InfoWorld articles from November 2005

InfoWorld archives from November 2005

No. 14: Estimating future speed - Today's IT is all about adapting to change, which you should predict and simulate in a staging environment.(Brief Article)
November 28, 2005... One of the trickier tasks is projecting infrastructure requirements in the face of constantly evolving business demands. Most people start with capacity planning tools, such as TeamQuest's View and Modeling products. No tool alone, however,...

Both sides claim victory in Internet control squabble - World Summit on the Information Society leaves U.S. in control for now.(Brief Article)
November 28, 2005... Government leaders attending a contentious Internet summit in Tunis, Tunisia, last week decided one thing: The way the Internet is governed will change eventually. What attendees of the World Summit on the Information Society didn't agree on,...

CA, Oracle renew identity suites - After falling silent, both vendors appear to be accelerating ID management efforts.(Brief Article)
November 28, 2005... As independent pure-plays, Netegrity and Oblix led the nascent identity management market. After being acquired by CA and Oracle respectively, however, both fell strangely silent. When the InfoWorld Test Center last reviewed identity...

Windows Live takes a breath - Free e-mail and IM services launched; other services to follow later this year.
November 28, 2005... Windows Live is now showing vital signs. Microsoft last week introduced a test version of a hosted e-mail and IM service as part of the beta release of Windows Live. The new services may placate doubters who criticized Microsoft earlier this...

First look: Office 12 shows a bright new face - Users will soon be able to customize Office to their heart's content -- and save documents to several new file formats.
November 28, 2005... With Office 12, Microsoft seems determined to show what a high-powered fat client can do. A first look at the freshly minted Beta 1 reveals dramatic changes in the Office UI and unprecedented support for end-user customization. Meanwhile,...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Hardware isn't enough - To find infrastructure performance killers, you've got to know where to look.(Editorial)
November 28, 2005... IT buyers live in a golden age of commodity hardware. Processors, servers, networks, storage, you name it: Every segment of the IT stack keeps getting faster, cheaper, and more commoditized. No surprise, then, that IT managers often resort to...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Can new executives deliver on Novell's open source vision? New CTO Jeffrey Jaffe needs to unify the disparate Suse and Ximian open source teams.
November 28, 2005... In Part 1 of my look at Novell last week, my topic was empty chairs. This week I'll look at the other side of the story. There are new bodies occupying key seats at Novell these days, a sure sign that the company's bid to regain its...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Let's give thanks for the cool, whizzy future - You won't believe what's in store. Nor should you.
November 28, 2005... By the time you read this, you'll be stuffed on T-day leftovers -- hope you still got some cranberry and gravy left! While leftovers may get old, IT never does; at least it doesn't seem so from a peek into Gartner's crystal ball, entitled...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Dell just wants to lend, IANA goes round the bend - You don't have to gobble or have feathers to be a turkey.
November 28, 2005... Although it was just Turkey Day, I've been feasting on the baloney coming out of Sony BMG. After stonewalling for two weeks, the music giant finally recalled its XCP copy-protected CDs and set up a disc exchange program. (Contrary to what I...

STORAGE INSIDER: Moving beyond the SAN - Reducing the cost of storage may require more than standards-compliant management apps.
November 28, 2005... Are you satisfied with the way you manage storage at your company? If you are, good for you, but according to a survey just released by the SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association), your company is a lucky minority. It's worth...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Be prepared for Office 12 - Office 12 has a whole new look and feature set, so end-users and admins alike will benefit from training.
November 28, 2005... Office 12. It's coming, and like losing the head off your beer, it's impossible to stop. Microsoft recently gave us press pundits a first look at Office 12 Beta 1. Based on my testing, I can say that you'd best pay attention to this version...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Niagara signals shift for business computing - Sun's eight-core CPU proves that fast equals slow times 32.
November 28, 2005... I constantly tell myself I'm not nuts. And yes, it's disconcerting when I answer myself, but when some seemingly inconceivable theory I've concocted turns into reality years later, I become grounded again. It took almost 10 years, but Sun...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: The two-way data web - Atom and RSS are evolving into tools for creating loosely coupled databases on Internet scale.
November 28, 2005... Two years ago, I gave the keynote address on the opening day of XML 2003. The next day, Adam Bosworth delivered a weirdly complementary keynote, in which he began to lay out an idea he's been developing ever since, first at BEA and now at...

