it comes to phishing and fraud.
March 7, 2005... Last week, I spoke with Brian Nagel, assistant director of the Secret Service's Office of Investigations. The Secret Service is famous as the agency that provides bodyguards to the president -- at one time Nagel served in the Presidential...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: One bit at a time, please - To build a clean, perfectly timed, and routable serial bus, start with a handful of marbles.
March 7, 2005... I've taken up the hobby of designing and constructing marble runs, which are made of long interconnecting tracks. Straight lines, gentle inclines, and tubes are kiddy stuff. A track isn't worth building or watching if it doesn't seem beyond a...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Too many open source licenses? License proliferation puts a burden on software vendors, integrators, and customers alike.
March 7, 2005... Open source licensing gives you the freedom to deploy software for whatever purpose you want, even to tinker with its internals or to build complex systems with components from different developers. That's great for pilot projects and research,...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Carly gets trashed, Hotmail is crashed - No pictures of Paris here.(Column)
March 7, 2005... Many thanks to the readers who responded to my shameless groveling for compliments in last week's column. Nearly all agreed with the anonymous critic who said my column is trashy, but that's the way they like it (uh-huh, uh-huh). A Broom...

EDITOR'S LETTER: SOA's tipping point - More than half of IT execs are looking seriously at service-oriented architectures -- a significant milestone.
March 7, 2005... Most people credit The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell with making tipping point a catchphrase. Gladwell's 2000 book The Tipping Point popularized the term to describe that magical moment when a mere blip on society's radar suddenly becomes an...

Product previews.(brief)
March 7, 2005... NetSuite adds service for ongoing client management, Opera issues second beta of browser with focus on security, CA boosts output management for mainframes, and Compuware ignites CARS By InfoWorld staff NetSuite fires up client...

IronPort C60 secures e-mail from all sides - IronPort packs effective anti-spam, anti-virus, and more into an easy-to-manage 2U appliance.(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 7, 2005... E-mail administrators have their hands full these days. They have to protect against spam, phishing, viruses, and address-verification robots while ensuring that content policies are enforced and messages properly encrypted. The IronPort C60...

Dashboards for the enterprise - Indicative and Segue performance managers are far-reaching and flexible.(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 7, 2005... Enterprise application performance or service level management solutions not only help companies adhere to business-defined SLAs. They also help IT staffs to identify problems quickly in complex, distributed applications that often involve...

Dell's newest is a chip off the old blade - Second-generation PowerEdge 1855 blade system excels at networking options.(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 7, 2005... Blade servers are evolving at a feverish pace, and Dell's PowerEdge 1855 system shows just how far the technology has come. Previous blade systems I've seen suffered from severe restrictions and trade-offs, mainly in regard to...

Taking IT to the streets: 3G arrives - Broadband cellular service means the office can travel wherever the road warrior may roam.
March 7, 2005... Call it the end of downtime -- all those offline hours wasted in useless conference sessions or at the airport -- and the start of rich applications accessible virtually anywhere. Whether your preferred device is a handheld or a notebook, in a...

Ten hot handhelds for the road warrior - Late-model smartphones and data gizmos offer mobile and IT professionals nearly endless possibilities.(Buyers Guide)
March 7, 2005... Handhelds have come a long way from desktop synchronization with contacts, calendar, and task lists. An emerging class of business-oriented smartphones and PDAs -- typically running the BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian, or Windows Mobile 2003...

Storming the application gates - Cenzic Hailstorm 2.0 automates security testing for Web apps.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 7, 2005... Wouldn't it be nice if you could find and correct vulnerabilities in your Web applications before a hacker did? You can with Cenzic Hailstorm 2.0. An automated application security assessment tool, Hailstorm allows security managers, code...

Wireless operators hate business - Pleasing business customers below the large enterprise level is a low priority for wireless operators, but that's changing -- and you can hurry things up.
March 7, 2005... Wireless operators love consumers. Consumers are bottomless wells of continuing revenue, boosting the operator's ARPU (average revenue per user) from text-messaging fees, ring-tone and game downloads, and now music and video. Businesses, on the...

