Baseline articles from June 2007

Baseline archives from June 2007

Mac Coming into Focus As Attack Target.
June 1, 2007... Compared with Windows, the Macintosh platform is still largely untouched by vulnerability exploits. But the prompt release of exploit code for a vulnerability detailed in a May 24 set of updates shows that it's catching up fast when it comes to...

5 Ways To Maximize IT.(information technology)(Column)
June 1, 2007... Yes, Nicholas, people are still refuting your claim that "IT doesn't matter." In a 2004 article in the Harvard Business Review, Nicholas Carr challenged conventional wisdom, claiming that information technology is a commodity and that the...

Report: Security Certifications Boost Pay.
June 1, 2007... Though the pay value of the vast majority of IT certifications has been on the decline for more than two years, pay premiums for IT security, project management and database administration certifications have soared, finds a new report. ...

Gartner: The 40-Hour Workweek Era Is Ending.
June 1, 2007... By 2015, there will be more workers who interact with technology, but they'll be working a whole lot less hours each week, finds a Gartner research report released on May 30. Gartner argues that three of the four traditional pillars of...

Survey Reveals the Good, the Bad, the Crashey.
June 1, 2007... A survey of 20,000 consumers offers good news for Amazon, QVC and Netflix and not so good news for Macy's, BestBuy, PCMall and Saks Fifth Avenue. The survey, done for years by consulting firm ForeSee Results, takes the top 100...

Apple Says iPhone to Go on Sale June 29.
June 4, 2007... SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)--Apple Inc. will start selling its iPhone on June 29, a debut that will test whether the company's design success with Mac computers and iPod media players can carry over into mobile handsets. Apple announced the...

Businesses Struggle to Secure Data.
June 4, 2007... Business leaders rank the importance of securing their own data above securing their customers' data, according to a recent survey of IT executives. Customer data ranks third on the list of items business leaders worry about protecting...

EMC Acquires 'Enhanced' Security Vendor Verid.
June 4, 2007... Officials at data storage giant EMC have claimed that the company is not planning to acquire any more companies and instead wants to focus on building its existing storage- and security-related businesses. Nonetheless, the company, based in...

Oracle Amends Complaint Against SAP.
June 4, 2007... Oracle is throwing more accusations at rival SAP, amending its complaint June 1 by adding claims of copyright infringement and breach of contract. In its lengthy amendment filed to its complaint in U.S. District Court in San Francisco June...

Microsoft Announces Visual Studio 2008.
June 5, 2007... ORLANDO, Fla.--Microsoft has given a formal name to its next version of Visual Studio and said a second beta is upcoming. At its TechEd 2007 conference here, Microsoft announced June 4 that the next version of Visual Studio, which has been...

Tutorial: Tracking Project Risks.(Brief article)
June 6, 2007... At the start of your project, you should fill out a risk assessment checklist and update it monthly. From there, you can compare the results to identify whether any items may derail your project. A risk is a potential event or future...

CIOs Expect to Hire in 3Q.
June 6, 2007... Chief information officers expect to add to their staffs in the next quarter. Seventeen percent of 1,400 chief information officers across the U.S. polled for Robert Half Technology expect to hire I.T. staff in the third quarter. That's...

Report: Dell to Use Deals to Expand Services Business.
June 6, 2007... NEW YORK (Reuters)--Dell Inc. will use partnerships and acquisitions to become more services-oriented, the Financial Times reported in its online edition on Wednesday, citing an interview with Chief Executive Michael Dell. Dell's services...

Gartner: Portal, Process and Middleware Market on the Rise.
June 6, 2007... The market for portal, business process and middleware applications rose 16 percent in 2006, according to a new report from Gartner. According to the report, released July 6, demand for these applications was driven by strong growth of...

How to Deploy Vista Security--Piece by Piece.
June 6, 2007... WASHINGTON--There's a bushel of security enhancements in Windows Vista--they comprise the most important aspect of the new operating system and the most compelling reason to upgrade, analysts say--but they're not all perfect, nor are they...

IT Industry Fails to Keep Pace.
June 6, 2007... Employment growth among America's IT producers--the companies that manufacture computer hardware, create software and provide a wide-range of information services--failed to keep pace with payrolls from all nonfarm industries over the past five...

Denial-of-Service Attack Targets Windows XP.
June 7, 2007... A vulnerability was uncovered in the way Windows Graphics Device Interface handles icon image files that leaves systems open to denial-of-service attacks. GDI+ is an application programming interface that allows programmers to display...