REALITY CHECK: Moving toward mesh networks - Vendors are working on new technologies to deliver on the promise of ubiquitous broadband.
November 28, 2005... The dream of broadband connectivity that's as ubiquitous as the air you breathe still is not reality, and perhaps it would be a cruel pun to tell you not to hold your breath. Just to recap, the original vision of peer-to-peer wireless...

OFF THE RECORD: Welcome to management hell - It's easier to train developers than to change corporate culture.
November 28, 2005... By Anonymous Several years ago, I was hired as director of consulting services for a small software development firm. I had 40 workers under my charge -- about 30 contractors in three cities and 10 local employees. But my real job...

Zimbra breaks the mail server mold - Zimbra Collaboration Suite promises to break new ground in ease of use and administration.(Product/Service Evaluation)
November 28, 2005... Your typical mail-contacts-calendaring system is about as well- integrated as blocks of wood nailed to a bowling ball, but the Zimbra Collaboration Suite is different. An open source collaboration server now in Beta 2, Zimbra truly behaves...

No. 1: It's probably not the servers - Even today's low-end servers have power to spare, so in most cases you can look elsewhere for bottlenecks.(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... Server upgrades used to make all the difference, which is why the old saw "When all else fails, throw more hardware at it" persists today. That's still true in some cases. But how much of IT is really that compute-intensive? Generally, you...

No. 2: Speed up those queries - Clunky queries put the brakes on performance. Diagnostic tools and fine tuning can make a major difference.(database servers)(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... You can create the niftiest application in the world, but if access to back-end database servers creates a bottleneck, your end-users or customers won't be happy. So fine-tune those database queries and maximize performance. Three basic...

No. 3: What cost, virus protection? The overhead of virus scanning varies widely from product to product. Make sure yours isn't a resource hog.(Column)
November 28, 2005... Virus protection on critical servers is a basic requirement, especially for Windows servers. The impact can be painful, however. Some virus scanners are more obtrusive than others and can reduce server performance significantly. Try...

No. 4: Maximizing the middle tier - App servers have all kinds of controls to tune run-time performance. Here are a few likely places to start fiddling.(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... No matter how well written your business logic, when you deploy it to the middle tier, you will need to tune the application server runtime environment to maximize performance. Like a vintage stereo with oodles of knobs for tweaking sound...

No. 5: Optimize network connectivity - Gigabit NICs and switches have become commodities -- but it's quite possible you're not getting the most out of them.(Network Interface Cards)(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... Most mid-level enterprise servers now have dual gigabit NICs -- but most of them don't use the second pipe. Moreover, gigabit switch prices have dropped through the floor. With a 120MBps link to your fileserver, a number of 100-megabit...

No. 6: Winding up your Web servers - With just a few settings, you can adjust your Web server to match traffic volume and serve up those pages faster.(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... Is there really that much you can do to tune a Web server and maximize performance? In fact, there is -- mainly by adjusting a handful of critical settings to match the production traffic you expect. For Web servers already in production,...

No. 7: The woe of the WAN - There's more to WAN performance than just the size of the pipe between offices.(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... Think you need to reclaim WAN bandwidth? You can easily spend a bundle on traffic-shaping appliances or caching engines in an attempt to rein in WAN bandwidth utilization. But what if it's not the pipe? First things first: Before you buy...

No. 10: Predictive patching - Patches are a fact of life -- and a common cause of problems, so test them before you deploy them.(Brief Article)
November 28, 2005... You arrive at work on Monday only to learn that a bunch of desktops are hung or that the performance of a critical application has slowed to a crawl. After investigating, you determine that a patch that was applied over the weekend is the...

No. 8: Let's play nice - With increasing integration across organizations, contention for shared resources is a real problem.(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... All too often, applications, Web services, and Web sites from multiple departments across the enterprise compete for server resources. Although each of these components may be well-tuned in its own right, an application from another...