Networking titans build out SAN, MAN wares - Cisco, Foundry, Juniper, and McData, foster wares for bigger, broader networks.
March 14, 2005... Network vendors are pushing the envelope with hardware tuned for backup, larger networks, and wireless security, as evidenced by new wares from Cisco, Foundry, and Juniper. Cisco last week announced updates to its storage-virtualization...

Astaro stops spyware in its tracks - Desktop software prevents malware from spreading inside the firewall.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Astaro last week released a new version of its Linux-based security package that includes protection against malware. Version 5.2 of Astaro Security Linux intercepts messages from spyware applications already inside an end-user organization...

BI vendors tout integration tools - Oracle, Information Builders, Spotfire help customers get to data sources.(business intelligence software )(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Access to 'all data all the time' was the theme from the three BI software vendors that announced upgrades to their BI applications last week. Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle Business Intelligence 10g, while rival...

Oracle Fights SAP for Retek.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Days after SAP agreed to buy retail software maker Retek, Oracle jammed a wrench in the works, announcing plans to outbid its rival. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison sent a letter to Retek? board of directors saying Oracle will commence a cash tender...

Microsoft Unveils IM Client.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates outlined Microsoft? vision for collaboration and communication within the Office System lineup, introducing a new IM client and enhancements to the company? IM server and...

AOL Ready to Launch VoIP.
March 14, 2005... AOL said that within a month it will launch a VoIP service in a bid to bring packet-based calling technology to the mass market. The initiative, called the AOL Internet Phone Service, will leverage the buddy lists used in AIM to show a...

Microsoft/Groove marriage sparks Longhorn questions - Observers unsure where Groove's peer-to-peer software will fit with Longhorn, Office 12.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... In acquiring Groove Networks, Microsoft's collaboration strategy will gain a clear boost, but the move raises questions about how swiftly and effectively the two companies can integrate Groove's technology into Longhorn and the next version of...

IBM maps its information-management plan - Updated CM products announced; future integration planned.
March 14, 2005... IBM later this month plans to release updated versions of its DB2 content- and document-management products, featuring tighter integration among the portfolio. The move sets in motion Big Blue's longer-term strategy to create an integrated...

Business VoIP services come online - Data network providers display options at VON show.(Spring 2005 VON (Voice on the Net) Conference & Expo)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Service providers are fueling the drive toward VoIP in enterprises and small and midsize businesses with a flood of new services, some of which were on display this week at the Spring 2005 VON (Voice on the Net) Conference & Expo. Time...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: What's so bad about the GPL? Before you seek protection in commercial licenses, consider your alternative.(General Public License)
March 14, 2005... Companies that modify open source software spend a lot of time debating how best to circumnavigate the difficulties of open source licenses, most notably the GNU GPL (General Public License). I have to question whether that's always time well...

REALITY CHECK: Demand-driven manufacturing: Burn those spreadsheets - Streamlined processes can improve production, packaging, and inventory management.
March 14, 2005... The Aberdeen Group says that 92 percent of all manufacturers use spreadsheets for production planning and scheduling. I spoke with See's Candy, a chocolate manufacturer with about 200 wholly-owned retail outlets, mostly on the West Coast, and...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Don't throw out the SOAP with the bathwater - Representational State Transfer is fine for Yahoo's services, but it's no cure-all.
March 14, 2005... What goes around comes around. Three years ago, mine was one of the voices urging the Web services movement not to lose touch with the Web's essential nature, as embodied in the architectural style known as REST (Representational State...

CTO CONNECTION: Ignorance of the law - The best antidote to compliance paranoia is to learn the legal details -- before it's too late.
March 14, 2005... During the past few weeks, I've traveled the country, speaking at a sponsored event about how regulatory compliance and legal issues affect IT. In Washington I had the pleasure of offering a tongue-in-cheek thanks to a group of mostly...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Intel's ruling coalition - Intel still trails AMD in 64-bit x86 innovation, but can't miss by fast- tracking new technology.
March 14, 2005... Walking around the sessions and booths at the 2005 IDF (Intel Developer Forum), I felt like someone at Intel had been reading my columns. Or rather, Intel seems to be focusing on the kind of technological coalition building at which it has...