Four Critical Fixes Coming for Windows, IE, Mail.
June 8, 2007... Microsoft will send out six security bulletins, four of them for problems rated "critical," the company's highest severity rating, on Patch Tuesday, June 12. All four of the most serious vulnerabilities, in Windows and in IE, can lead to...

CIOs, Auditors To Get New Software Controls Guide on July 9.
June 8, 2007... It's time for an audit of the application controls for every business system throughout your organization, from enterprise resource planning to e-mail programs, document imaging systems and product design software. As a CIO, are you prepared?...

Luring the Other 68% Through the IT Door.
June 8, 2007... Could women be the answer to IT's dwindling work force? Penn State researchers argue the fairer sex is under-represented in the industry, and taking steps to increase their numbers would serve to swell the ranks of the overall work force...

Zenoss Grows with Open-Source IT Management.
June 8, 2007... Open-source IT monitoring and management provider Zenoss on June 11 will seek to build momentum behind its alternative to the big four enterprise management offerings when it introduces the second major release of its Zenoss Core tool. ...

Staples Tries Reusable RFID Tags.
June 9, 2007... The traditional argument against item-level RFID is that it only makes economic sense for products costing more than $100, but that assumes one-time use. In a trial with reusable tags, Staples is throwing out all the old rules. Staples in...

Apple Developers Eager to Get Hands on iPhone, Leopard.(Apple Worldwide Developer Conference 2007)(Brief article)
June 10, 2007... Mac OS X developers and Apple enthusiasts are anxiously awaiting the June 11 opening of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco to find out whether there will be any changes or surprises in the company's product plans. ...

Sun Looks to Expand Service Offerings.
June 11, 2007... Sun Microsystems expects its latest service feature to be the answer for IT managers lost in their own data center. Dubbed Inventory Channel, the latest offering of Sun Connection Services, the Santa Clara, Calif., company's line of...

Windows Invades Apple Developer Turf.
June 11, 2007... SAN FRANCISCO--Yes, the colorful new stuff due in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," coming in the fall, was the main topic of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' June 11 keynote address to the faithful software vendors (and press hacks) gathered here for the Apple...

Google Apps Premier Edition a Mixed Bag.(application development software)
June 11, 2007... Google Apps Premier Edition is a hosted collaboration and productivity application platform that combines a customizable start page with chat, e-mail, calendaring, word processing, a spreadsheet and a simple Web page builder into a package that...

IBM to Buy Telelogic for $745 Million.
June 11, 2007... ORLANDO, Fla.--IBM plans to acquire Telelogic for about $745 million. IBM announced the move at its Rational Software Development Conference here June 11. IBM's Rational business unit will integrate the Telelogic line of products with its...

Privacy Group Flunks Google.
June 12, 2007... A U.K. privacy group has issued a scathing report on large Internet players' privacy records, going so far as to flunk Google altogether. Privacy International, a privacy NGO, spent six months working on the report (PDF), titled "Race to...

Linux Founder Still Sees No Reason to Use GPLv3.
June 12, 2007... The good news for GNU GPLv3 (General Public License Version 3) supporters is that Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, thinks the final draft is better than the earlier ones. The bad news is that he has "yet to see any actual reasons for...

How CIOs Attract and Retain Talent.
June 12, 2007... Every time we ask IT executives about recruiting and retaining IT talent, they tell us it's becoming more difficult--and more confusing. Despite outsourcing, are companies still committed to their employees' career growth and development? Are...

Google Apps: A Simple, Hosted On-Demand Offering.
June 12, 2007... On its own, Google Apps is a simple, hosted on-demand offering that requires no additional hardware or software beyond a PC with a Web browser. Enabling Google Apps for SSO (single sign-on) via SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)...

31 Days Lost Each Year Putting Out IT Fires.
June 13, 2007... Business managers in the United Kingdom lose 31 working days--more than 10 percent of the year--putting out fires that result from bad management of IT systems, according to a study released June 4 by Partners in IT, a U.K.-based service...

Symantec Unveils 'Do-It-All' Data Risk Manager.
June 13, 2007... LAS VEGAS--Data security provider Symantec said June 13 it will launch a rebundled version of its Information Foundation, an information risk management software suite that is a key part of the company's Security 2.0 and Storage United...

Vendors Vie for Customer Favor with Unified Security Tools.
June 13, 2007... As security threats continue to grow in sophistication, vendors are pounding the pavement with unified tools and promises that their products provide cost-effective and efficient ways to protect data and networks. The emphasis on unified...