No. 9: Caching, shaping, limiting, oh my! If a WAN has too little bandwidth, there's still plenty you can do to keep performance humming along.(wide area networks)(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... If your WAN is truly undersized -- and you can't afford a long-haul frame-relay network -- traffic shaping and caching can help unclog the pipe. Traffic-shaping configurations are more art than science. Prioritizing apps is often more...

No. 11: Keeping your cool - Those with temperature-controlled datacenters needn't worry. Everyone else should watch the thermometer.(Brief Article)(Column)
November 28, 2005... It might seem obvious, but environmental problems in server rooms and wiring closets can have a deleterious affect on overall network performance. Hot servers aren't happy servers, and the same goes for network hardware. Make sure your...

No. 12: Reining in mirroring and replication - Business continuity has its cost in terabits shuttled between sites, so keep replication traffic under control.(Brief Article)
November 28, 2005... Slowdowns often plague enterprises that use mirroring or replication for high availability or disaster recovery between locations. If you have many locations or many database tables -- or a lot of transactions or journaling that needs to stay...

No. 13: 'My cable modem is faster' - When users argue that their home Internet connection is faster than the one at work, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.(Brief Article)
November 28, 2005... A shared T1 was once immeasurably fast to most folks. Now, it's less than half the bandwidth most of us have at home. Are users complaining that their broadband hookup at home is faster? Well, guess what? A cable connection may be just...

Product Previews.(SAP AG introduces SAP Conversion Agent)(CrownPeak introduces a new web service)(Day Software introduces Communique 4)
November 28, 2005... SAP pulls unstructured data into ERP; CrownPeak offers panorama of site content; RealNetworks streams video, audio to wireless devices; Nero dials up VoIP conferences By InfoWorld staff SAP pulls unstructured data into ERP systems...

No. 15: Profiling to maximize performance - Ready to deploy a new homegrown application? Not until you use a profiling tool to identify bottlenecks in the code.(Column)
November 28, 2005... Be proactive in preventing performance bottlenecks by including a mandatory profiling step in the latter part of development, specifically during the software lifecycle. Profiling your applications and Web services will uncover whether your...

As the printer engine turns, costs mount - The long-term costs of using your printer may surprise you.(Brief Article)
November 28, 2005... A printer depletes toner and wears out other components at varying rates, leading to operating expenses that fluctuate over time. Based on our calculations, most color printers cost more to maintain for two years than they cost to...

Color printers hit higher speeds - Vendors rev the engines, but short- and long-term costs remain high.
November 28, 2005... Color printers on the office network can serve important purposes. Your organization's design or publications group probably considers a color printer essential for creating public documents such as Web page layouts, brochures, mailers, and...

The high price of printer memory - Printer vendors charge as much as 10 times more for memory than third-party vendors.(Column)
November 28, 2005... Say you had your eye on a color printer with 128MB of memory standard and you wanted to upgrade it to 384MB. Would you prefer to spend $90 for that upgrade -- or $1,300? Some of the vendors whose printers we review here charge exorbitant...

Xerox Phaser 8550DX offers alternative to inkjets and lasers - Solid-ink printers create great graphics, but at slow speeds.
November 28, 2005... Some small offices or departments have outgrown their color inkjet but lack the volume or budget for a color laser. Xerox's Phaser 8500 and 8550 solid-ink printer family is one alternative, but based on our tests, these printers seem best...

Testing printers' speed limits - Ricoh Afico CL200 proves the quickest in text tests while the Xerox Phaser 6350DN reigns for graphic speeds.(Brief Article)
November 28, 2005... The roundup marks the full rollout of a major adjustment to our speed ratings. Our test suite, based on the one developed by our sister publication's PC World Test Center, calculates ppm (pages per minute) speed based on printing a single...

Use metrics to prove your IT project's worth - Is your IT project a dog or a delight? It all depends on how you measure it -- and who's doing the measuring.
November 21, 2005... If you ever talk to Andrew Stewart, don't say the words "IT project." As financial director at GAP Group, a $100 million equipment rental firm in Glasgow, Scotland, Stewart had to help his firm decide whether to spend $2 million on a new...

