InfoWorld articles from May 2005

InfoWorld archives from May 2005

Product previews.
May 2, 2005... Sun refreshes Java Enterprise System, Novell details ZenWorks Asset Management, Bluesocket manages WLANs, and NextWeb preps VoIP via wireless By InfoWorld staff Sun heats up Java EnterpriseSystem with Version 3 Sun Microsystems...

Windows rolls into the 64-bit era - Gates says systems will be "mainstream" in time for Longhorn.(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Microsoft last week delivered its first 64-bit server and desktop versions of Windows, and immediately set out to encourage hardware developers to deliver systems that will make 64-bit computing common across the industry. At its annual...

Interop highlights WLAN services - Cisco adds advanced security features for its router line.
May 2, 2005... The newly renamed Interop show opens this week with companies such as Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, and Meru Networks beefing up their WLAN products and increasing security features on their wares. The show's bulky NetWorld+Interop moniker...

Mercury looks to lighten compliance load - IT Governance Center 6.0 automates changes made to meet mandates.
May 2, 2005... Promising to lighten IT's heavy and ongoing burden to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulations, Mercury Interactive on Monday issued IT Governance Center 6.0, which automates the process of managing IT changes driven by compliance...

Microsoft, SAP link Office, ERP.(Enterprise Resource Planning)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Microsoft and SAP plan to deliver a jointly developed product later this year that links SAP's ERP software and Microsoft's Office products, the companies said. The product, code-named Mendocino, is the first joint product from Microsoft and...

Dell NAS device touted for SANs.(Network Attached Storage)(Storage Area Networks)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Dell announced an NAS device that enables customers to consolidate data from heterogeneous systems on a common Dell/EMC SAN. The Dell/EMC NS500G NAS gateway eliminates the need for stand-alone devices, reducing storage costs and complexity, the...

MontaVista eyes Linux for phones.(Mobilinux 4.0.)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... MontaVista Software said it will ship an embedded version of Linux, called Mobilinux 4.0. Based on the Linux 2.6 kernel, Mobilinux 4.0 is part of a MontaVista initiative meant to work with chip manufacturers, handset makers, and software...

Akamai service speeds apps - Web Application Accelerator takes service approach to app management.(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Akamai Technologies this week will roll out a new managed service designed to bump up the performance and scalability of Web applications. The Web Application Accelerator service allows enterprises to extend Web applications such as...

Q&A with Hector Ruiz on AMD's future - Beyond dual-core chips.(Interview)
May 2, 2005... The past five years have not been easy for AMD CEO Hector Ruiz. But after racking up more than $1 billion in losses, his company finally turned things around in 2004. With the launch of its first dual-core Opteron processors late last month,...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Real-world SOA confers real benefits - Practice gets practical.(Service Oriented Architecture)(Editorial)
May 2, 2005... Time to get practical. Infoworld has been focusing on SOA and its predecessor, Web services, for nigh on five years. But with the current issue, the rubber meets the road -- or more specifically, the business meets the code -- as we examine how...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Microsoft gets "started", HP is Bogarted - Speaking of user-friendly front ends ...
May 2, 2005... It's been a big week for OSes. Microsoft rolled out 64-bit Windows (ooh- wee baby), Ballmer hyped Longhorn at WinHEC ("70 percent fewer reboots than Windows XP"), and Apple unleashed Tiger, its latest upgrade to OS X. Makes me nostalgic for the...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Apple puts users on a need-to- have basis - Unless new features are essential, they won't get into OS X.
May 2, 2005... Considering how bright and enthusiastic Apple's engineers and product managers are, I know each day brings dozens of new ideas to the conference table. Ultimately, Apple turns thumbs down on 995 out of 1,000 of those ideas. Apple could easily...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: What TimeDance got right - The loss of this powerful online meeting and collaboration tool leaves a vacuum to fill.(Column)
May 2, 2005... Most of the meetings I schedule cross organizational borders and doing so is always a painful process. Everyone feels the same pain to one degree or another and has felt it for years. Ad-hoc collaboration across borders is at the core of the...

CTO CONNECTION: Does IT demand too much commitment? Work the long hours, but don't sign your life away.
May 2, 2005... It's no secret that IT is not a line of work for the strict 9-to-5ers who walk among us. Even at a relatively small company like InfoWorld, the IT staff deals with issues spanning half the globe, from Paris to Honolulu, and our revenue-critical...