U.S. General: China Aims to Top U.S. in Cyberspace.
June 13, 2007... WASHINGTON (Reuters)--China is seeking to unseat the United States as the dominant power in cyberspace, a U.S. Air Force general leading a new push in this area said Wednesday. "They're the only nation that has been quite that blatant...

Intel, Google Announce Energy-Efficient Computing Plan.
June 13, 2007... Intel and Google formally announced an expansive new environmental initiative on June 12, which aims to both promote and usher in the adoption of energy-efficient computers, components and power management tools. To read about IBM's move...

IBM Sets Its Sights on SMBs with New Blade.
June 14, 2007... IBM wants small and midsized businesses to know that blade servers are an option for their IT infrastructure, too. In a field that has grown more important to Big Blue and its main OEM rivals in the past five years, IBM announced June 13...

Linux Leaders Plot Counterattack on Microsoft.
June 14, 2007... MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (Reuters)--The high priests of free software have congregated at Google Inc. headquarters this week to debate the future of the movement and face down recent patent threats by Microsoft Corp. Leading names of Linux,...

Symantec Moves into Risk Consulting.
June 14, 2007... Symantec is offering a new consulting service that will assess customers' IT risks and offer advice on plugging the gaps it identifies. Called Symantec Foundation IT Risk Assessment, the service identifies, categorizes and prioritizes...

Opinion: Does the Law Hinder Blogging?
June 15, 2007... The National Collegiate Athletic Association ejected earlier this week a newspaper reporter from a college baseball game in Louisville, Ky., because the journalist was blogging about the game while it was in progress. Is this the latest example...

Mac Developers Weigh Safari Potential as iPhone App Platform.
June 15, 2007... Apple's Safari browser is finding favor with Windows users. The Cupertino, Calif., computer company disclosed June 14 that visitors to its Web site had downloaded more than 1 million copies of the Windows-compatible beta version of the Safari 3...

Web Site Aims to Support BI/Data Warehousing.
June 15, 2007... The Data Warehousing Institute and the Business Intelligence Network June 13 launched BI-BestPractices.com, a new partnership web site that serves as a collaborative, interactive community forum for the business intelligence/data warehousing...

Microsoft CEO Says Google Complaint Is 'Baseless'.
June 15, 2007... DETROIT (Reuters)--Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Friday said a complaint lodged by Google Inc. was "baseless" as the software company was complying with a 2002 antitrust settlement. In a complaint filed with the...

USDA Keeps Up with the Flow.(United States. Department of Agriculture and information technology)(Brief article)
June 16, 2007... At its heart, predicting the supply of water is a math problem--an extremely complicated math problem. Algorithms are created to gauge the effects of melting snow, precipitation, daily temperatures and the flow of rivers and streams. The...

HP on Target with QA Tools, Services.
June 18, 2007... Seven months after the close of Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of Mercury Interactive, HP will try to prove it is effectively integrating the largest software acquisition in its history with the launch of a wide-ranging set of software releases...

MPack Trojan Attack Claims 10,000 Web Sites.
June 18, 2007... Researchers at Trend Micro are reporting that as many as 10,000 Web sites have been infected with malicious code that redirects unsuspecting users to a server booby-trapped with drive-by exploits--part of a wave of attacks originating in Italy...

Botnets: How They Attack--And How They Can Be Defeated.(Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified zombie computers)(Brief article)
June 19, 2007... The Federal Bureau of Investigation said last week that it has identified more than 1 million captive computers. Tracking "zombie" computers--those taken over remotely and forced to send out spam, spyware or denial-of-service...

HP Introduces Data Center Software, Services.
June 19, 2007... Hewlett-Packard announced June 18 what it described as a "significant expansion" of its software and service portfolios as part of its overall strategy to help IT organizations improve data center efficiencies. The Palo Alto, Calif.,...

BMC, Planview Team Up to Tackle IT Governance.
June 19, 2007... Planview, maker of IT project and portfolio management software, is ready to take the wraps off a joint alliance with BMC Software. The alliance agreement, which will be unveiled June 19 at the Gartner Project and Portfolio Management...

Microsoft Gives Dynamics Apps Office Makeover.
June 19, 2007... Microsoft's Business Solutions group released June 18 the next iterations of two of the company's four business application suites, GP 10 and SL 7. Both suites sport a new Office-like user interface, integration with Office 2007, Web...