Product Previews.(Compagnie Financiere Alcatel introduces OmniSwitch 9000 )(JunC++ion 3.0 from CodeMesh)(PingFederate 3.0 from Ping Identity)
November 21, 2005... Alcatel eyes the future with new 10Gb Ethernet switches, Ping taps SAML 2.0 for federated identity management, NetIQ manages compliance risks, CodeMesh provides common ground for Java and C++ By InfoWorld staff Alcatel flips the...

AMD: Quad-core Opterons by 2007 - The new server processor design is similar to the core used by Opteron and Athlon 64 chips.(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 21, 2005... Advanced Micro Devices has added a new quad-core server processor to its road map. The new processor design, similar to the core used by the company's Opteron and Athlon 64 processors, will debut in 2007. The processor will incorporate...

IBM's master plan for data - Big Blue takes its time stitching together three acquisitions to create a master-data offering.(IBM Master Data Management)(Trigo Technologies Inc., Ascential Software Corp. and DWL )
November 21, 2005... What's the ugliest problem in IT? Many would say it's the contradictory or incomplete data strewn around the enterprise in various databases and formats. Reconciling and normalizing all that data is hard, tedious work. There's no magic...

Microsoft shows prominently at Supercomputing '05 - Microsoft enters HPC fray, with a splashy booth and beta release of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.(high performance computing)(Brief Article)
November 21, 2005... Microsoft's presence at Supercomputing '05 in Seattle last week was unmistakable. The conference, which spotlights innovations in HPC (high- performance computing), featured more than 200 exhibitors, including HPC stalwarts such as...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Metrics for IT success - If you can't measure a project, you can't manage it -- or prove it worked.(Editorial)
November 21, 2005... What percentage of IT projects fail? At our recent SOA Executive Forum in New York, an attendee asked a group of panelists to estimate their success rate on projects; specifically, he wanted to know how many of their IT initiatives had...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Novell faces setbacks in its open source strategy - Despite ambitious plans, the server software vendor is still struggling to reinvent itself for the 21st century.
November 21, 2005... My local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, has a unique system for rating movies. Next to each review is a different version of the paper's trademarkLittle Man icon. For a surefire hit, he's leaping to his feet in uproarious applause. A...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Microsoft Live may open gates to desktop ads - Redmond adopts new role as systems integrator, while Amazon Mechanical Turk kicks off 'Webshoring'.
November 21, 2005... I saw Real Networks' CEO Rob Glaser on stage this week at a high-tech gadgets preview and had a flashback to his company's nightmarish RealPlayer -- the most advertising-laden, nagging, hard-to-uninstall piece of software ever to grace my...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Murdoch auctions a snack, MSN rejects IE for Mac - Even aging boomers need love -- or at least a nice lunch.(baby boomer generation)(Rupert Murdoch's lunch auction)(Microsoft MSN)(Column)
November 21, 2005... Several readers wrote in to correct a recent column in which I accidentally reversed my Generation X and Y coordinates: X are the slackers, whereas the Y generation is into self-mutilation. Another reader called me an "aging boomer" and...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Get the most from your host - When considering software as a service, be mindful of the costs and the risks.
November 21, 2005... All of a sudden, hosted software is the belle of the ball. When folks first thought of it, we called it the application service provider technology. Now we're calling it software as a service, or even more nebulous: Web 2.0. Don't get me...

STORAGE INSIDER: Storage media security: It's the OS, stupid - Sony's squabble over DRM proves that blending data security and storage should start at the OS level.(digital rights management software)(operating systems )(Column)
November 21, 2005... Have you been following the Sony DRM (digital rights management) saga? We may not have seen the last chapter of that story, but Sony recently published a somewhat conciliatory statement, saying, among other things, that "as a...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: RFID is stupid - Forcing RFID into mainstream use will slow development of more capable sensor solutions.(radio frequency identification equipment)(Column)
November 21, 2005... We'll soon live in a country where sensors outnumber people. If you believe what you read, RFID is a magical technology that will forever banish wires, grocery store scanners, credit cards and pocket change from our working and personal...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Toward swappable Web services - New collaborative tools are needed before outsourced business services can become truly interchangeable.(California Independent System Operator Corp. )
November 21, 2005... Walt Johnson is an IT planner at California Independent System Operator (CalISO), the not-for-profit operator of the state's wholesale power grid. I met him at InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum last week, where he described CalISO's transition...

