August 27, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Consolidation is in full swing in the content management space, evidenced by today's news that Open Text will acquire German CM software vendor Gauss. Gauss apparently is a big name in Europe with several high profile customers like BMW and Korean Air. The CM landscape is becoming sparsely populated. Earlier this week Stellent purchased a digital asset management vendor called Ancept, a couple weeks back Interwoven pocketed iManage, and last month IBM bought Australian content management developer Aptrix. Who's next?
Posted by Cathleen Moore on August 27, 2003 04:30 PM
August 27, 2003 | Comments: (0)
In an ironic twist, SCO runs on IBM
IBM and SCO may be embroiled in a game of suit and countersuit, but that has-n't prevented SCO from availing itself of IBM's Global Services division - sort of.
As Netcraft recently pointed out, a ping of the SCO's investor relations Web site,
ir.sco.com, shows that it resolves to an IP address (170.224.5.43), which is
owned by Sequent Computer Systems, Inc -- the NUMA computer company that IBM bought in 1999, and whose intellectual property is at the center of the SCO-IBM lawsuit.
So what's going on here? Is IBM hosting its enemy's Web site?
Not quite. It turns out that the ir.sco.com Web site is hosted by
Shareholder.com, an investor communications company that specializes in building and hosting investor relations Web sites, and that the Shareholder.com server that hosts SCO's investor relations site is co-located in a facility run by IBM Global Services.
So IBM is connected to, but not the host of, SCO's investor relations portal.
"They are responsible for making sure the facility is secure, air conditioned, and that the Internet connections are connected to our [server] farm," a Shareholder.com spokesman pointed out to me. He was also quick to note that the IBM facility was just one of two facilities his company used. The other is run by AT&T.
Netcraft Director Mike Prettejohn, who said a Netcraft visitor initially tipped him off to the situation, told me that it is common practice for IBM Global Services to use the Sequent IP addresses. He was clearly tickled by the situation. "I think that's genuinely ironic," he said. "The curious thing about it is probably neither IBM nor SCO knew about this."
Oh, and in case you were wondering about what operating system the
Shareholder.com server that hosts ir.sco.com is using, it's Windows 2000,
according to Netcraft.
-- A guest post from IDG News Service's Bob McMillan.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 27, 2003 03:38 PM
August 25, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Hey, I've got an idea - let's take a chill-pill for this SCO fever that's gripped the world. Let's all just pretend that SCO doesn't exist. Don't return phone calls from SCO. Ingore those letters from SCO's legal people demanding payment for code they don't own.
Here's my reasoning. Think back to your early school days when arguments typically degenerated into a round of shouting "did not!" and "did too!" Today's version of this is SCO versus various open source advocates including Bruce Perens (who just updated his argument here, and even Linus Torvalds himself. SCO's response to the claims that they've got it wrong, as summarized by Stephen OGrady, amounts to a "did too." In short, SCO thinks Perens doesn't know what he's talking about, and Torvalds is a liar.
It's not the sort of performance you'd expect from a company determined to build loyalty in the open source community, and therefore a viable long term business. So why worry about them?
The second point is an obvious one. Last time I looked, SCO's stock was trading at $14.85. Various publications, including our sister mag Computerworld, have opined that what we are witnessing is essentially an elaborate get rich quick scheme. If this proves to be true in court, then conventional wisdom would suggest you sell your SCO stock while the company is riding the bubble.
In summary, my gripe is that if we must wait years before for this case is resolved in court, SCO should at least keep us entertained with bullet-proof arguments and clever retorts. If we assume that's not going to happen, we could try ignoring them. And if we're patient for long enough perhaps they might go away.
Update to this post: MontaVista Software holds the same view.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 25, 2003 04:25 PM
August 25, 2003 | Comments: (0)
As linked to on Slashdot, blogger Sven Latham writes in his Yet Another Blog that Yahoo may be considering launching blogs as part of its offerings, given that the URLs http://blogs.yahoo.com and http://blog.yahoo.com redirect to the company's Yahoo Groups page. Also, he notes that Yahoo Korea appears to have a blog page.
If Yahoo does jump into the blog waters, they will join AOL, which launched weblog services with its AOL 9.0.
So far Weblogs have flourished without the muscle of media giants like AOL and Yahoo. The impact of AOL's and possibly Yahoo's entrance into the blog space has yet to be seen, but it is interesting to see them take note of the technology. When I spoke with AOL at the time of the 9.0 launch, the spokesperson said AOL viewed blogs as an important element of "community."
Posted by Cathleen Moore on August 25, 2003 03:49 PM
August 25, 2003 | Comments: (0)
I'll get more detail on this this afternoon, but this morning McData announced they've acquired Nishan Systems and Sanera Systems. They also announced a partnership with Aarohi Communications- a start-up that has developed a storage processor that McData will use it its next-generation intelligent switch, which they described to me in length last month.
The Nishan acquisition gives McData a family of IP-based storage switches and Sanera gives McData a high-end director-class switch.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on August 25, 2003 09:19 AM
August 22, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Rational to tout Eclipse at user conference
Rational at the Rational User Conference 2003 in Orlando next week won't unveil new products, but does plan to fill attendees in on strategic initiatives including participation in the Eclipse open source tools framework, said Eric Schurr, vice president of marketing for Rational products in the IBM software group in Lexington, Ky.
Rational plans to migrate all of its products to the Eclipse open source tools framework, Schurr said. Eclipse accelerates Rational's ability to provide an integrated software development platform, according to Schurr.
