January 31, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Telecom: Waxing poetic, Paul Venezia puts a new, modern-day tech spin on Elizabeth Barrett Browning's similarly-titled poem in Sonnets from the Portugese. Only Venezia isn't counting up the ways he loves his DSL provider, no, something quite different. "Why must this be so difficult, so painful?" he begins O Verizon, how I loathe thee. "Why must you spurn me at every opportunity, causing me to rend my clothing and speak in tongues? This hold you have over me is distressing."
Sustainable IT: The latest IT product fray to turn green is workplace and resource management, thanks to PeopleCube's Resource Scheduler, Ted Samson reports. Green features bloom in unexpected places. The company seeded Resource Scheduler with the capability to remotely monitor and control lighting and HVAC for facilities a customer oversees and, for instance, to turn off the air conditioning and lights in an empty conference room.
Show of the week: Demo 08, now in video. See the best of 77 startups pitching their idea to VCs and investors. Watch them here.
The news beat: In reaction to Autonomy's white paper claiming Google's Search Appliance does not index all of a customer's critical data, Google slams Autonomy, but Autonomy was not alone in its criticisms. Phishers are using DNS tricks to lure Web surfers to malicious sites at an increasing rate. At least two PC makers, other than Apple, will use the Core 2 Duo chip Intel built for the MacBook Air in systems that, one source says, will be announced shortly. And Forrester Research predicts that the days of super-size software consolidations are largely over.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 31, 2008 10:04 AM
January 31, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Redirecting of surfers to malicious sites is on the rise, according to new study. Also, Egypt's Orascom wins license to sell 3G cell service in N. Korea, U.S. Congress extends telecom spying provisions, and more 
LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 31, 2008 07:27 AM
January 31, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Why Vista's too 'incredible' to save XP
From the feature well: Calling Windows Vista Microsoft's "best OS to date," Peter Bruzzese declares that, "the fact of the matter is, Vista is incredible. I've been working with it since Beta 3, and I won't return to that cartoon-looking XP for anything." Save XP? Why bother? You guessed it, Mr. Bruzzese presents a contrarian's voice to our Save XP campaign, basically addressing each point at a time. Security? Vista's better. Resource-intensive? Not so on new PCs. Compatibility? That's not Microsoft's fault. Judging from the comments section, by the by, not all that many readers agree, though one sums up what may be the reality facing IT shops and consumers alike: "Get Vista if you buy a new computer and keep XP if you [plan to use] an old computer." Related: Happy Birthday Vista?
Platforms: Keeping the XP vs. Vista debate alive and fiery here, Randall Kennedy chimes in by examining the latest, "half-hearted campaign by Redmond to convince us all that Vista and Server 2008 are 'better together.'" As an aside, all apologies if you, like me, are from New Jersey and the mere phrase evokes the state's "Perfect Together" slogan, but I digress. Back to Microsoft. "Ignoring for the moment the trite nature of this worn out slogan, the real travesty here is that Microsoft needs to explain the relationship at all," Kennedy points out in Vista and Server 2008: Better Together? "The list is thin to begin with, and there's simply nothing on there to make a fence sitter jump on the Vista bandwagon."
Best of the blogs: Switching gears now, a yearling OS is not the only new kid in town. There's also a nascent dance and it's called the social media measurement hustle. Lena West has seen it too many times already. And I don't mean on some insomnia-curing quasi-reality TV show. "Measurement methods are slick and shape-shifting -- like the guy who tries to sell you the 'found' laptop outside the local pizza shop," West writes. While an Advertising Intelligence Research study lists composition, reach and engagement as the top things advertisers consider, they're all so vague that measuring any is enough to, well, to spur West into another realm those gaga for their televisions support way too much. "Stop waiting for someone else's recipe to tell you how your food is supposed to taste. Create your own."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 31, 2008 04:41 AM
January 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Tapping herd intelligence to take on malware
Security: Our own reporter Matt Hines appeared on the radio show Homeland Security Inside & Out, discussing his article about herd intelligence and malware. "The idea of herd intelligence is to essentially turn the end-point into a monitoring station for new viruses and to report them back to antivirus vendors to help them keep an eye on the latest and greatest attacks. It's a very new idea." Mr. Hines is the first to be interviewed, and other guests include none other than the man who conquered smallpox. Related: Herd intelligence benefits IT security.
Notes from the field: Robert X. Cringely is singing today, and the tune is Happy Birthday -- to Windows Vista. "It was one year ago today that Microsoft foisted Windows Vista onto a wary world. (OK -- OEMs and enterprises had Vista foisted on them in November 2006, but January was the 'big launch' for most of us," Cringe writes. Recall Microsoft's "The wow starts now" slogan, but Cringe asserts that in hindsight, "January 30,2007 was more like the 'When Started Then.'" Happy Birthday Vista? Microsoft claims roughly four out of ten new machines shipped with Vista, but back in XP's first year it shipped in nearly 70 percent of PCs. "Microsoft has finally figured out what it takes to earn respect for one of its operating systems: release a new one that sucks harder than the last." Related: Save Windows XP. Sign the petition.
The news beat: ICANN considers a proposal to stop domain tasting, the seedy practice of purchasing thousands of domain names and watching to see which ones get searched for in hopes of then selling those to the interested party at a profit. Stanford's Linear Accelerator Center, aka SLAC, adopts Sun's datacenter-in-a-box for extra capacity. And SAP's profit drops 6 percent for the fourth quarter, a loss the company attributes to new offerings.
Show of the week: Demo 2008 Tomorrow's tech today. Demo's got 77 demonstrators all vying for VC and investment funding for what they hope will become the next big thing. (Full Disclosure: Demo is owned by IDG World Expo, the parent company of InfoWorld.)
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 30, 2008 10:23 AM
January 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)
MS to remain under U.S. court supervision two more years, Judge rules. Also, Intel to detail Silverthorne next week, eBay will change marketplace to make shopping easier and safer, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 30, 2008 07:58 AM
January 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Windows 7 wiggles onto YouTube
Video: What someone is claiming is Windows 7 has circulated on YouTube. "Copies of the OS have apparently appeared on BitTorrent file-sharing networks," Martyn Williams of the IDG News Service explains. "While most reports said the torrents that are supposed to have Windows 7 don't actually contain the software, a couple of Web users claim to have installed and used it." Posting to YouTube is a way those users maintain they're backing up their claims. Watch the report here.
The news beat: Microsoft's compliance with its U.S. antitrust settlement agreement will stay under the court's eye for two more years, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled, thereby extending such supervision through November 12, 2009. Hewlett-Packard breathes life into used printer cartridges via a process that that makes new cartridges from recycled ones. MySpace says it will launch a developer platform next week that will enable users to build a business on top of the social networking site. And The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint is back in talks with Clearwire regarding a potential joint WiMax venture that previously fell apart.