REALITY CHECK: The true value of software as a service - Is it a paradigm shift for IT or just another overhyped technology?
November 21, 2005... With respect to Johnny Carson and Carnac the Magnificent, the answer is "yes and no." The question: Is SaaS (software as a service) an overhyped idea that is not much good for anything beyond application delivery? First we need to define...

OFF THE RECORD: When your clients hate IT - Beware bad blood between project managers and users.(Column)
November 21, 2005... By Anonymous If you look up professionalism in the dictionary, you'll find my picture right next to the definition. That being said, there are still situations that push patience and professionalism to the limit. I work as a business...

Network policing at wire speed - Nevis LANenforcer handles end-point security and threat defense in custom hardware.
November 21, 2005... The new line of LANenforcer products from Nevis Networks takes a hardware-based approach to network user access and policy enforcement. Based on Nevis' "massively parallel" LANsecure architecture, LANenforcer is designed to provide a...

New dimensions in intrusion defense - Sourcefire 3D combines network profiling and rule-based detection for policy enforcement.
November 21, 2005... Sourcefire's open source IDS engine, Snort, has long been the gold standard of signature-based intrusion detection systems. Snort's commercial sibling, Sourcefire 3D, takes Snort a step further by adding passive vulnerability assessment and...

Server clustering made simple - HP bundles ProLiant servers with PolyServe's robust clustered apps for maximum flexibility.(HP ProLiant DL380)(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Product/Service Evaluation)
November 21, 2005... Getting top performance from a storage system and making applications faster and more resilient are two critical and challenging aspects of computing. Unfortunately, many vendors' solutions focus on just one side of the problem or require...

Put your load testers to work - Don't wait until your Web app is live to gauge its performance and scalability.(software testing)(Brief Article)
November 21, 2005... To enable predictive and scalable performance, a testing strategy should be injected throughout the development lifecycle. During development, developers should leverage profilers and load- testing tools, such as the ones tested here, to...

Prep your Web apps for stellar performances - Load testers prove a valuable part of your development strategy.(OpenSTA 1.4.3)(Proxy Sniffer Professional Edition 3.7)(PureLoad Enterprise Edition 3.3.1)(Product/Service Evaluation)
November 21, 2005... High-performance Web sites and apps don't happen accidentally. A detailed performance and scalability testing strategy is needed throughout the development lifecycle -- and that requires a good load- testing solution. The rewards are...

How to survive a doomed project - Sulking about the inevitable won't get you anywhere, but some skillful spinning just might.(Column)
November 21, 2005... You've inherited the project from hell. Now management wants to know why it went bad and what you're doing to make it good. What do you do? Here's a quick survival guide. Use a positive spin. Even if you can't make lemonade from lemons,...

Cisco gets hip to mesh, WLAN management - Company's centralized WLAN management product comes nearly one year after competitive offerings.
November 21, 2005... Cisco Systems did a bit of catching up last week when it finally announced products to support centrally managed, large Wi-Fi and mesh networks for outdoor WLAN deployments. The giant networking company's Unified Wireless Network uses a...

Is it time to scrap your Big Iron? Mainframes have a storied history in the enterprise, but today's distributed server environments could herald the final chapter.
November 21, 2005... For 10 years, IT managers have heard the promises: cheap server farms will replace expensive mainframe systems, lowering costs and improving competitive advantage through modern applications. And for 10 years, it hasn't happened. Vendors...

When mainframes make sense - For some companies, the costs and challenges of migration make sticking with Big Iron a no-brainer.(Baldor Electric Co.)
November 21, 2005... Not everyone sees the mainframe as a relic of the past. In 1996, motor manufacturer Baldor Electric, beguiled by promises of lower costs and the desire to move to the SAP platform for all its CRM and ERP transactions, left the mainframe in...