REALITY CHECK: Optimizing your enterprise through statistical analysis - Operational research is the science of making business work better.
May 2, 2005... "Every company is trying to be more competitive with the same money and fewer people. The pressure is on. But what do you do when you run out of obvious things you can do with common sense? Turn to extras. This is high-tech stuff." Thus...

Ingate firewall offers SIP-capable security - Ingate's proxy-based, SIP- aware Firewall 1600 protects phone and data networks.
May 2, 2005... The latest version of Ingate Systems' Firewall 1600 improves on the Firewall 1400, which we reviewed last year. The result is a SIP-aware VoIP firewall suitable for all but the largest enterprises. The Firewall 1600 is a more capable unit...

SIP PBXes stake a claim - SIP solutions from Avaya, Siemens, Zultys provide strong enterprise footing for VoIP.(Serial Interface Protocol)
May 2, 2005... SIP works. Not only does it work, but it is easier to use, implement, and configure than older VoIP standards. The promise of SIP has always been interoperability, and the three SIP- based phone systems we reviewed demonstrate why real...

Feed the monitoring multitudes - Gigamon's network data access switch steers your links to your analyzers.(Gigamon Systems)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... The GigaVue-MP is a modular system that provides line-speed port aggregation, switching, filtering, and duplication of streams via an out-of-band switch fabric for network analysis. It filters traffic on just about anything in the Ethernet...

British Telecom dials into SOA - Using Microsoft's Connected Services Framework, a telecom giant test markets and deploys a wide variety of targeted offerings for SMB customers.
May 2, 2005... Telecom providers are competing tooth and nail to provide consumer and business customers with the latest and greatest value-added services. This smorgasbord of offerings includes everything from ring-tone downloads to hosted messaging,...

Countrywide Financial simplifies lending - A fast-growing lending company with widely distributed IT shops abstracts applications as services, links them via messaging bus, and gains new business agility.(Service oriented architecture)
May 2, 2005... For half a decade, Countrywide Financial has seen its loan, insurance, and banking services businesses grow dramatically -- and its IT systems increase in complexity -- as customers, products, and markets have multiplied. To meet this increase...

SOA ensures Guardian gets it right - A commitment to reusability helps the nation's fourth largest insurer cut app dev costs, unlock data from legacy systems, and integrate applications across the Internet.(Service Oriented Architecture)
May 2, 2005... Five years ago, Guardian Life Insurance decided to rethink the basic structure of its application silos, which had been developed with little attention to business goals, says Jaime Sguerra, chief architect at Guardian. "There was no standard...

Massachusetts takes a spoonful of SOA - When doctors, hospitals, and insurers needed to exchange data across the state of Massachusetts, an SOA turned out to be the most practical, cost effective solution.
May 2, 2005... Many organizations are looking to SOA to tie together systems within the enterprise or among partners. But few face the diversity and complexity that the state of Massachusetts did when it tried to connect independent insurer, hospital, and...

SOA meets the real world - Five big organizations launch ambitious service-oriented architecture initiatives and explain their objectives, obstacles, and solutions.(Service-oriented architecture)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2005... Service-oriented architecture is an idea, not a technology. Boundless in scope, it promises both unlimited software reuse and the interconnection of everything, as long as IT is willing to wrap legacy applications in standard interfaces and...

Transamerica turns silos into services - SOA integration eases data exchange and exposes legacy systems as Web services that can be plugged into custom apps for insurance agents.
May 2, 2005... One of the real promises of SOA is enabling companies to leverage existing legacy systems as a set of core, reusable Web service building blocks that can be assembled to create new processes and applications quickly and inexpensively. That's...

PDF tools seek to undercut Acrobat - Arts PDF, ScanSoft roll out low- price PDF creation, editing apps.(PDF Converter Professional 3.0)(Nitro PDF)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Zeroing in on the specific needs of business users, Arts PDF and ScanSoft are introducing PDF creation and editing tools designed to offer more functionality at a lower price point than Adobe's Acrobat products. ScanSoft this week unveils...

Sun delays grid rollout - Launch of Sun Grid utility service pushed back to July.(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Sun Microsystems has delayed the rollout of Sun Grid, an Internet-based "utility" service that has been in development since late last year. A lack of computing resources has pushed back the public launch of Sun Grid, originally slated for...

Microsoft offers R&D to companies.(Research and Development)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Microsoft has opened up a library of technologies developed by its R&D teams to small companies and startups. Under the program, called Microsoft IP Ventures, the software maker will license technologies to these companies to help ease their...