From the Test Center: Delving into Part 2 of his look at Brocade's DCX Backbone, Mario Apicella begins with the reality that, "how physical security is implemented in your data center certainly has its weight but, generally speaking, a larger installation such as what you can get consolidating multiple fabrics with DCX, is more vulnerable than a smaller one to trivial errors and to security breaks." Apicella also writes that, "QoS and the DCX initial, rudimentary attempt at enforcing security from the fabric are what I find most attractive, but can't help thinking that those features are, must be, only a first step in that direction and that the best of the DCX intelligence is yet to come. Hopefully soon." Part 1: Review of Brocade DCX Backbone.
Columnist's corner: A self-proclaimed high-profile hotshot new to a company's marketing department thought highly of himself, the assistants he hired and equipment he procured, though not everyone under his command agreed. "Enter the plasma screen," our Off the Record author writes in Black plasma. That was to display updated information about the company, the business, it's customers. Suggestions to the contrary, such as opting instead for an LED, were summarily dismissed. "The Windows-based computer crashed frequently, at least a few times a week. The receptionists hated the thing spewing the same old drivel every day. Visitors must have been rolling their eyes." Ultimately, the screen died and the executive, having failed other projects as well, hit the road.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 30, 2008 05:41 AM
January 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Sustainable IT: Chipmaker Intel said it will purchase more than 1.3 billion kilowatt hours per year in renewable energy credits -- making it, according to the EPA, the single largest corporate purchaser of green power in the U.S., Ted Samson reports. RECs are effectively electricity generated from renewable sources. "I commend Intel here for its move. In an ideal world, of course, companies seeking to run their operations on clean technology would be able to draw on clean energy straight from the grid, rather than having to buy RECs," Samson explains in this Sustainable IT post. "Given the momentum of the clean-tech movement, that should become feasible in coming years."
Show of the week: The semi-annual Demo conference is underway in Palm Springs, Calif. and the most recent demonstration to impress Ephraim Schwartz was of Hubdub's combination news aggregation and predective platform. Hubdub, however, is but one of 77 companies presenting what they hope is a good idea and, in so doing, looking to snag VC investment from audience members. Ongoing coverage: Demo 2008 Tomorrow's tech today. (Full Disclosure: Demo is owned by IDG World Expo, the parent company of InfoWorld.)
Data management: While many are saddened by the death of Ken Henderson, author of Guru's Guide to SQL Server series of books, among others, Sean McCown feels it on a more personal level. "He was the coolest guy I think I've ever met and I know his family is devastated. I'm going to miss sitting in his office at MS talking about just anything and everything," McCown writes in Felt around the world. "I consider myself lucky to have been brought into his circle."
The news beat: Earthlink founder Sky Dayton is stepping down as CEO of Helio, to be replaced by Wonhee Sull, Helio's current president and COO. eBay says it will lower fees and tighten seller standards in changes it hopes will make shopping safer and easier. A report released on Tuesday estimates that India's BPO industry could reach $50 billion by 2012, up from $11 billion of today. And Apple readies MacBook Air add-ons, including an external optical drive, an Ethernet adapter, a video connector, and new thrid-party cases for the unusually-sized computer.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 29, 2008 11:05 AM
January 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)
SpringSource buys Covalent, aims to offer alternative to complex J2EE, U.S. President Bush calls on Congress to extend telecom spying, AMD introduces high-end graphics card, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 29, 2008 07:14 AM
January 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Apps: While SaaS has thus far progressed by appealing to small companies and moving up from there, one area has seen some traction among large customers. That would be EDI between supplier and buyers. "Strangely enough, although suppliers are those most in need of a solution like this, it is the customers -- Target, Welch's, and so on -- that are actually buying into the solution. After all, when a supplier doesn't get it right, the retailer suffers, too," Ephraim Schwartz explains in SaaS means business-to-business. "The more I cover SaaS as a reporter, the more respect I gain for the model, and the more I believe that in just a few more years it will become the entrenched incumbent waiting for some new upstart methodology to unseat it."
Test Center review: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is a contender for the best Windows-hosted C/C++ IDE, Martin Heller espouses. "I ran the VS08 Team Suite on my XP desktop almost all day, five days a week for several weeks, and tried to use it for all my development work," he explains. "Overall, Visual Studio 2008 is an upgrade that most Microsoft-oriented development shops will want to make, in order to develop with new technologies, such as WPF, WCF, and WF, and for new platforms, such as Windows Vista. However, it's not an upgrade that's easily made piecemeal." Read the full review.
The news beat: Intel is likely to reveal details of its forthcoming Silverthorne processor next week at the International Solid State Circuits Conference. Spring Framework for Java provider SpringSource buys Covalent to get its services for Apache users, including Tomcat, Geronimo and the Axis Web Framework. Microsoft partner Intermedia becomes the first to offer Office Communications Server as a hosted service. And President Bush calls on Congress to extend telecom spying provisions, during his final State of the Union address, saying "to protect America, we need to know who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 29, 2008 04:58 AM
January 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Will Microsoft ship Windows 7 early?
Best of the blogs: "Will Microsoft ship Windows 7 early in an effort to salvage its enterprise reputation?" Randall Kennedy wonders in this Enterprise Desktop post. Vista is a disaster in the enterprise, Save XP is gaining momentum, and making Windows 7 a success won't be as difficult as one might think. "I'm guessing yes, if for no other reason than they can."
Security: Technology vendors have had to stay ahead of everyone else when it comes to security and manage a balancing act of sorts in which they not only protect themselves but also serve as beta testers of forthcoming technologies they hope to sell. With that in mind, Security secrets of tech CIOs looks at lessons learned by chief information officers of IBM, Intel and Symantec. Malcolm Harkins, general manager of Intel's Information Risk and Security unit, explains one. "By taking the wider approach of considering legal, compliance, and security issues together, you will end up with stronger protection, lower costs, and less complexity."
Hardware: Amid AMD's mounting losses, John West explains that rumors of a more formal partnership between AMD and IBM could signal a shift in HPC chips. "I would be concerned about the pace of innovation in the chip market if Intel lost its AMD pressure. On the other hand, if IBM can bring its ability to execute to help AMD get its gear out the door, that could definitely be a good thing for HPC," West writes.