Stellar Steelhead WAN accelerator reduces network wait time - Riverbed adds Proxy File Service, Microsoft SQL performance enhancement.(Riverbed Technologies Steelhead 3010)(wide area network)(Product/Service Evaluation)
November 14, 2005... If you're tired of having your remote users complain about the WAN's performance, it may be time to check out a WAN optimization/acceleration solution. Up until a few years ago, the only way to try to improve poor WAN performance was to throw...

Top 100 IT projects of 2005 - Look no further than the 2005 InfoWorld 100 Awards for proof that smart, successful IT projects abound.(Illustration)
November 14, 2005... The InfoWorld 100 Awards celebrate enterprise IT projects that have made the best use of technology to meet business goals. Entries were judged on innovation and project complexity, as well as stumbling blocks that were overcome to achieve...

CA seeks revival at user show - Struggling CA will attempt to regain customer trust at its CA World show this week.(Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... At its user conference this week in Las Vegas, Computer Associates will have its work cut out as a new management team attempts to regain the trust of CA's customers in the wake of an accounting scandal and a legacy of poor customer support....

Next-gen Wi-Fi standard showdown - Vendors race to market with non- standard implementations of high speed 802.11n.
November 14, 2005... Battle lines are now being drawn over the next-generation WLAN standard, IEEE 802.11n, which promises speeds of 100Mbps and higher, as well as increased range. Behind a seemingly innocuous announcement last week of a new wireless router...

SOA comes down to earth - Veterans of SOA projects impart lessons learned.(service oriented architecture)(InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum)(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... Moving past concept into real-world deployments, SOA initiatives are starting to bear fruit, and with that harvest come valuable lessons for IT professionals. At InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum in New York last week, attendees heard practical...

Sun looks to Niagara chip for crossover appeal - Sun takes on IBM and Intel with new multithreaded processor.(Sun Microsystems Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... Sun Microsystems is gearing up for an early launch Monday of its UltraSparc T1, the multithreaded, multicore processor formerly code- named Niagara. The chip was previously slated to appear early in 2006. The new chip incorporates Sun's...

EDITOR'S LETTER: IT projects that matter - InfoWorld 100 prizewinners innovate while keeping an eye on ROI.(Editorial)
November 14, 2005... Is it finally time to put Nicholas G. Carr's theory to rest? If the name Carr isn't familiar, then certainly his 2003 Harvard Business Review polemic, "IT Doesn't Matter," should ring a bell. Carr's contention -- that IT has become such a...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Sony discovers its roots, Grokster gets the boot - The inside dope on insiders and dopes.(Sony BMG used digital rights management software)(Grokster Ltd. paid damages to recording companies)(Microsoft Corp.'s sites are unable to access)
November 14, 2005... In yet another twist to its suit against IBM, the SCO Group detailed 217 alleged violations of its proprietary UNIX code -- in a sealed document only the judge can read. I hear the new evidence reveals the name of the insider who leaked the...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Losing its cool, Apple iPod gets ROI; plus auto industry avoids RFID - Coolness no longer sole reason to buy iPod; plus RFID foot-dragging in supply chain.(Column)
November 14, 2005... The Diffusion Group is out with a study hinting that the iPod is no longer cool. That's right, with more than 30 million iPods on the streets, it seems, the hip factor is wearing off. So all you smug Apple store employees can just stop...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Preparing for a technology disaster - Planning for any situation you're afraid to face makes responding to any other far easier.(Column)
November 14, 2005... Observing others react to (or fail to confront) the devastating 2005 hurricane season angers me. Lately, we've gotten the idea that an effort to study, discuss, and extract useful knowledge from a tragic event, even as it unfolds, is a...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Beyond office document formats - The current debate over office document formats misses the bigger challenge still facing us.(Column)
November 14, 2005... Let's cut to the chase in the Massachusetts/Microsoft brouhaha over office document formats. One possible outcome: Microsoft Office gains support for the OASIS OpenDocument format, either from Microsoft or from the open source community....

REALITY CHECK: Microsoft is stuck on the C: drive - Despite its new service offerings, Redmond will have a hard time transitioning from the desktop software model.
November 14, 2005... Bill Gates' Nov. 1 announcement that Microsoft would soon be in the SaaS (software-as-a-service) business should be taken as a warning sign to the faithful: Something is rotten in Redmond. In the past, Gates has aimed his message at the...