Serena bolsters app dev suite.(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Serena is upgrading its ChangeMan Professional suite for team-based application development, swapping out the Merant Tracker for Serena's ChangeMan TeamTrack product for change control. Serena ChangeMan Professional 9 also improves...

Symbol expands wireless security.(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Symbol Technologies announced wireless security and management products to help further adoption of enterprise mobility. Offerings include the Symbol Wireless Intrusion Protection System for detecting and preventing intrusions to a wireless...

IBM automates records management - Big Blue to send 'Hawk' to beta testing.
May 9, 2005... IBM pushed its data management and integration strategies forward last week with automated records management software. It also said it will send its WebSphere Data Integration Suite, code-named Hawk, to beta testers next month. The new...

Security highlighted at Interop - VoIP, wireless also make big splash at show.
May 9, 2005... Interop may be a networking show, but security came in a close second at last week's event. Cisco, for instance, unveiled a new line of integrated security appliances, the ASA (Adaptive Security Architecture) 5500, a family of...

H-1B: Patriotic or treasonous? One side of controversy calls for limits on visas; counterargument is that skills shortage justifies them.
May 9, 2005... The H-1B visa is either a betrayal of American IT workers or a necessity of the country's high-tech future, and in a fiery debate both sides are flaming about what should be done. For the high-tech community, what Bill Gates said about...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Fear and loathing at Interop - Security, compliance, and wireless were ubiquitous in Las Vegas this year.(Editorial)
May 9, 2005... "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" may be the rule for gamblers and dance club denizens, but I hope you'll forgive my passing along a few newsworthy items from the Interop show in that dusty desert outpost. Expanding government...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Apple protects its own, TiVo phones home - It ain't so easy living on Easy Street.
May 9, 2005... Thanks to the many Cringesters who sent me directions to Easy Street. It seems there are Easy Streets in Arizona, California, and Texas, among other locales. So how come none of the women I meet live there? Book 'em, Steve-o: Last week...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Paving the information footpaths - Information systems should adapt to our usage patterns, but making that happen is no easy task.(Column)
May 9, 2005... I'm sure there are dozens of versions of this story, but I heard it from Larry Wall, the father of Perl, and it goes like this: Instead of laying down sidewalks, the builders of a new university campus waited for footpaths to emerge on the...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: AMD and Apple are made for each other - The companies unwittingly and reluctantly help the market shed its addiction to low expectations.
May 9, 2005... In separate launches just eight days apart, AMD and Apple sent up fireworks celebrating their new arrivals. AMD started shipping its dual- core Opteron and Athlon 64 X2 server and desktop processors on April 21. Apple began delivering OS X...

REALITY CHECK: Bloggers and the law - If ignorance is no excuse, then read on before allowing employees free reign over corporate blogs.
May 9, 2005... In a recent column, I called on companies to follow the lead of Sun Microsystems and liberalize their corporate blogging policies. This week I spoke with no fewer than two law firms and three attorneys to get the skinny on where your life as an...

CTO CONNECTION: The IT talent "crisis" - Formal computer-science education may be declining, but among the self-taught there's always hope.
May 9, 2005... If recent empirical and anecdotal evidence is any indication, computer science is about as trendy with college students today as phone-booth stuffing and pet rocks. According to a recent survey from the Higher Education Research Institute at...

Product previews.(Avatier)
May 9, 2005... DataFlux marries data quality with integration, Avatier uses Web services for ID management, Tacit boosts collaboration, and Packeteer touts enterprise-level VPN accelerator By InfoWorld staff DataFlux Flexes Integration blending...

Tiger Purrs for Developers and IT - Mac OS X 10.4 delivers the goods for developers and IT.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 9, 2005... Tiger -- Mac OS X 10.4 -- marks a turning point in the evolution of the Mac platform. The numerous enhancements to Mac OS X 10.4 and Mac OS X Server 10.4 are clearly aimed at the broad base of IT and professional users, rather than niches with...

The great intrusion prevention debate - Will the intrusion prevention system revolutionize security? Or is it just another point solution?(Intusion Prevention System)
May 9, 2005... No security topic generates more spirited debate than intrusion prevention. Deployed on the edge -- and increasingly, deep inside -- the network, IPSes (intrusion prevention systems) purport to identify and stop attacks before they start based...