The news beat: Demo 2008 focuses on video this week at the gathering of VCs and high-tech investors. Hewlett-Packard boosts SOA governance via software and services to help companies adopt the services-oriented architecture model and reduce risks of doing so. Hackers hit the Church of Scientology Web site with an online attack that claims its aim is to "save people from Scientology by reversing the brainwashing." And Facebook-based apps can now run on other sites, according to the company.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 28, 2008 11:07 AM
January 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Cisco unwraps Nexus, a platform that brings IT closer to a virtualized datacenter. Also, Hackers hit Church of Scientology Web site, Microsoft issues Vista SP1 refresh, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 28, 2008 08:21 AM
January 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)
From the feature well: While more than 70,000 people have already signed our Save Windows XP campaign, Microsoft could still halt new XP licenses come June 30, raising the question, what can IT do to get more XP seats? "The answer depends on your licensing arrangement with Microsoft," Galen Gruman explains. "The short answer for most users, though, is that Microsoft will let people with Vista Business or Ultimate 'downgrade' to Windows XP Pro under specific circumstances." But that's only the beginning, so here's InfoWorld's guide to getting XP licenses after Microsoft pulls the plug. Editor-in-chief Eric Knorr explains in A tale of two Microsofts that, "The point of all this is not to slam Vista. The aim is to keep XP alive, because businesses should be able to choose where they put their resources."
The news beat: Nokia buys Trolltech for its framework used to build interfaces for mobile and embedded devices. Cisco unveils the Nexus datacenter networking platform that, it claims, is designed to meet exploding demands for bandwidth and energy efficiency within datacenters. Progress Software launches Progress Actional 7.1 SOA, a management platform featuring visibility into services and infrastructure. And Microsoft ships the second refresh of Vista SP1, suggesting that the company is drawing close to a final release.
Security: Allowing users to execute and install their own software will always lead to viruses, worms and Trojans, Roger Grimes explains. "The greater vision is that all computers run a client-side program, potentially embedded in the operating system, that measures the cryptographic hash of all programs and content being downloaded to the computer." Control user installs of software. "Doesn't it make sense for us to help innocent end-users, who just want to do their jobs and have a little fun with their computers, make informed decisions? Because ultimately, we don't want to stop end-users from installing and running any programs they want -- just the bad ones."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 28, 2008 04:28 AM
January 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)
The pros and, yes, cons of saving Windows XP
From the feature well: We've collected more than 65,000 signatures from InfoWorld readers agreeing that they'd like Microsoft to keep Windows XP alive beyond June 30, the date it publicly said it will cease all shrinkwrap and OEM sales. And that's since we kicked the campaign off on January 14. Three reasons dominate resistance: performance, compatibility and cost. Why save XP? Readers speak out. But not everyone agrees. In addition to the litany of IT folks embracing the ostensibly fatalistic inevitability of a new Microsoft OS spreading in the fashion of its predecessors, several readers state they are not only satisfied with the new OS but, what's more, that it outperforms XP. One even maintains that "it runs absolutely everything 20 percent faster for me than XP ever did." Related news: Vista SP1 due in next few weeks? And Microsoft awards high marks in Vista report card.
Special: What do Mother Teresa, Mike Huckabee and Martin Luther King all have in common with Tom Cruise? Not much, thankfully. But they're all in the first question of this week's InfoWorld News Quiz. Another question, for which Scientology.org is one of the multiple choices, regards a disastrous target for hackers. Oh, yes, and which is the only part of the country where HBO's show are available on-demand across the Net? One more: Which tech companies are best to work for?
Notes from the field: Mr. Cringely might be eccentric but at least he's reliable when it comes to the Geek week in review. First up is the 20-year-old student, Dmitri Galushkevich, who took down the Republic of Estonia's Internet infrastructure. IBM slashes salaries and yet another broken record, err music industry group, spins some nasty intentions to turn ISPs into copyright cops.
The news beat: WSO2 says it will launch Mashup Server on Monday; the open source tool uses JavaScript and relies on Web services to help users create mashups. The U.S. FCC's auction for 700MHz spectrum licenses reaches $2.8 billion via 1,112 new bids filed in the second round. AMD sheds more light on its forthcoming Fusion chip by saying it will be based on the Phenom processor. And the EU signs off on IBM's bid to buy Cognos, bringing the acquisition one step closer to finality.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 25, 2008 10:21 AM
January 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Readers explain pros and cons of keeping XP beyond June 30, U.S. FCC reports $2.8 billion in provisional winning bids during spectrum auction, AMD sheds light on Fusion, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 25, 2008 07:58 AM
January 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)
The freewheeling days of open source are numbered
Tech's bottom line: Bill Snyder has some advice for Red Hat. Move over, open source ain't what it used to be. "Perhaps the most startling statistic is this: IBM's open source revenue in 2007 was equal to that of Red Hat, the largest and most influential open source company. Not only did IBM equal Red Hat's open source revenue, but the next largest revenue earners were Sun and Oracle," Snyder explains. "The days of the freewheeling open source movement are numbered. Is this bad news for open source? Not at all. Open source software is more than good enough to stand on its own merits, no matter who owns it. And it's about time that the hardworking visionaries of the open source movement were rewarded with good jobs and high returns on their money and sweat."
Storage: Even storage is going green these days, intentionally or not. Most recently, it comes in the form of 2.5-inch drives that populate Infortrend's EonStor B12, which Mario Apicella deems the first enterprise-class array based on 2.5-inch drives. Smaller drives nurture green IT. "It should be clear why the EonStor is an odds-on favorite to beat any same-class array with 3.5-inch drives: It delivers comparable performance using less energy and less space. It's that simple," Apicella writes. "So why aren't more small-drive storage arrays being offered? For the same reason SUVs still mount gas-guzzling engines: Because we didn't ask vendors to do better. Let's not make the same mistake with storage: Use the power of your budget to make those requests, and storage vendors will listen."
Careers: Uplogix, it seems, practices discriminatory hiring -- and it even puts a spin on non-diverse hiring. "Check the dictionary on this one, because it's not bad," Nick Corcodilos explains in The discriminating employer. "Who needs diversity when you can have productive uniformity? Fancy that: You hire only people you know." Corcodilos, who actually used to work for a company that had a similar practice, adds that hiring folks you already know results in people working with others they like and respect not only fuels that organization but also reduces turnover. "I have never heard anyone boast that they make hires like that through Monster.com. Yet HR spends cough a billion a year cough to hire cough who-comes-along."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 25, 2008 05:44 AM
January 24, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Best of the blogs: We've all seen our share of weird restrictive EULA's (end-user license agreements) but, now, along comes what Ed Foster considers one of the strangest yet: a Fuji camera with a EULA that allows only certain people to use it, and only to take certain kinds of pictures. "No doubt some will applaud the company for trying to keep its technology out of the hands of perverts and paparazzi," Foster writes in this installment of Gripe Line. But it's a slippery slope. "Hey, maybe next we'll see gun manufacturers with EULAs that say you only shoot bad people with their weapons."