OFF THE RECORD: Outsourcers gone bad - If your CEO is in bed with your consultant, trouble can't be far behind.(Column)
November 14, 2005... By Anonymous A couple of years ago I was working as manager of software development at a small animation company, where a really dangerous situation developed. For several years, Charlie, the CTO, had let Joe, the network administrator,...

Reconnex revs slip spotter - Reconnex iGuard gains beefier hardware and stronger analysis tools for battling the insider threat.
November 14, 2005... Workers don't have to expose confidential data deliberately to do harm; often such information slips out inadvertently in an e-mail note or a file attachment. Reconnex iGuard diligently monitors e-mail and other communications channels (like...

Exclusive: ConSentry keeps a watchful eye on users - LAN Controller enforces policies at the hardware level.(ConSentry Secure LAN Controller)
November 14, 2005... Network security is going through a paradigm shift. It is no longer enough to secure just the network edge against unknown attackers trying to break in; traffic inside the network must come under increased scrutiny, as well, to ensure that...

Reflexion effectively blocks spam without fallible filters - Challenge- and-response approach gives users ample control over who can and can't contact them.(RTC (Reflexion Total Control) 3.0)
November 14, 2005... Most anti-spam engines use a variety of filtering engines to block messages based on originating IP address of the sender, the domain, words in the message, or a wide variety of other indicators. There are two inherent problems with this...

Lehman Brothers puts identity in a vise grip - Total Access Control eases account management and tightens access.(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... All it takes is one disgruntled former employee with access to sensitive customer data to wreak costly havoc. To counter this risk, the investment bank Lehman Brothers recently implemented TAC (Total Access Control), a companywide user-access...

Span-Alaska freezes out legacy supply-chain system - Linking facilities and tracking equipment throughout the delivery process pleases customers.(business logistics management)(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... Imagine hundreds of 18-wheelers rolling into Span-Alaska's warehouse every week, each carrying as much as 28 tons of cargo from hundreds of different shippers. Each trailer must be off-loaded, and every manifest must be sent to the back...

CACI brings order to paperwork chaos - New system integrates data and plays well with others.(Procurement Desktop for Industry)(Department of Defense)(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... The only thing harder than buying for the Department of Defense is selling to it. Although the department's own buy-side processes are largely automated and standardized, providing the same degree of integration to the vendor side was more...

Aquarius joins the age of wireless - New antenna blasts data with virtually no signal loss.(Aquarius sealab installed Orthogon Systems' OS-Gemini integrated wireless bridges)(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... You think you have wireless connectivity problems? Imagine being 63 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, with hurricanes overhead and buckets of data to stream from the seafloor to an orbiting space station. That's just a day at the beach...

Coldwell Banker Elite connects with buyers - Company overhauls IT infrastructure to reduce costs and streamline processes.(Zultys Technologies' MX250 Enterprise Media Exchange)(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... In the realty game, where a missed call can mean losing a million-dollar sale, communications is everything. So when Coldwell Banker Elite looked to converge voice and video over IP, it was determined not to get locked into a proprietary...

Broward School system gives parents an edge - Virtual Counselor puts records, test scores, and key information at parents' fingertips.(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... Keeping track of 286 schools, 41,000 employees, 50,000 adult students, and 276,200 children is not for the faint of heart. But that's just business as usual for Broward County Public Schools, the nation's sixth- largest school district. Its...

American Express eases business travel - Web-based traveler profiles retain customer preferences to smooth the ride.
November 14, 2005... Business travelers seeking the fastest routes to their destinations can now hop aboard the TravelBahnSM Gateway , a new Web-based reservations system from American Express. Instead of navigating arcane commands for five different computerized...

Prudential widens retirement options - Financial stalwart rejuvenates its employee coverage plans.(Prudential Financial Inc.)(Plan Accounting and Reporting Information System)(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... In 2000, Prudential Financial realized it could no longer manage complex 21st-century retirement schemes, a system built for handling employee pension plans of the 1960s and '70s. So it retired its legacy system and headed to PARIS (Plan...