The great business process handoff - Enterprises are outsourcing entire internal processes -- and reaping the rewards.(Business Process Outsourcing)
May 9, 2005... During the past 15 years, standards such as Java, Windows, and TCP/IP have made it much easier to outsource various aspects of IT, spawning a huge IT outsourcing industry. But that trend may pale in comparison to the next outsourcing wave: BPO...

Livelink Touchpoint blends communication tools - Solution unifies Web conferencing, blogs, team workspaces, IM, and presence awareness.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 9, 2005... Web conferencing is great for making presentations or for screen sharing during help-desk sessions. These solutions, however, don't really allow key people to share information and interact on demand. For those tasks, teams rely on a...

Web conferencing: It's like being there, virtually - Real-time collaboration services satisfy most meeting needs.
May 9, 2005... World and economic conditions combined with technological advancements continue to alter the business-travel landscape. According to a recent survey by the Travel Industry Association of America, nearly three-quarters of business air...

IBM goes the distance with Marathon - Valuable advice from an oil company exec who outsourced three major accounting processes.
May 9, 2005... When Houston-based Marathon Oil, the fourth-largest integrated oil and gas company in the United States, started looking for ways to become more efficient and cost-effective in the spring of 2003, it turned to BPO (business-process...

Flash applications for cell phones - With U.S. carrier support of Flash, the next generation of mobile apps may be on the way.
May 16, 2005... The announcement last week that small ISV Oddcast, which develops a conversational agent software called avatars, will be developing applications for cell phones using the Macromedia Flash development environment may help initiate a new era of...

ECM tools gain process control, federation - Open Text, FileNet, Xythos showcase content wares at this week's AIIM conference.
May 16, 2005... New ECM (enterprise content management) tools debuting this week from Open Text and FileNet will expand the reach of content management into business processes and disparate content repositories. Meanwhile, Xythos Software this week plans to...

EMC, HP Drive Storage Agendas - Companies to debut new products at respective user shows this week.
May 16, 2005... EMC will let the good times roll this week while Hewlett-Packard will roll the dice as both companies hold conferences for users of their storage systems. As storage continues its reign as a major IT focus, EMC and HP both plan to debut...

Next Microsoft Office release eyed.(Brief Article)
May 16, 2005... Microsoft plans to release a new version of its Office productivity software next year, company Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said. Microsoft officials have been coy about the next Office release, which has been referred to...

RSA bolsters compliance capability.(Brief Article)
May 16, 2005... RSA Security announced RSA Reporting & Compliance Manager, which enhances the auditing and reporting capabilities in its ClearTrust Web access management software. RSA Reporting & Compliance Manager provides centralized reporting capabilities...

IBM Sells Opteron Blade Server.(International Business Machines Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 16, 2005... IBM has quietly begun taking orders for its first ultrathin "blade" server to be based on AMD's Opteron microprocessor. Called the AMD Opteron LS20, the server is based on IBM's BladeCenter design and will be available with a special low-power...

Sun upgrades NetBeans open source tools platform - Development technology gains improved J2EE, third-party app server support.
May 16, 2005... Sun Microsystems on Monday is upgrading its open source NetBeans development technology and remains undaunted by the rival Eclipse platform. Available now at netbeans.org, the new NetBeans 4.1 Java IDE offers improvements in J2EE and...

Windows Mobile 5.0 needs a push - New version of Microsoft's mobile OS lacks a key enterprise feature.
May 16, 2005... Microsoft has raised the curtain on its Windows Mobile 5.0 platform, but despite early cheers from mobile-application developers, business users may not be quite as enthusiastic. Push e-mail, a key component that corporate users were...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Security in the headlines - Real safety requires behavior modification, not just technical wizardry.(Editorial)
May 16, 2005... At a conference last year, I made a potentially disastrous mistake. I walked off with someone else's laptop bag, leaving my own case -- a black, standard-issue, backpack-style bag -- propped against a chair leg. I noticed the substitution about...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Microsoft sees the light, HP study's not right - Anyone wanna buy the Taj Mahal?
May 16, 2005... It seems I've been duped again. First it was that Romanian couple allegedly naming their baby Yahoo. Now it's the yarn about a businessman from Little Rock, Ark., who supposedly bought the Indian prime minister's house. Turns out this was an...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Your unsupervised PC - Virtualization is hampered by the x86 architecture's own-the-system design.
May 16, 2005... With all the relatively heavy lifting an x86 can do, having two copies of Windows run side by side -- or Windows and Linux, or Linux and Linux, or BSD and Windows, or what have you -- seems like a natural extension of the design. I can run 200...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Secrets of screencasting - With a little diligence, short online videos can become powerful educational tools for IT.(single sign-on solutions)
May 16, 2005... I've mentioned Nic Wolff's nifty SSO (single sign-on) solution several times before. It's a simple JavaScript hack that empowers people to do something about a critical IT dilemma: weak passwords that are guiltily reused everywhere. Geeks...