The news beat: Sources say that Microsoft will ship Vista SP1 in the next few weeks, though Microsoft declined to confirm the reported February 15 date, instead toeing the line that it will be available in the first quarter. Red Hat's new CEO, Jim Whitehurst, says the open source distributor will focus on its core Linux and middleware products as well as on improving the services it offers to customers. Former JBoss employees debut startup LoopFuse to provide lead generation technology available as a paid on-demand service or as open-source software installed on-site. And NTT DoCoMo is in talks with Google regarding an Android-based cell phone -- the same Android that yesterday left Sun vice president James Gosling saying Sun cannot yet take a position on Android because there is no data or business model for the much-hyped platform.
Notes from the field: While Web sites get hacked every day and, Cringe asserts, some might even deserve it, the frightening reality is that we in IT are now "looking at massive, well-organized plans to take over vast portions of the Net," he explains. The scariest, perhaps, is the year-old storm worm, still circulating and infecting machines, though they remain eerily quiet. "A security wonk of my acquaintance has an interesting theory on what these millions of zombie machines might be used for: the evil equivalent to SETI. But instead of parsing interstellar radio signals for signs of intelligent life, these millions of zombies could be put to other distributed computing tasks, like cracking complex passwords." Hackers gone wild. "The bad guys could merely rent their grid out to anyone with a Dr. Evil-ish scheme for world domination. Call it Storm Cloud Computing."
Save Windows XP: Sign the petition.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 24, 2008 10:54 AM
January 24, 2008 | Comments: (0)
U.S. FCC spectrum auction begins amid questions about its future, Via Technologies details the Isaiah processor it hopes will help it become a mainstream chip vendor, Microsoft says SP1 for Vista is almost ready, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 24, 2008 08:56 AM
January 24, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Podcast: Even enterprise architects, and many of them at that, are ineffective when it comes to services-oriented architecture. Typical organizations have layers upon layers of technologies that do not all work together, David Linthicum explains. And while everything might work just fine, once a need to change core processes springs up, companies find out just static and fragile their infrastructure truly is. Thus, "the role of the enterprise architect is going to need to morph into something that is a bit more productive, a bit more influential, and a bit more effective than in the past. Inefficiencies are so awful that its starting to affect the business." Listen to Real World SOA.
Best of the blogs: Way down at the bottom of Microsoft's press release about boosting its virtualization efforts Randall Kennedy found a tidbit stating that the 2003 and 2007 versions of Office are now supported when running in both Microsoft's Applications Virtualization 4.5 and SoftGrid's Applications Virtualization 4.2. "It signals a major shift in Microsoft's view of its nascent application virtualization platform. No longer a 'fringe' technology, 'MAV' is now an accepted part of the Windows ecosystem," Kennedy explains. Which causes him to wonder: Is virtualized MS Office just around the corner? "I expect the full-court press to continue throughout the coming year, with Microsoft 'gifting' more and more of MAV until its biggest customers find the bait irresistible and start dabbling with the technology." Related news: Microsoft steps up assault on virtualization.
Columnist's corner: Tom Yager offers some words to the wise: Don't just let vendors, or anyone who sells you convenience for that matter, be the expert you rely on. Instead, become your own most trusted source of knowledge, if only because sharp science leads to smart decisions. Take benchmarks, for instance. "Now that I can run, and more importantly, explain the [SPEC] tests that my readers are studying to make comparisons among vendors, I'm fired up about benchmarks," he explains. "When you end up making smarter decisions with the new knowledge you've gathered from the most trustworthy source on the planet (you), science is good for your career, whatever it says on your business card."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 24, 2008 04:53 AM
January 23, 2008 | Comments: (0)
From the feature well: InfoWorld is on the prowl for the best IT humor we can find which, in turn, we'll use to compile for all to see come March 31. Indeed, that's right in time for April Fool's Day, so send us your best jokes by the Ides of March, to jokes@infoworld.com. Audio and video submissions are welcome, too.
The news beat: The W3C issues a draft specification for HTML 5 that, the group claims, will bring the standard in line with current usage practices and add new features for rich Internet applications. IBM buys AptSoft and plans to place the acquired complex event processing (CEP) technology into its WebSphere lineup as a way to boost SOA. RIM touts a software upgrade, due in the first half of this year, that adds messaging, manageability and security. And Mozilla says that a Firefox flaw could enable attackers to access data on a victim's PC.
Careers: Back in December, a reader wrote in to Bob Lewis seeking counsel after hearing that his boss was actively looking to replace him. Since then, our reader landed a new job he's excited about but during the exit interview HR pressed hard to find out the reason he was leaving. "Congratulations, you handled it perfectly," Lewis maintains in How an Advice Line situation turned out. "Explaining the reason for your departure would have nothing but downside in it for you."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 23, 2008 10:06 AM
January 23, 2008 | Comments: (0)
W3C issues draft HTML 5 spec, eBay CEO to step down, RIM touts BlackBerry enhancements, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 23, 2008 08:08 AM
January 23, 2008 | Comments: (0)
From the feature well: "For all the amazing advances that the computing industry has brought us over the years, some of its most pivotal moments are memorable for all the wrong reasons," Neil McAllister explains. Some ideas are bound to be losers and we celebrate the very best of those during the past 20 years. Tech's all-time top 25 flops. Some are specific and obvious, such as iPod imitators and Mac clones, while others are broad and sweeping concepts that never took off, like e-currency.
Wireless: While WiMax's horizons keep expanding and the technology itself continues evolving, differences between spectrum owners Clearwire and Sprint are inhibiting its promise. "Eventually, the spectrum players will sort out their differences -- after all, WiMax means money in everybody's pocket. In the meantime, wireless users can salivate over what the next generation of WiMax, 802.16m, will bring," Ephraim Schwartz explains in WiMax multi-hops to hyperconnectivity. "When we get to IEEE 802.16m, wireless will truly be an integral part of our consumer and business world."
SOA: David Linthicum has some thoughts on service descriptions and SOA. "We really need a more complete set of info surrounding the services in order to create a proper SOA. This information should include things such as: the purpose, interfaces, parameters, rules, logic, owner, semantics, included services, and other important data," he explains. "I suspect it will still be the Wild West out there for awhile as SOA and service-oriented integration moves out of the playground and into business critical production systems."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 23, 2008 04:43 AM
January 22, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Social media's rich niche communities
Best of the blogs: Those small, quasi-specialty communities popping up all over the Web are all the rage, Lena West points out in this Social Media 360 entry. Ad dollars are being woven in, even by major companies -- a trend West believes will snowball. "No matter if a corporate strategy is well-executed or not, if enough companies do it, other companies will do it, too. Call it follow-the-leader or the blind-leading-the-blind, whichever works." That said, there are of course benefits, such as the fact that a company can buy ads and that's all it takes to claim they're involved with social media. "It's funny how the world works when you have the money to spend."