STORAGE INSIDER: Taking storage management by storm - AppIQ's suite aims to change the storage management landscape from inside.
March 14, 2005... Competition in the storage space is tight, which explains why staying in business and being successful is so difficult. While this is true across the entire storage spectrum, there's one specific segment in which, for many years, there has been...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Apple fans frown, Google strips down - Seeking a virtual girlfriend for my pocket.
March 14, 2005... Given my love life woes, reader Anne T. suggests I try a virtual girlfriend instead. Hong Kong software vendor Artificial Life makes one called Vivienne that lives inside a cell phone. Vivienne's always in your pocket and talks endlessly on...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Better than the wheel? It's not just about SOA. Mix-and-match architectures drive today's enterprise.
March 14, 2005... The IT world is always on the prowl for the Next Big Thing. Remember the first time you read about client/server, the Segway scooter, or 3G wireless? (I'm fantasizing -- anachronistically, of course -- about a breathy headline in the...

Product Previews.
March 14, 2005... AOL offers test version of Netscape 8, StillSecure tests network end points for compliance, Network Instruments releases Test Access Ports, and AccessLine puts a VoIP service to its offerings By InfoWorld staff AOL issues Netscape 8...

Compuware targets untested code - DevPartner Fault Simulator 1.0 shows promise but has several faults of its own.(Product/Service Evaluation)(Column)
March 14, 2005... One of the little-discussed realities of software development is that many packages ship without having been fully tested. Despite the new emphasis on continuous regression testing and the sophistication of quality-assurance tools, there's an...

NextPage solves document-management dilemma - Quietly efficient NextPage 1.5 slips document management into everyday routines.(Product/Service Evaluation)(Column)
March 14, 2005... Software developers have used version-control apps for decades to manage changes to documents and track who's got the latest copy. Business users have had access to document-control systems, too, but these systems haven't caught on. That may be...

Countdown to 64-bit Windows - Release Candidate 2 of Windows Server 2003 x64 Enterprise Edition shows that Microsoft has done its homework.
March 14, 2005... The RC2 (Release Candidate 2) version of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Enterprise Edition no longer bears the shaky feel of a work in progress. Contrary to the belief that AMD Opteron's and Intel Xeon EM64T's 64-bits can be exploited only...

Exclusive: Index Engines sparks search innovation - Unique appliance plugs into your SAN and indexes unstructured content as it's backed up.(Storage area networks)(Product/Service Evaluation)(Column)
March 14, 2005... IT managers deal with a relentless sprawl of unstructured data. Research firm Meta Group estimates corporate storage for each employee was 3GB in 2003, and most analysts say this requirement is increasing by 50 percent to 70 percent each year....

HP brings sweet simplicity to MFPs - Speedy, capable 4345mfp is sold and managed like a printer.
March 14, 2005... Many high-performance, laser-based MFPs (multifunction printers) cost $10,000 or more and provide features and capabilities so sophisticated - - or bewildering -- that you can buy them only from a reseller or VAR, packaged with setup, training,...

Lightweight and open architectures - Enterprises are using cheap, lightweight components and open source software to address large-scale challenges.
March 14, 2005... You've heard the saying. "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." That mantra was first popularized in the 1970s, long before the advent of the personal computer changed the face of enterprise IT. Big iron was king - - often in the form of IBM...

The state of enterprise architecture - Welcome to InfoWorld's crystallization of the ideal enterprise, a prism with seven architectural views: secure, process-driven, pervasive, service- oriented, data-centric, needs-based, and open.
March 14, 2005... Each of the following seven articles tackles a key characteristic of emerging enterprise architectures, as perceived by InfoWorld contributors and editors. But in reality, we probably could have boiled them down to one: the business-driven...