"What it means for customers in the end is a better, higher performing software development platform," he said.
While Rational tools will not be free as part of Eclipse, Rational is adding more advanced features of an IDE to Eclipse, including visual modeling, model-driven development, quality by design and enterprise change management, Schurr said.
Acquired by IBM six months ago. Rational also plans to provide details on several other efforts:
* Emphasizing its plans to continue supporting the Microsoft .Net platform.
* Submission of the Reusable Asset Specification, for making software reusable, to the Object Management Group. Rational will submit the specification with a couple of other vendors. "Having this become a standard will improve the overall industry ability to reuse assets," Schurr said.
* Model-driven development plans, including integrating IBM WebSphere Studio with Rational's visual modeling technology.
* Touting the company's best practices plan, featuring practices and guidelines on how to best plan and run software. "What we're talking to customers about is continued commitment to forwarding those best practices to make them more configurable so they can be customized to the needs of a project or an organiza-tion," Schurr said.
* Focusing on the company's quality by design initiative, to help organizations improve the quality of software they deliver. "What we're doing here is we're moving the attention to quality earlier in the lifecycle in the design stage," said Schurr.
* A focus on enterprise change management that is intended to help teams of developers work together on software configuration, requirements, change and project management.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 22, 2003 11:49 AM
August 19, 2003 | Comments: (0)
I was surprised to read on our site yesterday that SCO used its SCOForum to boldly venture into the court of public opinion. From my understanding of this case, SCO does not need to convince developers of its case, but a courtroom.
Step forward a day, and open source evangelist Bruce Perens and the open source community have analyzed SCOs evidence, tracing some of the code back to its original sources. Perens reports that the German publisher Heise photographed two slides of SCO's code show.
If you speak German, I found the original report here.
Perens' analysis and photographs are available here.
An interesting quote from Perens' site:
We've found the malloc() function this slide refers to. It is included in code copyrighted by ATT and twice released under the BSD license: once by Unix Systems Labs (ATT), and again by Caldera, the company that now calls itself SCO. The Linux developers have a legal right to make use of the code under that license. No violation of SCO's copyright or trade secrets is taking place.
By way of background, Perens most recently made noise at Linuxworld Expo in San Francisco. Here's my TechWatch post, and Bob McMillan's article.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 19, 2003 11:17 AM
August 19, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Did I mention it is a slow summer?
This is an actual press release issued by Veritas today. I don't think I need to say anymore. And I won't.
IT Disaster Recovery Basics
VERITAS Software Offers Five First Steps to Help Keep Your Operation Up And Running if Disaster Strikes
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In today's business climate downtime can be costly to the organization and unacceptable to customers. Organizations that prepare for their recovery are better able to maintain operations, retaining customers and preventing long-term damage. Three things are required to recover in a pinch: people, data (including the hardware and software needed to process it), and a place to go. According to a recent independent study of more than 850 IT professionals worldwide conducted for VERITAS Software by Dynamic Markets, Ltd., 47 percent of companies say the main criterion they use to calculate how much they spend on disaster recovery is the financial risk associated with a potential disaster. These same IT professionals estimated that an act of terrorism (which they indicated would be most costly for their organization) could cost an average of $115 million.(i)
VERITAS Software Corporation (Nasdaq: VRTS - News), the leading storage software provider, today issued five first steps for IT organizations faced with the prospect of recovering from a disaster.
1. Contact your people. Every organization needs a way to get its people rallied around the recovery. A method of communication, such as satellite phones, that's independent from unavailable phone lines or cellular services is a good choice. For employees who aren't directly involved in the data recovery process, provide a hotline where they can get updates so you can focus on the task at hand.
2. Quickly locate your disaster recovery plan. Keep multiple copies of the plan off site, such as in your car, your home, even your briefcase. Keep one copy with your off-site storage provider. More than 60 percent of companies surveyed in the same study keep their disaster recovery plan in just one location -- at the main data center,(i) which may pose a problem if the main data center is unavailable.
3. Contact your vendors and enlist their help. Many companies have never had to actually implement their disaster recovery plan. In fact, according to the study, just one-third of organizations surveyed have had to execute their plan for real(i). If you are faced with implementing your plan, call in the experts for assistance. If you're recovering data from tape, your off-site disaster recovery storage provider should bring the tapes to a recovery site, and your backup software vendor can help recover the archived data. VERITAS Software customers in North America may contact VERITAS technical services at 800-342-0652. For all other worldwide support numbers, please visit http://support.veritas.com/telephone .
4. Bring up your secondary site. Many companies subscribe to a secondary disaster recovery "hot site" for use with other subscribers in the event of a business interruption. The hot site will fill up fast in the event of a major event such as the recent power outage in the northeastern United States, so be sure to call and declare a disaster as early as possible. To ensure availability of an alternate site, many organizations equip their own secondary data center for disaster recovery purposes, and using high availability and disaster recovery software from VERITAS Software, can switch operations from the affected site to the secondary site without disruption to the business -- helping to minimize impact on employees, customers and partners.
5. Identify an emergency secondary site. If the secondary site you intended to use isn't available or functional, get creative. Hotel ball rooms or conference centers equipped with high-bandwidth connections and air conditioning offer adequate resources to begin a recovery when all else fails.
For more information about VERITAS Software's disaster recovery software products and disaster recovery consulting services' please visit http://www.veritas.com/products/category/ProductFamily.jhtml?baseId=2001 .