The news beat: IBM lays out its Lotus Foundation suite for SMBs and details a roadmap for Domino and Lotus, at its Lotusphere conference. Microsoft ratchets up its assault on virtualization by acquiring Calista Technologies and making changes to its own licensing terms. Intel ships its first dual-core Celeron processor, a low-end chip for desktops. And Gartner estimates that India's IT services will reach $11 billion by 2010 fueled, in part anyway, by demand for new technologies and applications.
Columnist's corner: A startup thought it was doing things the right way by working with a consultant for database and Web development. The first six months were packed with progress, components were available for testing and they worked as expected. "Except the lead developer forgot a key fact: the matches were many to many, not one to one, and his database architecture didn't anticipate that. Whoops. Time for an architectural redo," our Off the Record author writes. "But it never happened. The firm went silent for weeks and sometimes months, then promising they were almost done, only to disappear again." What happened? It's not real clear though it seems "our CEO negotiated an on-the-cheap deal." And, well, that's what they got. Naivete and cheapness kill a launch. A technically-unsophisticated overseas development shop and a year later the project simply faded away. "In hindsight, we all screwed up."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 22, 2008 10:12 AM
January 22, 2008 | Comments: (0)
MS ratchets up virtualization efforts with acquisitions, new licensing terms. IBM develops Lotus Foundation, US VC investments continue to rise, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 22, 2008 08:06 AM
January 22, 2008 | Comments: (0)
How to avoid IT job stagnation
Careers: Many IT folks, as is the case with most fields, will concede that your workday can become rather mundane once you've settled into that first job. Facing that reality, one reader writes in to ask headhunter Nick Corcodilos the question How can I avoid stagnation? The first step, naturally, is selecting the employer. "The most important aspect of a job is the people. Make sure you have assessed them carefully, because you will have to live with them a long time." Beyond that, look for cutting-edge projects and other means to keep learning, such as mentors. "Honest, it all comes down to the people."
Columnist's corner: While predicting that 2008 will bring more of the same security problems that 2007 and years prior saw, Roger Grimes has formulated a plan he believes will make the Internet safer for every legitimate user. "All computer devices, users, and transactions must be authenticated by default," he explains. "That's it." Sounds simple enough but, Grimes writes, until we put in place mechanisms for identifying and catching criminals of the cyber variety, hackers will continue hacking, unabated. Internet security: what will work. Naturally, there's a downside. "My brilliant idea (probably already thought of by a hundred other great minds decades ago) requires a complete rebuild of every involved component: hardware, software, and user logons." That doesn't stop Grimes from hoping and dreaming that a powerful consortium will come together to make it a reality.
Storage: Word that storage titan EMC would be replacing disks with solid-state drives made a big splash last week, even on Wall Street. Mario Apicella expects such an update to be pricey for customers, perhaps even prohibitively so -- though it could, ultimately, translate into savings by requiring 98 percent less energy. But that's not yet proven, so for now, Apicella writes that "on paper, the drives look appealing." EMC's solid-state play begs for benchmarks. "It's one thing to make the performance of an array with SSD drives a major selling point; it's another to publish benchmark results and submit the arrays to independent, peer-based reviews."
Save Windows XP: Sign the petition.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 22, 2008 05:11 AM
January 18, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Defending SOA in tight- budget times
Best of the blogs: What with all the talk these days of a recession or, at the very least, reduced IT budgets, the time is right to plot a strategy for keeping SOA high on the list of corporate priorities. "SOA is going to need some defending," David Linthicum espouses in this Real World SOA post. Linthicum joins the chorus of SOA champions, one of whom offers up 3 key tactics. Linthicum sums its up by stating, "in essence, prove that the investment in SOA should increase during a downturn, considering that the ROI is very high."
InfoWorld News Quiz: You don't know tech. Nope, you don't. You might have a good idea what happened at Macworld, I'll give you that. But what of all the other news this week? What, for instance, has Amazon done to offend the French this time? And, which former boy-band singer did Amazon join up with? Think you know, then prove me wrong and take the test.
Notes from the field: He won't typically help you much with that quiz, but Robert X. Cringely once again delivers Geek week in review, in which he waxes prophetic on Big Brother can you spare a dime? All my excess live in Texas, and Cruise Control. Yes, that's as in Tom Cruise, the de facto spokesperson for the Church of Scientology. "Apparently, even the great L. Ron in the sky can't stop it," Cringe opines. "Couldn't he just have a sex tape like everyone else in Hollywood?" Ugh, I feel sick, too.
Save Windows XP: Thus far some 30,000 people, and counting, have signed the Save XP petition, thereby asking Microsoft not to discontinue Windows XP come June 30 as planned but, instead, to keep it available indefinitely.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 18, 2008 10:54 AM
January 18, 2008 | Comments: (0)
MS foretells automatic IE7 update, AMD reports Q4 loss, attack code crashes Windows PCs, Skype flaw lets criminals in, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 18, 2008 07:56 AM
January 18, 2008 | Comments: (0)
The first IT superhero: WANman
From the InfoWorld Test Center: When a technical review of WAN optimization and acceleration products begins like this I really have no choice but to cut and paste it in here, verbatim: "I sometimes wonder why there aren't any movies made about IT superheroes. Sure, there's always Superman and Batman, but what about WANman -- the IT superhero that accelerates high-latency traffic and saves the company from additional Internet bandwidth costs?" Keith Schultz proposes. The wares at hand are Riverbed's Steelhead and Steelhead Mobile, both of which, Schultz writes, "in my tests proved very adept at making WAN circuits appear cleaner and faster than they really were." Read the full review. It's not the products themselves that are lunchbox-worthy here but, "in continuing to improve on an already capable product ... Riverbed has once again bolstered the utility belt for WAN-weary IT superheroes."
Gripe Line: Getting to the heart of the warranty question -- to buy or not to buy? -- Ed Foster asks "does the fact that an extended warranty may turn out well in a particular case mean that you should always get one?" Extended debate over the extended warranty. An electronics salesman and three repairman share insider's stories, some in favor, others against. Those and some reader's experiences add up to Foster's conclusion that, "All in all, I think I still hold to the opinion that, unless you know how to see into the future, extended warranties are just not a good bet." What's your take? Talkback via the comments function below, or at the story I linked to above.