REALITY CHECK: Business continuity in the face of terrorism - Is America's invisible fiber backbone truly as resilient as business continuity demands?
May 16, 2005... Before Richard Clarke published his book, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, and became associated with election year politics, he was a senior security advisor to the White House with expertise in counterterrorism and...

CTO CONNECTION: Hear it now - Exploring new IT frontiers begins with talk. Now you can listen for yourself.(Column)
May 16, 2005... When I look back on rolling my first code into production, I can't remember a line of code I wrote, but I recall the conversations with the mentor who gave me the IT bug. When I think about my early introduction to Linux more than 10 years...

Elemental agents control access - Elemental Compliance System 1.1 leverages the end point.(Brief Article)
May 16, 2005... The days of simply providing a user name and password for network access surely are numbered. Pursuing the new grail of policy-based access control, the ECS (Elemental Compliance System) Version 1.1 is a server- based system that uses small...

Product previews.
May 16, 2005... Bowstreet touts new dashboards, IBM extends ID manager, MCI upgrades Ethernet services, and Systinet boosts Web services tool By InfoWorld staff Bowstreet Launches Portal-Based Dashboards Bowstreet on Monday will introduce two...

Exclusive: Data Domain DD460 Restorer puts the squeeze on data - High- compression disk-to-disk backup system could make tape vendors sweat.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 16, 2005... With the advent of inexpensive disk-to-disk backup systems that offer faster, easier, and more reliable backups and restores than most tape systems, many administrators would like to abandon tape altogether. However, a standard schedule of one...

Watching the Java stack - Wily Introscope peers deeply into Java application performance.
May 16, 2005... Most enterprise programmers know that the French playwright Jean-Paul Sartre was onto something when he wrote, "Hell is other people." But they would tell you that hell is really other systems. A set of Web services, databases, and Web...

NetMotion eases wireless remote-access headache - Mobile IP delivers smooth management, roaming control.
May 16, 2005... In the course of a career that centers on explaining new technologies, few things have given us more brain bruises than explaining the differences between the Mobile IP and VPN standards. Both handle remote users and provide encryption of...

The new SCSI: better, faster, smaller - Serial-attached SCSI promises more flexible enterprise storage, while new low-power, 2.5-inch models deliver better performance.(Small Computer Systems Interface)
May 16, 2005... That old standby storage standard, SCSI, is about to get a makeover. Two technology shifts, occurring in parallel and arriving this year, will change the kinds of disk drives enterprises use up and down their storage systems. One...

SAS on tape: high-end backup for less - Despite surprisingly little noise from vendors, tape drives should reap better price/performance from the new interface standard.(serial attached SCSI)(Brief Article)
May 16, 2005... SCSI is used in tape drives, not just disk drives, but there's been little public attention paid to how SAS would be deployed in tape libraries. Seagate's Franco Castaldini notes that no tape vendors have yet attended the SCSI Trade...

Where iSCSI fits in - The IP-based storage protocol remains a separate matter: an evolving standard for remote drive connections.(Internet Small Computer Systems Interface)(Brief Article)
May 16, 2005... Just as storage vendors start to sell SAS and 2.5-inch drives, they're also pitching iSCSI. But iSCSI isn't really a form of SCSI, nor does it have any real relationship with the SCSI technology evolution. iSCSI is actually an external...

Security's weakest links - It's been a lousy year for computer security, but there's still time to learn from the mistakes of others.
May 16, 2005... Not a month has gone by in 2005 without a far-reaching computer security breach making the nightly news hour. Headliners compelled to walk the plank of shame include Bank of America -- the nation's second-largest bank -- Ameritrade, Polo Ralph...

Exclusive: EMC goes virtual - EMC's Invista storage virtualization opens unprecedented manageability, access to heterogeneous devices.
May 16, 2005... Virtualized storage is hardly new, but it has been reinvigorated by interesting solutions from major vendors, such as Hitachi's TagmaStore and IBM's SAN Volume Controller. You can now count EMC as a member of that crowd, thanks to the...