About VERITAS Software
With revenues of $1.5 billion in 2002, VERITAS Software ranks among the top 10 software companies in the world. VERITAS Software is the world's leading storage software company, providing data protection, storage management, high availability and disaster recovery software to 86 percent of the Fortune 500. VERITAS Software's corporate headquarters is located at 350 Ellis Street, Mountain View, CA, 94043, tel: 650-527-8000, fax: 650-527-8050, e-mail: vx-sales@veritas.com, Web site: www.veritas.com.
This press release may include estimates and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the risk that we will not gain market acceptance of our products and services, the risk that we will not be able to maintain the quality of our end-user customer and partnering relationships, and the risk that we will not manage our business effectively, that could cause the actual results we achieve to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. For more information regarding potential risks, see the "Factors That May Affect Future Results" section of our most recent report on Form 10-K on file with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.
NOTE: VERITAS, the VERITAS Logo and all other VERITAS product names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation. VERITAS and the VERITAS Logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. Other product names and/or slogans mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
(i) Dynamic Markets, Limited. "VERITAS Disaster Recovery Research 2003," August 2003.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on August 19, 2003 09:34 AM
August 18, 2003 | Comments: (0)
After countless attacks on its platform, you'd think Microsoft has some amazing, high-tech response system to manage the rush of support calls.
Well, that's partly true. Microsoft apparently has a sophisticated call center.
According to Robert Scoble, one of Microsoft's Windows evangelists and perhaps its most prominent exec in the blog-sphere, has revealed what it's like dealing with the Blaster worm:
I just got back from answering Microsoft support phone calls. Dozens of Microsoft employees are being trained every hour to help out because of the Blaster worm...
On the front of the room they ran a screen that showed how many calls were waiting, and how long they had waited to get to me. I don't want to talk about those numbers, but they weren't good.
Sounds like Blaster has hit Microsoft harder than your average Windows worm. It's also interesting to note that the company is roping in people like Scoble to help with this one. As anyone who's called a support line can testify, what really counts is the IQ of the person you ultimately speak to, not the call center technology. Seems the strategy at Microsoft now is all hands on deck.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 18, 2003 05:55 PM
August 18, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Real quick: following up on my post on Thursday re: the power outage I've thus far received 10 email pitches and 2 voice mails about disaster recovery. Not too many, really. It must be summer vacation time. One that was interesting came from CommVault who said its Galaxy product was in use in the NYC Office of the Mayor and that data was recovered within one half hour after the blackout. None of the other pitches were relevant to the actual Thursday blackout.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on August 18, 2003 02:49 PM
August 14, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Did you know a power failure creates storage news??
I apologize in advance if this post comes to be offensive... but this power outage is not a good thing for me. In the next 48 hours I'm going to be inundated with pitches about disaster recovery and remote mirroring. Please make it stop. If my prediction comes true, I'll give you a count sometime tomorrow or next week.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on August 14, 2003 02:17 PM
August 14, 2003 | Comments: (0)
IBM on Thursday is adding Java and development offerings to its alphaWorks site for emerging technologies.
Licenses priced at $1,000 or less are available to small and medium-sized businesses for the following technologies:
* A J323 engine, which is Java middleware providing H.323 call control services to videoconferencing and IP telephony applications through the Java Telephony API.
* XML Schema Quality Checker, which takes input as XML Schema and diagnoses improper uses of the schema language.
* IBM Page Detailer, a graphical tool enabling Web developers and editors to assess a Web site's performance from an end user perspective.
* High Resolution Time Stamp Facility, a library of functions to measure activities of less than one second's duration. Accurate time stamps convertible to dates and times of day can help developers improve application performance, according to IBM.
The alphaWorks site is at www.ibm.com/alphaWorks.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 14, 2003 10:28 AM
August 13, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Embarcadero hails model-driven data management
Embarcadero Technologies this week announced an upgrade of its model-driven data management system, Embarcadero ER/Studio 6.0.
The company's technology helps coordinate application development and data management functions through a model-driven approach to simplify analysis of the current state of data and where it needs to be, helping to implement transformation, according to an analyst's statement.
The new version further leverages data models as the common language to enable disparate teams to work together, according to Embarcadero.
New features in version 6.0 include:
* An advanced model data comparison and merge utility allowing design teams to work independently but concurrently.
* Support for the MySQL open source database.
* A reporting engine that simplifies the process of communicating designs and meta data to the Web.
* An upgraded user interface that accommodates Windows XP/.Net 2003 controls.
When coupled with Embarcadero's ER/Studio Repository 2.5, both products enable team-based modeling collaboration capabilities that allow for greater administrative control over the development, monitoring and administration of user security within the collaborative model server.
ER/Studio 6.0 and ER/Studio Repository 2.5 ship in late-August, with pricing for ER/Studio beginning at $2,995. ER/Studio Repository prices start at $10,000.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 13, 2003 10:45 AM
August 12, 2003 | Comments: (0)
BMC bolsters SQL Server, Sybase databases
BMC Software on Tuesday is boosting management of SQL Server and Sybase databases.
The company's SmartDBA Performance Monitoring v2.5 products for Sybase and SQL Server provide a database administration environment for object and event management, problem determination and diagnostics, BMC said. SmartDBA helps DBAs become "instant experts" in all database environments, enabling companies to reduce costs while DBAs broaden their technical contributions and knowledge, BMC said.
DBAs using SmartDBA Performance Monitoring can optimize a database by providing problem detection and alerting with full support for problem diagnosis and resolution for optimized data availability, according to BMC.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 12, 2003 04:24 PM
August 12, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Legato/EMC pursuing a NEW standard?