Sustainable IT: With both AMD and Intel making bold claims about the energy efficiency of their processors, one independent consulting firm took the responsibility upon itself to investigate. In its testing, Neal Nelson adn Associates found that Intel's Xeon cranks out a higher throughput rate, while AMD consumes less energy. AMD Opteron out greens Intel's Xeon. "The power consumption at idle is particularly significant since studies have shown that many servers are powered on, but idle, 80 percent of the time," Nelson explains. Related news: Intel 'energy-efficient' claim debunked.
Save Windows XP: Sign the petition.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 18, 2008 04:33 AM
January 17, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Best of the blogs: Pardon? We've just started hearing about Microsoft's forthcoming follow-up to Vista and already it's reached RTM, a veritable marketingspeak milestone? "It's true. Windows 7 was just released ... to manufacturers," Randall Kennedy begins this Enterprise Desktop entry. It's not the same, of course, as the official RTM, as in released to manufacturing. "But, hey, it sounds good!" Seriously, though, Microsoft has sent Windows 7 code base to key partners -- which is not to say that we'll be booting the OS, even in a test version, anytime soon. But we could see a beta in 12-14 months and have a usable iteration in 18 months, all of which, Kennedy suggests, lends credibility to the notion that IT shops could simply skip Vista altogether. "Frankly, this is a good thing. Microsoft needs to be shown that, at least in enterprise computing circles, they can't simply force-feed their customer base a new version. Release software that provides no compelling reason for us to upgrade and we'll ignore it. Period." Related: Save Windows XP.
Show of the week: Macworld 2008.
Analysis: Sun Microsystems' acquisition of MySQL ought to clear up any doubts about the company's open source intentions. "Sun has toyed with the idea of a database offering of its own for at least two years," Neil McAllister writes in Sun's billion-dollar baby. In a market that is decidedly mature, that's neither a trivial task, nor is Sun the first to try. Red Hat, as far back as 2001, gave its own branded version of PostgreSQL a run, only to abort the mission a year later. CA tried open-sourcing Ingres before spinning that off into a separate company. And while it's tempting to view the acquisition as a publicity stunt, McAllister asserts, "there may be method to Sun's madness. The considerable goodwill that MySQL has cultivated among enterprise customers could have benefits for Sun that technology alone never could." Related: Users say Sun needs to fix what's broken at MySQL.
The news beat: Security vendor Secunia has determined that Red Hat and Firefox are more buggy than Microsoft products, though Mozilla did a better job of quickly patching zero-day flaws last year. The fact that Oracle bought BEA on Wednesday did not slow down it's spending spree at all and, instead, the database giant acquired Captovation for its document-capture software. ASP Salesforce.com introduced $0.99 subscription pricing, calculated on a per-log-in basis, as well as a new Cloud Computing Architecture it described as "development as a service." And keeping the consolidation rolling, Arbor Networks nabbed Ellacoya Networks and its broadband optimization wares.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 17, 2008 09:28 AM
January 17, 2008 | Comments: (0)
AMD's Opteron out greens Intel's Xeon, Sun scoops up MySQL, Estonian Web site suffers DDoS attack during Russian rioting trial, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 17, 2008 08:07 AM
January 17, 2008 | Comments: (0)
On morality and business success
Careers: Continuing the greater good discussion, a reader thinks that Bob Lewis previously missed the mark and that the Machiavellian bottom line criteria, in which the end justifies the means, is a negative function of what we, as a society, define as success. Lewis asserts that the reality here is that businesses exist to provide value to shareholders. "If you disapprove of how most companies are run, join the club," he writes in this Advice Line entry. "It's a big club, which doesn't change my advice one bit." Part 1: Is looking out for the greater good reasonable? Part 2: A greater good discussion.
Tech Analysis: There's no shortage of reasons why Oracle plunked down $8.5 billion for BEA Systems. And while those include gaining market share, "that reasoning doesn't do justice to some glittering technology gems in BEA's portfolio," Eric Knorr explains in this Tech Watch post. There's no "mystery about which competitor Oracle is arming itself against with its new BEA arsenal. IBM has all the SOA puzzle pieces BEA and Oracle have, but unlike with BEA's integrated solution, you need IBM Global Services to put those pieces together."
Notes from the field: Robert X. Cringely knows a thing or two about when customer service goes bad. In these particular cases, a major PC maker, a security software vendor, a charity organization and the self-described biggest store on the planet are the guilty parties. "My inbox has been filling up with complaints about customers done wrong -- or just plain ignored -- by the companies they've chosen to do business with," Cringe reports. The vendors "all seem to believe the phrase 'customer support' is some kind of oxymoron."
Show of the week: Macworld 2008.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 17, 2008 04:44 AM
January 16, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Save Windows XP: Thus far, more than 12,600 have have signed our Save XP petition. Most of those folks cited lack of compelling benefits in Vista, as well as training, support and upgrading costs as reasons to keep XP alive. Burton Group executive strategist Ken Anderson said that the reaction to XP's impending demise is similar to what Coke went through when it unsuccessfully introduced a new formula in the 1980's. "XP has come to the point of being Coke Classic," he said. SaveXP.com.
M&A's: Two major acquisitions today. Oracle buys BEA Systems, after all, and for $8.5 billion obtains middleware that, CEO Larry Ellison explains, "gets [Oracle] where we need to be ... across the software stack." In the other deal, Sun Microsystems acquires MySQL and its open source database technology and hopes to build enterprise confidence in MySQL support, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz says. Related blogs: MySQL and BEA acquisitions, and Zack Urlocker's insider's story: Sun shines on LAMP.
Columnist's corner: There's always room for a story packed with hubris, terrific marketing and an utter misunderstanding of just how important infrastructure really is. At least there is in Off the Record. Our anonymous author reflects on 1999, the year he was involved in a startup consumer Web site that, as so many have done, launched before the technology was ready. "The thinking was that we didn't want anyone to get the jump on our brilliant idea." Even if that line of rationale seems antiquated, it was the norm during the dotcom craze. Ah, the bubble. "On launch day, we flipped the switch and everything worked great." An expensive celebration at a trendy restaurant, quite naturally, followed. "Until the inevitable happened. Word spread quickly: the servers were down!" Two days of recovery time and a million squandered user sign-ups later and the lesson learned was simple. "It's possible that if we'd spent just a few thousand bucks more on server hardware, we could have been millionaires." A classic tale of Dotcom woe. Share your own IT tragedies, comedies, and histories via the comments function below or by emailing them to offtherecord@infoworld.com.