Head of Delayed British Health I.T. Project Stepping Down.(Richard Granger will resign from UK National Health Service Connecting for Health)(Brief article)
June 19, 2007... In the wake of Tony Blair's upcoming resignation on June 27, Richard Granger, who has been in charge of NHS Connecting for Health, announced he would resign in the next few months. NHS Connecting for Health is the unit overseeing the...

How The iPhone Stacks Up.
June 19, 2007... The iPhone is coming--and CIOs should start getting ready. Apple's new iPhone, to be available June 29, is one of the most anticipated communications devices to come on the market in some time. Already, 19 million Americans are said to be...

IBM, Microsoft Show Web 2.0 Wares.
June 19, 2007... IBM and Microsoft are among a growing number of players looking to introduce technology to link consumer-style Web 2.0 capabilities with enterprise solutions. At the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston on June 19, IBM is launching its...

CyberSource to Buy Authorize.Net in $565M Deal.
June 19, 2007... Electronic payment vendor CyberSource is buying fellow e-payment player Authorize.Net for $565 million in cash and stock, the companies announced June 18. Steve Rowen, a research analyst at Retail Systems Alert Group, said the merger of...

Immigrants Fuel Tech Boom.
June 19, 2007... It has long been recognized that immigrants with technology and engineering skills have played a critical role in the emergence of some of the best-known U.S. entrepreneurial companies. Less is known about the educational backgrounds of these...

Microsoft Flip-Flops on Vista Virtualization.
June 20, 2007... Microsoft's Windows Vista team is eating crow after flip-flopping on its on-again, off-again decision to allow cheaper versions of Vista to be used in virtualized machines. The company was all set to announce June 20 that the lower-cost...

HP Shores Up Security with Purchase, Portfolio.
June 20, 2007... Hewlett-Packard expanded its security footprint June 19 as it announced plans to acquire Web application security provider SPI Dynamics the same day it unveiled its own HP Secure Advantage portfolio. HP plans to integrate the Atlanta-based...

Build a Web 2.0 Platform and Employees Will Use It.
June 20, 2007... BOSTON--Despite the obvious differences in technology interests between Gen X, Gen Y or the upcoming Gen Alpha, there seems to be a common thread in getting just about any aged employee to use Web 2.0 technologies: Build it and they will...

Tumbleweed Steps up Fight Against Botnets, Data Leaks.(Tumbleweed Communications Corp. developing new data security device)
June 20, 2007... Tumbleweed Communications is taking a multilayered approach to combating data leaks and eliminating botnet-driven threats at the perimeter with the latest version of its MailGate appliance. The emphasis on detecting and thwarting botnets...

Teradata Data Warehouse Embeds BI Tools.
June 21, 2007... Data warehousing giant Teradata on June 19 unveiled new storage management software that allows data mining applications from outside vendors to be embedded and run within the company's proprietary enterprise data warehouse. Teradata...

IBM Wants the Mainframe to be an IT Destination.
June 21, 2007... NEW YORK--IBM wants its mainframe servers to be more than just high-end hardware. With that in mind, IBM launched its Destination z program June 21, which looks to give the company's mainframe customers, ISVs and partners a new Web portal...

Tech Execs See Convergence Lifting Broadband Demand.
June 21, 2007... CHICAGO (Reuters)--Top telecommunications executives attending an industry conference this week forecast wireless, video and Internet services would increasingly converge, bolstering demand for Internet network capacity. Cisco Systems Inc....

Where Is the Linux Kernel Going?
June 21, 2007... MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Last week, at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit held at the Googleplex, some of Linux's top kernel developers discussed the state of the Linux kernel today and where it might be going. Among the kernel...

Summer Reading for I.T. Managers.(information technology)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... It's that time of year again. Whether you're hitting the beach or plugging away in your data center this summer, there's no shortage of new books to keep you busy. Baseline scanned the literary landscape and came up with a list of...

95% of Workers To Use IM as a Primary Comm Tool.
June 22, 2007... Workers conditioned to the constant and annoying pings of their instant-messaging systems had better buck up and get used to it. According to the latest industry report from Gartner, 95% of all corporate employees will use IM as their...

Enterprise Hurdles Await iPhone.
June 22, 2007... Ask any BlackBerry-toting exec whether they're going to buy the new iPhone, and they'll ask you a question right back: Will my IT staff be able to support it? Corporate users have become accustomed to high-tech smart phones that allow...

Microsoft Reaches ERP Milestone.
June 22, 2007... Microsoft has reached the halfway point in its three-year march to converge four enterprise resource planning suites into a common technology platform. But it's still an open question whether the campaign will deliver a fully converged...