Process-driven architectures - Enterprises are tailoring their architectures to the key business processes that they must support and comply with.
March 14, 2005... Take a look at some of the acronyms creeping into enterprise architectures -- BPEL (Business Process Execution Language), BPM (business process management), BPO (business process outsourcing) -- and you begin to see a pattern. The "business...

Data-centric architectures - Enterprises are increasingly focused on unifying their enterprisewide data and designing architectures to maximize the usefulness and accessibility of that data.
March 14, 2005... Enterprises have always been concerned with data quality and integration. But the interest in improving data and content management is clearly on the rise, as companies are increasingly focusing on unifying their enterprisewide data and on...

Pervasive architectures - Enterprise environments are being designed for anytime, anywhere access to company resources, apps, and data.
March 14, 2005... Ask 20 people what a pervasive IT architecture is and you'll get 20 answers. Some will mention the rapid spread of always-on wireless and mobile devices. Others will focus on the coming proliferation of billions of tiny, IP-connected sensors,...

Secure architectures - Enterprises are increasingly designing security into every aspect of their systems from the get-go, rather than retroactively.
March 14, 2005... Thanks to complex perimeters, sophisticated application-level threats, and regulations that hold CEOs and CIOs accountable for company data, security must now be regarded as more than a bunch of technologies tacked onto the network. "Companies...

Service-oriented architectures - Enterprises are leveraging the SOA model to lay the groundwork for a more efficient and flexible IT future.
March 14, 2005... To understand and apply the principles of SOA, you'd think we would have to agree first on what we mean by a "service." To a surprising degree, we haven't, but this is hardly the first time a powerful idea has been tricky to nail down....

Needs-based architectures - Enterprises must provide different levels of service to different users according to need and assign the right resources dynamically.
March 14, 2005... Say goodbye to one-size-fits-all architectures -- the old days of just giving users their apportioned slice of "the system" are long gone. As financial pressures force IT departments to act more like internal service businesses, architectures...

Packeteer, Visual Networks aim for large networks - Application management gains traction.(Brief Article)
March 21, 2005... The increased growth and speed of networks has engendered a new wave of products aimed at enhancing the delivery of data across the enterprise. This week Visual Networks will release a new family of Ethernet appliances designed for large,...

IBM buys Ascential - Big Blue to add acquired technology to its information integration family.(International Business Machines Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 21, 2005... IBM snapped up Ascential Software last week for $1.1 billion. Big Blue plans to add Ascential's products -- which are used to build data warehouses, to feed data into BI systems, and to consolidate applications -- to its...

Azaleos, Postini ease e-mail management - Companies simplify monitoring and maintenance.(Brief Article)
March 21, 2005... From fighting spam to streamlining maintenance, corporate IT managers this month will gain more armor for their e-mail environments. Postini this week plans to roll out Perimeter Manager Small Business Edition, a new version of its managed...

Hosted apps vendors clash over the great ASP debate - Epiphany, NetSuite, Salesforce.com, and Siebel debate industry-specific vs. customization.(Application service providers)
March 21, 2005... What started as a cute marketing slogan -- "Just say no to software" -- may turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The herd of CRM and ERP ASPs is growing stronger not only in services and features but also in number of customers. And as...

Sun, Microsoft look to appease developers - Java, Visual Basic in focus.
March 21, 2005... Sun Microsystems and Microsoft are making moves to placate developers currently dissatisfied with the companies' stances on specific development issues. Sun is tweaking its Java licensing, emphasizing that it wants to make Java as open...

Iona heats up ESB market with Artix 3.0 - Features will include mobile support.(Enterprise Service Bus)(Brief Article)
March 21, 2005... Iona Technologies this week announced an upgrade to its ESB (enterprise service bus), Artix 3.0, featuring mobile support and new development- tools options. Shipping in late April, Artix 3.0 is positioned as an enterprise-level offering...