Ongoing coverage: Macworld 2008. And our three-part video series: Two Geeks and iPhone.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 16, 2008 10:49 AM
January 16, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Oracle buys BEA while Sun swallows MySQL, Apple unveils its thinnest notebook yet and movie rentals, MS partners to bring ads to grocery carts, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 16, 2008 08:26 AM
January 16, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Collaboration software's untold drawback
Reality Check: Collaboration may be all the rage these days, but it's also got a downside IT ought to understand. Collaboration is a bandwidth killer. "As creators of collaborative software spew out application after application, other ISVs are quickly following up with what you might call the antidote: software designed to prevent a tidal wave of collaborative programs from overwhelming corporate networks," Ephraim Schwartz begins. Avistar Communications, FaceTime Communications and Permessa are three such examples, though their approaches differ somewhat. "Provisioning bandwidth is a pain, sucking up a lot of time and money. Yet the call for collaboration keeps the network bandwidth-hungry."
Ongoing coverage: Macworld 2008. And our three-part video series: Two Geeks and iPhone.
Careers: In the analogously titled Some headhunters are bumblebees, but you're not dead yet, Nick Corcodilos responds to a reader who, after calling a pair of headhunters back and leaving message, never heard from them again. "Some recruiters ... flit from one flower to the next, with little memory of where they were last. Odds are, they are busy with other candidates, which means they may come back to you, or they may not. You have zero control. For that reason alone, I suggest you forget about them and move on," Corcodilos advises. Another reader says that where he lives and works, in Maine, job seekers 49.5 years of age are "the walking dead." Not so, Corcodilos answers, but we are in a bold new world. "Don't be shocked when I tell you that I've heard from readers in their 60's and 70's who've written to say they've gotten new jobs. How? By showing how they will profit their new employers. It's not an option: Everyone needs to be able to do that nowadays. Employers won't figure it out for themselves -- you must demonstrate it."
Save Windows XP. Sign the petition -- and, as part of our effort, we're encouraging IT pros and individuals to submit their own videos on why Microsoft should keep XP alive. Remember, too, that XP is greener than Vista.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 16, 2008 04:33 AM
January 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Early thoughts on Apple's iPhone SDK
Best of the blogs: Macworld starts today and, likewise, so does a veritable flood of coverage. First up is Tom Yager, who has been pondering some possibilities about the coming SDK. "Why do an SDK? Certainly not to make the world happy. If Apple spoke with me about iPhone, it would point out that I'm among a tiny handful of people campaigning for a native iPhone SDK," he writes in Thoughts on the iPhone/iPod touch SDK. "The question in my mind is how developers will get paid. Is Apple going to cut hundreds of developers individual checks? Will Apple demand to be the only source through which signed applications can be acquired?"
Notes from the field: Mr. Yager is not the only InfoWorld writer thinking about Macworld. Our own gonzo journalist, Robert X. Cringely, is on the road again this week, after CES in Las Vegas just last week. "I was on the edge of the desert
just outside Cupertino when the drugs began to wear off," Cringe begins in Fear and loathing at Jobs World. Three days later, and he's wandering San Francisco streets hunting down the hallowed Moscone Center for Macworld. "What happened in between is kind of a blur, but I wouldn't rule out an alien abduction." Along the way, he jotted down notes, and rumors, on cocktail napkins... Ongoing coverage: Macworld 2008.
The news beat: The W3C plans to detail SPARQL, a query technology that will boost the Semantic Web and may even force Google to rethink its search model. Cognos updates its Cognos 8 BI tools with expanded performance management, one day after shareholders voted to approve IBM's proposed acquisition of the company. Perimeter eSecurity buys SECCAS (Secure Electronic Communications Compliance Archival System) for its e-mail management products tailored for financial services companies. And security researchers say that MacSweeper may be the first instance of rogue scareware for Macs; the Web site selling the program contains corporate information that, F-Secure says, is plagiarized from Symantec.
Full disclosure: Macworld is owned by IDG World Expo, which has the same parent company as InfoWorld.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 15, 2008 10:28 AM
January 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Apple's Macworld gets underway today, EC opens two new antitrust investigations into Microsoft, stolen laptop could cost authorities $1 million, Google updates offerings for iPhone, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 15, 2008 07:58 AM
January 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Sustainable IT: Here's yet another reason to keep Windows XP alive: Retiring XP means wasteful upgrades to Vista-capable PCs. "Refreshing your organizations' fleet of desktops for reasons that have no positive impact on your business whatsoever is clearly wasteful (i.e. not green) on many levels: It's a waste of your staff's time and energy. It's a waste of your organization's money. And whether the systems end up refurbished, recycled, or tossed in a landfill, it's a waste of resources," Ted Samson explains. Sign the petition at SaveXP.com.
From the InfoWorld Test Center: BEA Systems prides itself on being a front-runner when it comes to incorporating new standards and technologies into its middleware, and virtualization is no exception. BEA's WebLogic Server 9.2 Virtual Edition, in the words of Andrew Binstock, "delivers interesting innovation, but awaits the arrival of VM management tools before it is ready for deployment in production environments." Binstock got VE up and running, but it wasn't easy. "I examined a shipping version of VE and found it to be somewhat uneven. Installation was hampered by insufficient documentation, and I had to make use of the tech support staff at my disposal for simple provisioning -- exactly the opposite of the expected experience." Read the full review.
Show of the week: Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicks off the 2008 Macworld Conference and Expo today with a keynote. And while only he knows for sure what the company will unveil, Tom Yager offers up his best guess. "Although Leopard and Penryn have pushed the Mac to dizzying heights and should thus gain some stage time, the Macworld Expo keynote will still go heavy on iPhone and iTunes," he writes in What to expect at Macworld. "And this time, the hype will be justified." Related: Eight-core Xserve puts Apple back in the majors.
Full disclosure: Macworld is owned by IDG World Expo, which has the same parent company as InfoWorld.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 15, 2008 04:37 AM
January 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)
What business can learn from NFL playoffs
Careers: Opening with a concession that sports metaphors are all too easy to use when writing about business and they're also limited by nature, Bob Lewis nonetheless decides not to resist the temptation -- if only because his wife's cousin plays on the Green Bay Packers. What sparked Lewis was two Ryan Grant fumbles, both of which led to touchdowns by the Seattle Seahwaks. "American business wisdom says we need to hold people accountable -- that there have to be consequences for mistakes," Lewis asserts in Lessons from Lambeau. "American business wisdom is ... wait, there's a word for this and it will come to me ... oh, now I have it ... stupid." Instead of benching Grant, the Packers kept giving him the ball, to the tune of three touchdowns and more than 200 yards rushing. "Somewhere, there just might be a lesson in this for IT leaders, in spite of it being something that happened in professional sports."
Best of the blogs: There's a new way to follow the InfoWorld Test Center: our Twitter home page, which "tweets" every time a new preview, review or buyers' guide comes out.