Yesterday I had lunch with Legato's George Symons. He's their CTO. After chatting about the weather and basic stuff about the impending EMC/Legato merger we dove into information lifecycle management (ILM) - a topic of interest to both Legato and EMC. In fact, just last week at a financial analyst day in New York, EMC's CEO too spoke about ILM.
If you don't know the term (err... buzz word), that's ok. I'll explain. It seems the definition today is a set of software solutions needed to manage data from its conception to death. Not surprisingly, Legato and EMC are talking about developing a single software suite that combines many of the processes involved- creation, organizing, protecting, replicating, accessing, archiving and destroying. Symons believes the listed functions would remain as modular software components, yet each piece would treat metadata the same way. That doesn't exist today. And according to Symons, EMC is at work to fix that.
The solution then is a collection of tightly integrated software components that share a common way to describe data. They would then report up to a storage resource management product like EMC's ControlCenter. Of course all of this will come to together much faster for EMC given the two companies have very little overlap in terms of products, or so Symons believes. ;)
I was pleased to hear Symons acknowledge that a modular approach is required as customers are not interested in replacing their various applications used for dif-ferent tasks. And that means third-party products could too report up to a storage management platform. I was even more pleased when he brought up the word- standards. Symons seemed pretty certain standards to define a common way to de-scribe data and a way to index the stored data will evolve in the next year to 18 months. The indexing part is pretty interesting too, given that a complete solution would allow a storage administrator or user to search ALL stored data, be it in a da-tabase or as a file. This requires the creation of an index engine that can identify and list the location of both structured and unstructured data.
The first standard would describe the file size, name, ownership, location, and time stamps (the last two being the most important to ILM). The second standard would make it possible to index stored data in a way that users could search the data stores. Again the goal of all of this is to make it possible to access all storage, in any stage of its life, from a single point. I'm eager to see what will come of this and when. Let me know if you know of anyone else working on this or something similar.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on August 12, 2003 01:38 PM
August 11, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Global Grid Forum welcomes SAS
The story I filed earlier today, "SAS becomes Grid computing forum member" was filed before I was able to get a comment from the CEO of the Global Grid Forum, Charlie Catlett. His comments are worthwhile so I thought I'd post them here.
"We're delighted that SAS intends to join and participate in
GGF! We do have several companies that focus on enterprise-level software
solutions but of our 60 sponsor member organizations I would say less than
10% are from companies providing enterprise-wide software solutions. The
increasing number of these companies joining GGF is an excellent sign that
the components and underlying "plumbing" of Grid computing are starting to
provide a solid enough foundation upon which to build."
And the fact that Grid is getting as a member a giant like SAS is also good for the GGF.
"One of the things that enterprise-level companies bring that is quite
important is an understanding of scale. Grid computing is still in the
early stages of application and few of the success stories involve more
than hundreds of users and dozens of participating
organizations. Companies like SAS routinely deal with thousands of users
and virtual organizations involving hundreds of participating entities - be
they divisions within a company or collections of companies. The insight
that comes with building software at this scale is absolutely essential to
developing Grid computing standards."
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on August 11, 2003 03:25 PM
August 08, 2003 | Comments: (0)
I had a great chat with SixApart's Anil Dash today, the transcript of which I will turn into an edited Q&A for infoworld.com over the next week or so.
The conversation covered everything from the company's personal publishing products and positioning, to the role of RSS and Atom, the importance of APIs to enterprise blog adoption, and how blogs are feeding the notion of participatory journalism.
On the tech side, one interesting prediction from Anil was that he suspects the next major revisions of messaging clients such as Outlook and Notes will contain RSS support. It's just inevitable, he figures. I agree and look forward to that day with relish.
With regard to the social and utility aspect of blogs, Anil observes you are more likely to find interesting stories on Blogdex or Daypop than CNN's homepage. "There is some value in seeing what percolates to the top," he said. True -- I can't ever imagine going back to a world without news aggregators.
But that got me thinking. In the days before aggregation, we relied completely on editors, such as yours truly, to filter and arrange the news. That practice is still an integral part of every newspaper and magazine. Readers still look to Page 1 or the cover to see what stories really matter.
But when you read stories like this one on the rise of participatory journalism, you wonder if interest in blogs is driven by some type of anti-establishment ethos. I call it an anti-editor movement. Anil agreed with my assertion, likening this juncture in the blog evolution to that of teenage rebellion.
So then, are blogs and news aggregators making editors redundant? Well, naturally I disagree! On one hand, I do agree with and support the idea that RSS-powered news aggregators subvert the editorial judgment applied to the positioning of online news stories. As an editor, you want the most important stories easily accessible to the widest possible audience.
But as Anil implied, there's more to editing than applying value judgements and deciding where stories appear on Page 1. "It's a brutally boring job to write and then edit your own blog," he said.
And so, the editing function will never die. I'd argue that in the process of writing, you are also editing (or making decisions about) what content you value and how it should be presented. Unlike Anil, people like me actually enjoy both writing and editing the written word. News aggregators might change the goalposts, but people always appreciate well-written copy.
