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IT Weekly Roundup, March 31

From the business wires this week: Idera gets Front Runner status, BizTalk and NAP supporters, and recent Microsoft product delays.

Idera, a provider of management, administration, and compliance solutions for Microsoft SQL Server, announced this week it has been awarded SQL Server 2005 Front Runner status by Microsoft. Front Runner status is given to companies that have developed a SQL Server 2005 application that conforms to Microsoft testing standards. New versions of Idera's core portfolio of products, including SQL Diagnostic Manager, SQLsafe and SQL Compliance Manager, comply with those requirements. http://www.idera.com

Covast released Tuesday its Covast EDI Accelerator for Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006. The collaborative business integration solution provider says its EDI Accelerator helps enterprises integrate their EDI infrastructures with internal applications and Internet-based trading partners via conversion of EDI documents to and from XML. http://www.covast.com

iWay Software announced Monday that its iWay Universal Adapter Suite will integrate with BizTalk Server 2006. The suite, which includes more than 300 adapters, also supports Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (previously code-named "Indigo"). http://www.iwaysoftware.com

Business process management software provider Metastorm announced Monday its support for BizTalk Server 2006 allowing processes running in Metastorm BPM software to take advantage of the Microsoft BizTalk 2006 Business Rules Engine. A process automated in Metastorm BPM will be able to call a rule in the BizTalk 2006 Business Rules Engine via Web services and act upon the results of the rule. http://www.metastorm.com

Intelligroup Inc. launched Monday its EDI Jumpstart service, powered by BizTalk Server 2006, as part of its Business Integration Framework for B2B integration. The EDI Jumpstart service is a set of packaged services that help companies establish production-ready B2B relationships with their business partners using standards such as EDI, AS2 and XML, and it accelerates the deployment of BizTalk Server 2006. http://www.intelligroup.com

Itemfield announced Monday its support of BizTalk Server 2006. Itemfield ContentMaster for BizTalk Server 2006 will enable organizations to access and integrate structured and unstructured data stored in legacy systems and proprietary data from across the enterprise. http://www.itemfield.com

Alcatel announced Wednesday that its new Access Guardian feature set and the Alcatel OmniVista 2770 Quarantine Manager will support Microsoft's Network Access Protection (NAP), a policy enforcement technology built into Windows Vista and the future version of Windows Server, code-named "Longhorn." Microsoft's Network Access Protection offers enhanced protection of network assets from unhealthy computers by enforcing compliance with network health policies, such as antivirus signatures, patch levels and firewall configurations. http://www.alcatel.com

ForeScout Technologies, a provider of clientless Network Access Control (NAC) and intrusion prevention solutions, also announced recently that it has joined Microsoft's NAP Program. ForeScout's NAC solutions will support NAP. http://www.forescout.com

In related Microsoft news, the company announced March 23 that it will be reorganizing its Windows unit, adding Steven Sinofsky, the current head of Microsoft's Office business software development division. Sinofsky will join a restructured Platforms and Services division, composed of eight new and existing groups, and will oversee engineering and development of Windows and Windows Live.

Microsoft's Business Solutions group announced this week at its Convergence 2006 conference the release of Dynamics CRM 3.0 Professional Edition for hosting services. Microsoft also previewed Dynamics AX 4.0, due out later this year. The multi-language, multi-currency enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution features support for SharePoint Services and deep integration with other Microsoft products, including SQL Server, BizTalk Server, Exchange and Office.

While BizTalk Server 2006 is set to ship May 1, a number of Microsoft products will be missing their respective boats. Windows Vista will be delayed until after the holiday shopping season to January 2007, due to quality-standard issues, the company said. To coincide with Vista's launch, Office 2007 will also be pushed back until then. And Service Pack 1 for Virtual Server 2005 R2 will arrive in early 2007, instead of late this year.

About the Author

Dan Hong is the associate Web editor of MCPmag.com, CertCities.com, TCPmag.com, Redmondmag.com and RCPmag.com.

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