When iPhone Wannabes Attack.
June 22, 2007... In what seems to be a bid to compete with the iPhone's snazzy feature set--the touchscreen, photo management and iPod apps you've seen in those ubiquitous TV ads--some manufacturers are building new features on their own handsets. ...

IBM Aims to Cure Virtualization Management Headaches.
June 23, 2007... IBM is introducing a version of its server virtualization management software that adds new automation capabilities for the management of virtual and physical systems across multiple platforms. The software, which conforms to an industry...

Firewalls Gain Strength as Main Line of Network Defense.
June 24, 2007... Sometimes in IT, the best defense is a good defense moved further up the network stack. At least that is what some vendors and analysts are predicting about the next generation of network firewalls. "The firewall is the piece of network...

U.S. Passport System Comes Up Short.(US State Department's passport application system development)
June 25, 2007... Despite having almost two years to prepare for a predictable onslaught of new passport applications this summer, the U.S. State Department and its information processing systems are now so backlogged that Congress is cracking the whip on the...

Some Waiting on iPhone Improvements Before Buying.
June 25, 2007... CHICAGO (Reuters)--Apple Inc.'s upcoming iPhone is shaping up as this year's must-have gadget, but several perceived shortcomings are pushing some potential buyers to wait for an updated version. Worries over the high cost, slow network...

Google Seeks to Extend Microsoft Antitrust Decree.
June 25, 2007... WASHINGTON (Reuters)--Google Inc. asked a federal judge on Monday to extend the consent decree that settled the landmark antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. in order to address competition concerns involving the Windows Vista operating...

Oracle: SOA to Fuse Financial Services Package.(service oriented architecture providers's new Financial Services Global Business Unit)(Brief article)
June 25, 2007... Oracle's June 21 announcement of a massive new business unit geared to the needs of the financial markets raises as many questions as Stonehenge. None is more pressing than how Oracle hopes to bring its products to market without creating more...

Calculate the Benefits of VoIP.
June 26, 2007... Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) provides the technical means to converge information-technology data center operations with traditional telecommunications support functions. The real potential for VoIP appears to be in the enterprise,...

IBM, Sun Look to Leave a 'Petaflop' Mark in Supercomputing.
June 26, 2007... IBM and Sun Microsystems are looking to bring supercomputing into the "petaflop" era. The two IT giants will detail the specifics behind their new supercomputer systems to the audience attending the 2007 International Supercomputer...

Security Appliances Sitting Ducks for Known Bug.
June 26, 2007... The all-in-one device many businesses think is protecting their security likely has a hole as big as a Boeing, according to new research from Calyptix Security. Calyptix Security, in Charlotte, N.C., has discovered that CSRF (cross-site...

Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Unite for HPC.
June 26, 2007... A pair of IT icons are looking to bring Windows into the high-performance computer space. Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard jointly announced June 26 that both companies would pour millions into packaging Microsoft's Windows Compute Cluster...

Has 'Pump-and-Dump' Spam Been Dumped?
June 27, 2007... E-mail and Internet content security provider Marshal on June 26 announced that "pump-and-dump" spam has dropped significantly, though not all security vendors agree. Marshal researchers say stock spam now represents five percent of all...

Global Mobile Phone Use to Pass Record 3 Billion.(Brief article)
June 27, 2007... LONDON (Reuters)--Global mobile phone use will pass the 3 billion mark--equivalent to half the world's population--for the first time in 2007 as cell phone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey said on Wednesday. From African...

A Social Network Aims for the Business Crowd.(Plaxo Inc. released the first Web-based service)
June 27, 2007... The millions of teenagers and college students who helped build sites like MySpace and Facebook into multibillion-dollar acquisition targets will be sad to learn that social networking has sold out and gone corporate. This week, Mountain...

Oracle Tries to Woo SMBs.
June 27, 2007... In an effort to make itself more competitive with Microsoft on the small business side of the database market, Oracle has announced improvements to its VAR ordering process and will allow resellers to order through distributors without having...

iPhone Accessory Market Set for Slow Start.
June 27, 2007... SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)--Owners of Apple Inc.'s iPod love to trick out the music players with cases, speakers and other accessories and its upcoming wireless iPhone promises to be no different. But the iPhone accessory market looks like it...

Analysts Question Oracle's 'Surround SAP' Strategy.
June 27, 2007... Powering the stellar fourth quarter numbers Oracle announced yesterday--total revenues up 17 percent to 5.8 billion, beating the Street estimate of $5.6 billion--is an acquisition strategy that seems, on the surface at least, to be growing...