Full disclosure:
1. TechWatch runs on Movable Type. We bought it for $150. I called Anil to discuss Six Apart's enterprise story.
2. The second one's funny. Since it's late Friday (yes, I'm going home now) I went looking for someone to read this post for clarity. The only people around were copy editors. I swallowed my pride first, then opened my mouth. One guy said no, "because it's a blog. It's the principle!" Then Clary stepped up. After seizing the opportunity to point and laugh at an editor, she happily agreed. I wasn't asking for her to correct grammar and spelling, but she said she couldn't help herself. So ironically enough, this has become TechWatch's first edited post, with the exception of this full disclosure section.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 8, 2003 06:12 PM
August 08, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Is Patricia Seybold of the Seybold Group trying to scare all of us RIM Blackberry users into looking around for an alternative? Here's what she said in an advisory sent out this morning.
"Unless a white knight appears, RIM will be forced to cease operation in the U.S. The U.S. courts have found that RIM is in violation of patent infringement and has issued an injunction that the company ceases operations in the U.S. That injunction has been stayed, pending appeal. The appeal is likely to take at least a year. So, for the time being, the 500,000+ of us addicts can keep using our Blackberries."
Well, I've been saying RIM is doomed for at least three years and it still hasn't happened. But it is also true that when other handheld makers come calling at InfoWorld they invariably compare themselves to the RIM Blackberry service and claim they can do the same thing just as easily. Someday it might be true. But at present I am unconvinced. As an end user, the ease of use, lack of hassle, simplicity of design has kept RIM clipped to my belt buckle for about two years now.
As far as the suit from NTP goes, well industry insiders say they are not sure how realistic it is. The ruling was stayed. RIM continues to ship product and do business as usual. As one anonymous commentator said to me, "these things take for ever and then there is news."
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on August 8, 2003 01:33 PM
August 08, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Kenamea this week is making a push in composite applications, which are applications conducive to the Web's zero-client, cross platform environment and an alternative to client-server systems.
The Kenamea Composite Application Suite features a development and runtime environment that extends the company's existing infrastructure with a component-based platform for building Web-based composite applications. The suite features three core elements of modern application design - service-oriented architecture, asynchronous event-driven design and component-based development, the company said.
Kenamea composite applications deliver:
* Real-time coordination, for integrating real-time information and control components from multiple data systems, applications and Web services into a single application.
* Event-driven interactivity, featuring user interfaces allowing users to view key perform-ance indicators, receive alerts and take action when critical events occur.
* Fast time to market, in which applications are assembled from loose aggregations of application components.
* Universal availability, in which the composite applications are available on any device or network without complex installation and management.
The suite is shipping now.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 8, 2003 01:01 PM
August 07, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Macromedia ramps up runtime speed
Macromedia is attempting to make life easier for developers of Web services and Web applications.
The company is shipping ColdFusion MX 6.1, an upgrade of its scripting environment that features runtime improvements of as much as 172 percent over ColdFusion 5, the company said. Also boosted in the product is dynamic email generation, enabling users to deliver messages more than 50 times faster than in previous releases, according to Macromedia.
Previously codenamed "Red Sky," version 6.1 also offers easier admini-stration, increased backward compatability, improved installation and con-figuration tools and updated support for Windows, Solaris and Linux.
ColdFusion MX Standard 6.1 costs $1,299 per server, with upgrades from ColdFusion 4.5 and 5 priced at $649 per server.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 7, 2003 12:21 PM
August 07, 2003 | Comments: (0)
ClientSoft, Systinet partner on Web services
With more enterprises beginning to use Web services, infrastructure to accommodate these services is a growing need. ClientSoft and Systinet are capitalizing on this opportunity with an alliance forged this week.
ClientSoft, which integrates Microsoft .Net, Java and Web services environments, is joining forces with Web services infrastructure vendor Systinet to jointly market and deliver Web services solutions to enterprises.
The arrangement features ClientSoft ServiceBuilder, which faciliates the performance of service-oriented architectures by wrapping legacy programs and transactions as Web services, and Systinet WASP (Web Application and Services Platform) Web services infrastructure software. Systinet is providing a secure environment to complement ServiceBuilder integration capabilities, according to the two companies. The two companies also will use each other's sales channels.
Systinet recently alligned with Actional as well on Web services infrastructure and management.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 7, 2003 11:47 AM
August 07, 2003 | Comments: (0)
The response from IBM that we've all been waiting for.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 7, 2003 08:18 AM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Our sister publication Network World Fusion reports that struggling content management player Interwoven is buying iManage for $171 million. Back in April we ran a story about the exit of Interwoven's CEO John Van Siclen, evidently due to a quarterly loss of up to $2.5 million. Today's news obviously suggests this is the engineered come-back strategy. Collaboration has long been a compelling direction for content management players, so the deal is at least smart from that perspective.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 6, 2003 05:47 PM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Open source database vendor MySQL has been busy in this week:
- It renamed the SAP DB database MaxDB and will begin offering it late this year. MySQL acquired rights to develop and market the open source database from SAP in May. The database is intended for large SAP R/3 environments and other applications that need maximum enterprise level functionality, MySQL said. The company is partnering with SAP to develop what it calls the next-generation MySQL enterprise database that combines the performance and stability of the MySQL database with the enterprise-level capabilities of MaxDB.
- It has forged an alliance with Pogo Linux to launch a MySQL database appliance, the DataWare 2600 Server. The appliance, which features two Intel Xeon processors and a RAID Level 10 SCSI-disk array platform, is a preconfigured hardware-software offering optimized for speed and value, MySQL said. DataWare 2600 Server is available now from Pogo Linux for $8,999 for a standard configuration.