The news beat: EMC says it will replace some disks with solid-state drives that use flash memory because they are generally faster and consume less power. Microsoft faces two new antitrust investigations by the European Commission; one concerns the interoperability of Windows, the other Microsoft's practice of bundling products in with Windows. A study conducted by the Input Executive Forum found that systems integrators are worried about SOA because the paradigm could put them out of a job. And IBM expands Jazz ALM access and touts Project Bluegrass, an effort to bring the visual, collaborative nature of virtual worlds to software development.
Save Windows XP. Sign the petition -- and, as part of our effort, we're encouraging IT pros and individuals to submit their own videos on why Microsoft should keep XP alive.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 14, 2008 10:33 AM
January 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)
InfoWorld is kicking off the Save XP campaign
It's official: Today, January 14, we're formally introducing the Save Windows XP petition. That's right, with Microsoft saying it will stop both OEM and shrink-wrapped sales of the OS come June 30, the clock is ticking. But we know lots of you want to keep XP alive, to not be forced to upgrade to the less-than-stellar Vista, if I may be euphemistic. "Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don't see a need to change to Vista. It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice," Randall Kennedy explains. So sign the petition at SaveXP.com, then pass the URL around.
Columnist's corner: Calling it security's dirty little secret, Roger Grimes explains that "not having your users logged in as root or administrator will not stop malware." So it follows that the concept of least privilege is more mantra than rule, at least in most environments. "This is especially true at home, but it's nearly as bad at work," Grimes writes in Security design: Why UAC will not work. "Just to be clear: Not having admin or root access does limit the possibilities for malware writers. They can't take their pick of all the current low-hanging fruit, but there are still plenty of ways to hack a user's computer without privileged access, and that's the pity."
Storage: Dell and EMC this week announced the same thing -- branded versions of the Clariion AX4. The pair even jointly developed the storage solution, so the technology is pretty much the same, regardless of the vendor. But, "market strategy may mean Dell will reap deeper rewards," Mario Apicella suggests. Dell could best EMC in joint AX4 release. "Even if we ignore the range of solutions that Dell's acquisition of EqualLogic will bring, Dell offers enough variety to satisfy even the most demanding customers in the SMB space. Perfect those solutions are not, but no other vendor can cover the same storage ground today, not even EMC."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 14, 2008 04:08 AM
January 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)
InfoWorld Daily Podcast: Save XP petition drive
Special Edition: InfoWorld kicks off its SaveXP campaign. IT, thus far, has been underwhelmed by Windows Vista, citing a lack of benefits to upgrading. So join the fight to keep XP alive beyond Microsoft's stated June 30 timeframe for ceasing shrinkwrap and OEM sales. LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 14, 2008 04:07 AM
January 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)
SOA: A prior post of David Linthicum's sparked some debate about whether SOA is or is not a special project and how a turbulent economy could affect SOA. "What's frustrating about all this is that SOA is really about a systemic change in the way we do IT, and not really a 'special project,'" Linthicum proclaims in this Real World SOA post. "Within most enterprises SOA, like data warehousing, EAI, B2B, etc., are all considered to be 'newer technologies,' and/or approaches, and thus should be considered an 'experiment' in the minds of those writing the budgets. SOA is not about technology, it's about architecture. The sooner everyone gets that the sooner it won't be on the list of special projects." Related: Budget cuts and SOA.
Notes from the field: Friday again and that means Cringe presents: Geek week in review. This time around its Porn to run, More Sony baloney and Something Wikia this way comes. Microsoft and monkeys cameo, too. Look for them at the very end.
The news beat: Touching, once again, on the service-oriented architecture theme, WSO2 brings Ruby to SOA with WSF/Ruby 1.0, with which it hopes to bridge Ruby programming with SOA and Web services. Intel releases Clear Bay, which it calls a low-cost white-box blade server platform. Ultramobile PCs get panned for hardware and design flaws at the CES show in Las Vegas this week. And long-time Microsoft veteran, and the president of its business division, Jeff Raikes will retire come September.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 11, 2008 11:45 AM
January 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)
HP pledges more power-efficient PCs, NY starts antitrust investigation of Intel, MS veteran Jeff Raikes to retire, Oracle will issue security patches next week, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 11, 2008 06:53 AM
January 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Time for InfoWorld Green 15 awards
Sustainable IT: True, green IT started to bud just last year. But the growth was significant in that time. Enough, indeed, to warrant a look at its positive impact, namely in the form of innovative products and initiatives. "I've made a sincere effort to highlight green-tech projects of note over the past 12 months, but let's face it: I'm but one man (by my most recent count), and there's little doubt in my mind that many more organizations out there have wrapped up some excellent, innovative IT projects geared toward realizing their sustainability goals," Ted Samson explains. With that, InfoWorld is introducing the Green 15 awards, our newest. "Through the end of February, we'll be accepting nominations for, generically speaking, green-tech projects that were completed, or mostly completed, in 2007." Bottom line: winners will be projects that leverage technology to measurably cut waste, reduce organizations' negative impact on the environment, and/or promote sustainable business-technology practices. Sumbit nominations at the Green 15 FAQ page.
Gripe Line: It's a point proven, and quite aptly at that, by Adobe, Microsoft and Symantec, among others: corporate-wide licensing enforcement systems usually just cause trouble for customers and vendors alike. Add Business Objects to that list, Ed Foster maintains in Business Objects licensing tool doesn't deliver. For the past few months one reader found that the BI vendor "has had massive problems with their ESD service." That's ESD, as in Enterprise Software Delivery licensing system. "Our group has had to delay testing and a roll-out of a product we've paid for and licensed to use simply because we couldn't download what we needed to!" the reader wrote. What licensing lunacy have you encountered? Talkback via the above link, or in the comments section below.
Columnist's corner: Among the many new concepts and capabilities that Web 2.0 technologies bring is some confusion over the lines between enterprise and consumer software. "This is not quite the same as the consumerization of enterprise software," Ephraim Schwartz explains in this installment of Reality Check. "But the shift to Web 2.0 applications goes beyond workers wanting the same kind of capabilities built into their business software as they have in their home applications." For one, the popularity of Facebook has opened eyes of forward thinking corporate executives to untold possibilities. But, Schwartz asks, what does it mean? Where it will lead? And, ultimately, where will all this end?
Tradeshow of the week: Highlights from CES.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 11, 2008 04:35 AM
January 10, 2008 | Comments: (0)
An IT headhunter with integrity?
Careers: After speaking with a recruiter who declined to help him on the basis that his current employer is one of her clients, one reader is understandably paranoid. But he needn't be, Nick Corcodilos asserts. "You've met an honest headhunter," he begins