EDITOR'S LETTER: How the FBI's upgrade spelled disaster - For one crime-fighting agency, good intentions weren't enough to prevent failure.
March 21, 2005... This week's issue brings an insightful article by Executive Editor At Large Eric Knorr on a dream IT project that devolved into a nightmare. In an odd twist, the victim -- or perpetrator, depending on your perspective -- of this melodrama...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Computers cannot heal - All the supercomputers in the world aren't going to tell you why your head hurts.(Column)
March 21, 2005... As computers appeared on the public scene in the '50s, psychologists marveled at the parallels between data-processing technology and the workings of the human mind. A handful of scientists of the day believed that the functional structure of...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Fast-forward learning with screencasting - Going beyond traditional models of technical education.(Column)
March 21, 2005... As I continue to explore and develop screencasting, I'm finding new and unexpected uses for it. Here's one that took me completely by surprise. A few weeks ago, my blog featured a screencast with Jason Hunter, a Java expert now working for...

CTO CONNECTION: Beyond the blog hype - Many IT managers see blogging as a waste of time, but they're missing the practical value.
March 21, 2005... Without a doubt, 2004 was the breakthrough year for blogs. If my consumption of various media so far this year is any indication, journalists at traditional media organizations must now be having regular meetings to decide which one of them...

REALITY CHECK: The marriage of manufacturing and retail - You can't have one without the other, and supply and demand go both ways.
March 21, 2005... As this week's issue went to press, Oracle and SAP were still battling to acquire retail management software vendor Retek. The real story, though, isn't about who wins the prize but what's inside the box. Retek offers a suite of software...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Why my dog resembles my love life - Microsoft gets the boot, Apple follows suit.
March 21, 2005... When not inquiring about my love life, readers often ask about Apache. I'm pleased to report that Apache is a mangy old mutt who sleeps most of the time, eats anything put in front of him, and smells like sweat socks soaked in brine. They say...

Product previews.(NLayers)
March 21, 2005... Novell releases ZENworks 7 Linux Management, McAfee protects SMBs, nLayers updates InSight , and ADIC interoperates with Hewlett-Packard, Red Hat By InfoWorld staff Novell extends lifecycle management for Linux Novell this month...

Anatomy of an IT disaster: How the FBI blew it - The Bureau's foiled plan for a modern IT infrastructure is a tragic case of project mismanagement.(Information Technology)(Federal Bureau of Investigation)
March 21, 2005... Some FBI agents ruefully refer to the trilogy project, a massive initiative to modernize the FBI's aging technology infrastructure, as the "Tragedy" project. It certainly has all the earmarks of tragedy: the best intentions, catastrophic...

Peeking under the hood of VCF - We try to learn the details of the FBI's failed, but still classified, application.(Virtual Case File)(Interview)
March 21, 2005... The details of how the FBI does its business and the systems that support the bureau are classified. Nonetheless, Executive Editor at Large Eric Knorr did his best to get a rough description of VCF (Virtual Case File) -- the $170 million system...

RedDot refines Web publisher - RedDot CMS 6.1 eases Web site updates and administration.(Brief Article)
March 21, 2005... RedDot Solutions may be best known for its signature red dots -- icons that are embedded in Web pages and that authors click to update content easily. Still, corporate Webmasters may not realize how strong an enterprise content manager RedDot...

GreenBorder cages malware - Unique approach to desktop security -- allowing content to execute in virtual space -- requires accepting a measure of risk.(GreenBorder Professional Edition )
March 21, 2005... GreenBorder Professional Edition is designed to protect against malicious content arriving in Internet Explorer and Outlook -- but it gives the traditional virtual environment security paradigm a nifty 180- degree twist. GreenBorder forces...

WatchGuard delivers a big firewall for small businesses - WatchGuard Firebox X2500 packs enterprise-level features, but be ready for complex administration.
March 21, 2005... Geared to the SMB market, WatchGuard's Firebox X series offers a feature set comparable to more expensive firewalls -- along with some of the accompanying setup and administration complexities of enterprise firewalls. In addition to...