- Last week, MySQL announced a partnership with Veritas Software to boost the Linux platform. MySQL will offer a Veritas-qualified MySQL agent for Veritas Cluster Server to help MySQL users maximize system availability and performance, according to MySQL. The agent will enable leveraging of Cluster Server to manage MySQL database applications in a multi-platform, clustered environment. MySQL will begin offering the agent for MySQL Version 3.23 and higher in September.
- Finally, MySQL is partnering with SGI to provide the MySQL database on the SGI Altix 3000 family of severs and superclusters.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 6, 2003 04:55 PM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Not everybody seemed to catch it, but Peter Blackmore, HP Enterprise Systems Group's EVP made the ultimate Linux faux pas in his LinuxWorld keynote on Tuesday. At one point he referred to Linux's creator as Martin Torvalds (no doubt confusing him with his own Linux point man, Martin Fink). I leaned over to an HP exec sitting next to me and asked: "Martin Torvalds?"
"He must have meant Linus," she said, hiding her embarrassment.
-- This is a guest post from IDG News Service reporter Bob McMillan, who is also roaming around at LinuxWorld. I invited him to offer up any blog-worthy material, and it took him about 3 hours to catch the bug.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 6, 2003 04:19 PM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
I'm just back from an AMD luncheon event at the increasingly un-hip W Hotel here in San Francisco. So here is what I think the event was all about. It was about feeding scrumptious little sandwiches to AMD's customers and partners as a way to thank them for being early adopters. I had four. But in all seriousness there was not much hard news at the event.
Here is what happened: IDC analyst Mark Melenovsky was there along with Mark Johnson from Innosight talking about innovation. After they defined 'sustaining innovation' and 'disruptive innovation' and we heared some tangentially-related examples of other innovative technologies I gathered we're supposed to see that the Opteron platform is a technology that might, could, or may have an impact on on-demand/utility computing; new and yet-to-be-determined markets; and as a technology to continue to grow an existing market- x86.
Marty Seyer, vice president and general manager of AMD's microprocessor business opened and closed the lecture and said twice that is it would be irresponsible of IT vendors to not consider adopting Opteron for it offers a far superior price to performance ratio over existing solutions.
The most interesting thing to come out of the one hour plus luncheon in front of 50 people was the question posed about how important Linux's success in the enterprise is to the success of Opteron. Seyer said much of the early success can be attributed to Linux, but he sees Microsoft's forthcoming fourth quarter support as equally important.
That's all I got.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on August 6, 2003 02:36 PM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Ok, so now I feel like a crusader. After filing yesterday's report, I decided to get a little more proactive today and filed a "customer report" asking LinuxWorld organizers (aka IDG, InfoWorld's parent) to make sure the next show has an abundance of Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi report for Day 2:
Press conference rooms = none
Media working room = none, except Doc Searls most welcome rogue AirPort
Keynote hall = none
Show floor = sporadic, unofficial signals
Hallways = weak signal from T-mobile. And no, I'm not going to give them money to do my job.
Scott, I spoke with the show organizers and I was surprised that cost came up as an excuse for the Wi-Fi no-show. Aruba would not be the first to market free Wi-Fi. Cisco and Symbol are two companies that I recall have installed it free of charge at various industry events. If show organizers can remember to make sure power, PCs, and food are available to media, Wi-Fi is only an incremental expense.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 6, 2003 01:27 PM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
A collection of people from Linux and open source vendors met with open source advocates last night to discuss their potential support of the Open Source And Industry Alliance [OSAIA].
Bruce Perens, an open source evangelist, told a press gathering at LinuxWorld that while the group is not yet officially launched, it's looking for paying members. He wouldn't name the individuals or companies involved except to say the largest and smallest companies were represented.
Here's what the industry group says about its mission on its web site:
Business, government and private individuals must be free to choose software and technologies that best suit their needs, independent of the methodologies or licenses used in their development.
The marketplace must be free of prejudice against open source software, whether through law, regulation, defamation or other means. OSAIA will act to achieve this goal.
The OSAIA is a dedicated open source group run by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA). Jason Mahler, vice president and general counsel at CCIA said the group already has 12 staff lobbying in Washington D.C. on behalf of the open source community.
Given the D.C. lobbying efforts by Microsoft, and organizations like Institute for Software Choice (discussion by Tim O'Reilly ), the Association for Competitive Technology and the Business Software Alliance , the organization faces stiff challenges. The least of which is money. Mahler claimed Microsoft spends around $8 million a year on government lobbying.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 6, 2003 01:15 PM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
A quiet revolution is getting its act together. A bold proposal called a mutual defense software license is emerging as a type of poison pill for the open source community.
The proposal is being developed by Larry Rosen and was supported and articulated today by open source evangelist Bruce Perens at LinuxWorld. In essence, if Linux were licensed under a mutual defense license, any company that sued any single Linux developer would have its rights to use Linux terminated. As with all things legal, the details are complicated. Perens himself said at a press conference this morning that he is still unsure about the anti-trust implications, for example.
Then you have the issue of how the GNU General Public License would be changed for Linux to be governed by this sort of license. It's something that the GPL's author, Richard Stallman is not keen to do, according to Perens: "It's hard for Richard to add more restrictions to IP software."
At the core of the argument is the notion that the open source community needs a mechanism by which to defend and protect the integrity of what Perens said is one of the few social movements to actually create products. So under this legislation, the penalty for breaching your obligations as a mutual patent holder is clear, according to Perens. "We should at least deny them [vendors] the right to make money from our software."