Wi-Fi security is a pain that is slowly subsiding - Failure to upgrade to the latest encryption and authentication technologies amplifies vulnerabilities.
May 16, 2005... Wi-Fi security has come a long way since two 20-somethings sat in the parking lot of a Lowe's store in Southfield, Mich., hacked their way into Lowe's datacenter in Wilkesboro, N.C., and downloaded customer credit card numbers. Two years on and...

EMC's Invista eyes storage virtualization - HP, Hitachi, IBM already in market.(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... EMC joined the storage virtualization pack last week as the storage giant unveiled its EMC Invista Network Storage Virtualizaiton Platform at its annual user conference. "EMC views network storage virtualization as a key enabling...

Tivoli looks to automate IT processes - IBM initiative includes software and services.
May 23, 2005... IBM's Tivoli division last week launched a technical initiative to help corporate users translate their IT processes into more manageable pieces or services and then automate the integration of the workflow. IBM kicked off the strategy,...

IBM Offers Blades with Express Line.(International Business Machines Corp)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... IBM unveiled a product that combines the company's blade servers with its Express line of applications. The BladeCenter Business Express, aimed primarily at midsize companies, is designed to allow users to build more integrated and customized...

Sigaba Secures BlackBerry E-mail.(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Sigaba has extended its messaging architecture to the BlackBerry and launched its first wireless application, Sigaba Secure Email for BlackBerry. The product enables end-to-end protection of sensitive messages sent and received on BlackBerry...

Microsoft REVS UP Search Toolbar.(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Microsoft released an upgrade to its MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search. The upgrade adds a number of enhancements, including the ability to preview documents on users' hard drives. This upgraded version of the search toolbar, for...

SAP revs up BI, CRM at Sapphire - NetWeaver hardware appliance, mySAP CRM launched.
May 23, 2005... Continuing its push past ERP, SAP unveiled a plethora of enhancements to its newest application suite, mySAP CRM, at its annual customer gala in Boston, Saphire 05. In addition, SAP rolled out a new hardware appliance to support its NetWeaver...

Compliance strives for automation - Virsa Systems embeds proactive compliance tools into ERP apps.(Virsa Systems)
May 23, 2005... The dust is settling after the initial stampede to comply with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, and now enterprises are reaching for tools that automate compliance processes and prevent violations. To that end, Virsa Systems launched its...

IBM targets Solaris with Linux initiative - Goal is to woo users of Sun's OS over to Red Hat.(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... IBM has decided to lend Red Hat a helping hand in its struggle to wrest server operating system market share from Sun Microsystems. The two companies announced a range of initiatives last week designed to lure users of Sun's Solaris operating...

palmOne unveils 4GB handheld - LifeDrive lets users synchronize large file folders.(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Going where no handheld has gone before, palmOne unveiled last week the LifeDrive Mobile Manager, the first mainstream PDA to include a 1-inch, 4GB hard drive. The device measures 4.7 inches by 2.8 inches by 0.76 inches deep and weighs 6.8...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Business-ification of IT - The leaders of SOA must understand both business and technology deeply.(Service-Oriented Architecture )
May 23, 2005... Fresh from InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum in New York, I'd like to share some observations from two days of very intense discussions at the sizzling intersection between business and technology. First, SOA is fast becoming vital to the...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Cisco is shamed, Microsoft gets gamed - Teen terror topples technocrats.
May 23, 2005... I almost didn't turn in my column this week because I was so busy messing around with Google Maps. It seems if you type "brothel" or "bordello" and a ZIP code, Google Maps spits out all kinds of intriguing results. For example, a search for...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Getting HTTP right - Applications that respect the Web protocol's rules will reap its rewards.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 23, 2005... Last month, when I discussed the proper use of the HTTP verbs POST and GET, the benefits and hazards seemed abstract. Recently, though, two compellingly concrete examples emerged. The first involved a collision between Google's new Web...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: The great PC rip and replace - You could live without 64 bits and dual-core, but not hardware virtualization -- it'll cost you.(Pacifica and Vanderpool)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 23, 2005... Were it not for AMD's reinvention of the x86 system for Opteron and Athlon XP, I wouldn't be surprised to find that most IT buyers have the location of Dell's "go to checkout" button programmed into their fingers. The lack of a need to do a...

REALITY CHECK: Dire forecast for IT jobs - Experts predict more permanent positions to be replaced by outsourced services.
May 23, 2005... A government report due out later this year will offer an analysis of the characteristics of the kind of IT work that is less likely to go offshore. My source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says the report concludes that IT work...