Managing security in a compliance-crazy world - Products from eSecurity, nCircle, eEye, Enterasys, and NetIQ ease documentation burden.
March 21, 2005... The laws seem to be shooting out of Congress like arrows aimed at the hearts and budgets of IT administrators across corporate America. Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Basel II, and a host of other regulations are pushing IT security...

Hewlett-Packard and Quantum represent latest generations of tape-drive technology - Latest generations of LTO and SDLT prove speedy and capacious.(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 21, 2005... Although various industry pundits have repeatedly predicted the imminent death of tape drives, tape backups are still irreplaceable in many business-continuity strategies. Backing up to disks may cut down on downtime, but it's no substitute for...

Users wait for results from Microsoft-Sun pact - Executives say real change could be years in the making.
March 28, 2005... One year ago Microsoft and Sun Microsystems struck a peace accord that has been described as a watershed event for the technology industry and a potential boon for users. Although the deal ended the antagonism between the companies, users still...

Novell builds up Linux muscle - Desktop OS, middleware strengthen company's open source designs.
March 28, 2005... Novell used its annual BrainShare conference last week to detail future desktop OS and middleware products that beef up its open source strategy. Fleshing out the blueprint it introduced in November, Novell previewed features in the next...

Force10 jumps into Gigabit Ethernet - S-Series switches take on datacenter needs.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Force10 networks joins the fast-moving Gigabit Ethernet switch parade this week with a new line of switches designed for high-performance datacenter environments. According to Dell'Oro Group, Gigabit Ethernet servers are rapidly...

IBM bundles VMware apps - Blades come with virtual software.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... VMware said it will bundle evaluation copies of its virtual- infrastructure software line with IBM's Intel-based eServer BladeCenter servers. Corporate users buying a BladeCenter server will receive bundled evaluation copies of VMware's...

Tibco extends data integration - New DataExchange product, partnership, acquisition offer mainframe access, ETL.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Tibco was busy in March. The integration vendor acquired ObjectStar for data integration on the mainframe and partnered with Embarcadero Technologies to license DT/Studio for ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) capabilities. Using...

AmberPoint touts graphics in SOA management pack - Dashboards, Macromedia Flash are leveraged.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Amberpoint is enhancing graphical capabilities in its management system for SOAs (service-oriented architectures) and Web services. Improved dashboards in AmberPoint 4.3, which is available now, are intended to provide for a better...

EDITOR'S LETTER: InfoWorld.com has a new home page - The new InfoWorld.com home page puts the content front and center.
March 28, 2005... If you're reading this column on InfoWorld.com, you've probably already picked up on our new look. If you're reading it in the pulp-and-ink version (aka InfoWorld magazine), you may be in for a surprise. In either event, let me take this...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: X marks the spot - Xbox may catch fire, hack draws Apple's ire.
March 28, 2005... I'd like to reassure my animal-loving friends (and PETA) that despite last week's column, my dog Apache is well-cared for, if not exactly well-groomed. And his name has nothing to do with Native Americans and everything to do with open source...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Using RSS for data integration - Amazon's OpenSearch API demonstrates the power of RSS for process-to- process communication.(Jeff Bezos)
March 28, 2005... Last week at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Jeff Bezos announced OpenSearch, an API that enables third parties to inject their own live search results into Amazon's A9.com. I didn't attend ETech this year, but that cloud had a...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Blame Visual Studio .Net - 64- bit Windows' incompatibility with much of the Windows Server System traces back to VS .Net.
March 28, 2005... I dreamed that Microsoft put me in charge of development for its 64-bit enterprise server applications, the Exchange and SQL Server, and so on, all of which travel collectively as Windows Server System. I was asked to find out why some elements...

CTO CONNECTION: Want a Mac? You're on your own - I love Macs and I use one myself, but I can't afford to spend time supporting them.(Macintosh systems)
March 28, 2005... About every six months, a particular event in my life as a working CTO forces me to step back and reconsider the Mac as an enterprise platform. Sometimes it's a discovery I make on my own as a PowerBook user, other times it's a new software...