The biggest issue facing the open source movement, Perens argues, is that large bodies like the European Parliament are moving to oppose open source because, in their words, "it's not economi-cally significantly." You only have to look at around the floor of LinuxWorld Expo to understand that statement is wrong. [More on Europe software patent issues here. ]
There's another twist to this story. Perens said while companies like IBM have proved themselves to be strong supporters of Linux, they threaten the integrity of open source software though aggressive patents. For example, IBM has taken an adversary position in Europe, Perens claims. "There is no question that IBM is one of the major parties advancing the software patenting issue to Europe."
Bob McMillan, a reporter at InfoWorld affiliate IDG News Service who was also at the Perens press conference, cornered Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's e-Business on Demand General Manager, after his keynote this morning.
Wladawsky Berger seemed surprised to hear of Perens' comments. "The question has never come up with Linux," he said. IBM's history of working with open communities like the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) should reassure developers," he said, but he encouraged Perens to contact IBM to discuss the issue.
(Thanks to Bob McMillan for real-time collaboration on this piece. We might not have a copy desk at Tech Watch, but fact-checking is alive and well.)
Posted by Mark Jones on August 6, 2003 01:07 PM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
"There is a certain degree of maliciousness involved (with this suit) here. We will soon make a public call to SCO, as well as promise to users, that if SCO shows us the code we will work directly with the open source community to make sure that if that code does indeed exist and these IP (Intellectual property) issues do exist -- and whether it is covered by the GPL or not -- SuSE will take the lead with the open source commuity to make sure that any IP is removed and replaced." -- Markus Rex, VP of development for SuSE Linux.
[Post is from Ed Scannell. He's having some technical troubles, so I'm stepping in ... this blog project is still under construction, after all.]
Posted by Mark Jones on August 6, 2003 11:23 AM
August 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Mark, a solution for your Wi-Fi woes! In a conversation yesterday with the folks at Aruba Wireless Networks, they mentioned a new program they introduced this week that offers Wi-Fi switching equipment and services at no cost to qualified event organizers. I'm confident LinuxWorld would qualify.
Aruba's David Callisch mentioned the company's offer has already received requests, including one from the prestigious American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Callisch was surprised to learn that geologist knew about Wi-Fi. So was I.
Oh and Mark. LinuxWorld had not yet contacted Aruba about this offer. Sorry, mate.
Speaking of LinuxWorld, Veritas invited a number of writers, editors, and analysts to join them in their box at Pac Bell Park last night to watch Jason Schmidt and a few relievers blank the Pirates 3-0.
Veritas announced at the show that its VERITAS Foundation Suite is now available for customers running Linux on IBM eServer zSeries. Previous Linux support stopped at Red Hat on Intel and non-Intel-based machines.
Posted by Scott Tyler Shafer on August 6, 2003 10:22 AM
August 05, 2003 | Comments: (0)
An update on life as a blogger. The reality is that the majority of media carry Wi-Fi enabled notebooks, yours truly included. So when you attend a major trade show like LinuxWorld you expect unfettered access to the airwaves. Particularly, I might add, in San Francisco - arguably the nation's most Wi-Fi savvy city.
Here's the Wi-Fi status report from Day 1.
Keynote hall = none
Media working room = none, until Doc Searls connected his Apple AirPort (thanks Doc).
IBM press conference = none
Novell press conference = none
Sun press Q&A = none
Memo to PR people and conference organizers everywhere: It's time to get with the Wi-Fi program.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 5, 2003 04:55 PM
August 05, 2003 | Comments: (0)
If there's one consistent theme from Sun, it's a commitment to being open. Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's Executive VP of Software, freely admitted during a press Q&A at LinuxWorld this afternoon that while the company had forged J2EE, it allowed BEA to run away with the ball and completely dominate the application server market.
In that context, Schwartz is now talking about open source Java. Determined to usurp Microsoft's Windows dominance with Sun's open source Mad Hatter client stack, Schwartz is out to leverage the collective wisdom of the masses.
Under questioning, he responded: "The main appeal is that (developer) folks love to noodle." Unlike CIO's who don't want to deal with code, it will offer developers a creative outlet. "It's about cultivating a better relationship with certain developers who what to go compile their own reference implementation."
So when will Sun make the switch? "When we out-ship Microsoft we will seriously consider open sourcing Java." Apache and Windows serve as the examples. "If you own most of a volume product you win," he said. Quoting Sun's Bill Joy, he added, "Innovation happens elsewhere. So it's a way of capturing that innovation elsewhere."
Meanwhile, Paul Krill reports that Sun will not abandon it's proprietary architectures any time soon.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 5, 2003 04:38 PM
August 05, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's Executive VP of Software, this afternoon demonstrated at LinuxWorld the company's Mad Hatter desktop client project - an open source desktop stack.
Mad Hatter offers an open source alternative for every component of the Windows stack, including Gnome, Mozilla, Evolution, Star Office, GAIM (instant messenger client), Java and the Java Card.
But more intriguing was the desktop experiment dubbed "Looking Glass." Demonstrated here for the first time, Looking Glass looks uncannily like Apple's OS X. Schwartz even made reference to the new platform's application icons, noting "Apple's done some cool things with these."
Is Sun working on a desktop partnership with Apple? The question surfaced during the media Q&A session and Schwartz looked to his execs for backup. "We don't comment on partnerships," responded Sun CTO of Software John Fowler.
Implicitly acknowledging the demo had that certain OS X-like sheen, Schwartz went on. "I don't think there is a Sun employee that doesn't love Apple. We would love to partner with Apple, they are everyone's favorite company. Stay tuned."
Here's what you can expect from this prototype operating system environment Schwartz described as "just a thought."
- The desktop background looks 3D, and moves subtly as you operate the mouse.
- Applications, once launched, take on 3D characteristics. You can spin them around; move them to the edges and they fold away; click away to another app and they become translucent. The coolest feature was a Real Player client running a new Java advertisement. When Schwartz spun Real Player upside down you could watch the video playing backwards.
- You can easily resize applications with the click and drag of a mouse. It seems a little more flexible than similar operations in Windows.
Why did Sun show off such an early demo? The message, albeit not a new one, is that Sun's serious about the open source on the desktop. Illustrating the point, Schwartz demonstrated the capabilities of Mad Hatter by downloading Microsoft's financial statement using Mozilla. Next he used StarOffice to transform one line of figures into a 3D chart, and added a label. Microsoft's Windows income statement became "Sun's StarOffice Opportunity."
Sun certainly is opportunistic, in a familiar sort of way. The evangelical feel of the keynote, compelling user interface demo, and Sun Java advertisement with its "think different" just keeps bringing me back to the core, so to speak.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 5, 2003 04:14 PM
August 05, 2003 | Comments: (0)
I enjoyed an upbeat dinner with Red Hat CEO Matthew Suzlik, Red Hat execs, InfoWorld's new EIC Steve Fox, and 15 of my closest media competitors last night at San Francisco's Kokkari Estiatorio (the lamb was amazing).
Suzlik kicked off the night with a short speech, making reference to the day's events and how we'd all look back on this dinner as a celebration of when Red Hat - the "Linux leader" - stood up for the Linux community and its customers.
Red Hat's VP Channel Sales and Development Michael Evans was feeling creative and used Bugs Life as his analogy: "It feels to me like it’s the army of the ants rising up (against the grasshoppers)."
At that point a few ideas became clear:
- Red Hat is faster than IBM at recognizing it can turn SCO's enterprise user licensing threat into a positive PR story.
- Linux legal theater has saved us from a summer that's not delivered too much compelling technology news.
- SCO has no friends, anywhere.
- Red Hat wants to be known as the "Linux leader." Suzlik made the same comment twice in one day. The first time at the end of this story. If legal vigor is the yard stick for leadership, I'd argue that SCO's still winning (for now).
Posted by Mark Jones on August 5, 2003 08:32 AM
August 04, 2003 | Comments: (0)
JBoss seeking J2EE certification
JBoss Group is prepared to sign an agreement with Sun Microsystems that would end a dispute over Java compatability certification of the JBoss open source application server, according to JBoss President Marc Fleury.
Atlanta-based JBoss Group has agreed to apply for J2EE certification for its application server and pay the standard fee, which Fleury would not disclose. "We did not get a break [on pricing]. We don’t get special treatment just because we're open source," Fleury said.
To get certified, JBoss first must be subjected to more than 10,000 compatability tests, which will take about a year, Fleury said. JBoss Group now awaits a response from Sun in order to begin certification testing.
JBoss Group had been at odds with Sun over the costs and time it takes to get the certification. But JBoss Group, which provides support services for the application server, now has grown large enough to take on the financial responsibility, Fleury said.
Previously, JBoss Group was not concerned about the branding because its target audience of corporate developers was satisfied with de facto com-pliance, said Fleury. "As we move into production and bigger deployments and corporate IT environments, then having the mark is important to some decision makers," he said.
Only those who have signed confidentiality agreements at JBoss Group will have access to the J2EE Test Compatability Kit, not the JBoss developer community at large, said Fleury.
JBoss Group also has hired Remy Maucherat, a former Sun employee who will continue working on the Tomcat servlet engine as part of the Apache Jakarta project for open source development based on Java, Fleury said.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 4, 2003 05:37 PM
August 04, 2003 | Comments: (0)
One-billion transistor chip readied
Intel anticipates releasing its first one-billion-transistor chip in about two years, doubling the current limit in its Itanium chip family, according to Deborah Conrad, vice president and general manager of Intel's solutions marketing group. To be a member of the Itanium family, the chip would provide performance boosts needed for functions such as Web services, Conrad said during an interview at a BEA Systems press conference in San Francisco on Monday. The chip also is likely to play a role in Intel's technology vision in which communications functions, such as wireless networking, merge with computing. Intel, Conrad said, is offering the performance of systems based on RISC (reduced instruction set computing) chips at a third of the cost.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 4, 2003 01:44 PM
August 04, 2003 | Comments: (0)
As Ed Scannell reports, today's big story is Novell's acquisition of Ximian. Few Linux companies enjoy the cult status Ximian has earned from the developer community. Miguel de Icaza, Ximian's CTO, has driven much of this success through leadership of projects like Gnome and mono.
Novell no doubt hopes this glory will translate into enterprise sales. And that's a theme we've come to expect at LinuxWorld Expo. As the San Francisco Chronicle observes today, the show's success now hinges on catering for people in suits.
But, as Scannell writes:
"One of the keys to the deal is the Ximian Desktop 2 product, a complete Linux desktop environment that has an integrated suite of Linux desktop applications capable of supporting Windows file formats and networks."
A stronger client/server story will certainly help Novell. But what remains an open question is how many big suits really believe Linux belongs outside the consolidated data center. On that note, it will be interesting to see what happens to Sun and Ximian's Star Office alliance.
Paul Krill and I will be at the show tomorrow, so stay tuned for updates. Meanwhile, read our Linux Special Report here.
Posted by Mark Jones on August 4, 2003 10:53 AM
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