News

IT News: Microsoft's BI Platform Clocks 35 Percent Revenue Growth

Also, Microsoft reaches donation milestone, Dice hosts job fair, more.

• By Gladys Rama
• September 22, 2006

Ask a colleague who the major players in the business intelligence space are, and Microsoft usually gets mentioned with the also-rans. But Microsoft's BI ranking continues to improve. A recent Gartner Inc. report shows a 35.9 percent surge in revenue growth for Microsoft's BI platform in 2005, putting it sixth in the BI market. Similar research by IDC and The OLAP Report also indicate a growing momentum in Microsoft's BI platform, which the company expanded late last year by launching both SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager. SAP tops the rankings, while Business Objects and Cognos, SAS Institute and Hyperion filled in the gap. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/sep06/09-22BIMomentumPR.mspx

Microsoft Donations Pass $2.5 Billion Mark

Bill Gates' charitable mood extends past his foundation's doors all the way to his employees and company. At Microsoft's annual meeting, the company announced that since 1983, it has given more than $2.5 billion in charitable donations – including services and software – to nonprofit organizations. In 2005 alone, Microsoft employees donated $68.2 million in cash and software; the company then matched that amount. http://tinyurl.com/hdvce

Dice Rolls into San Antonio

If you're anywhere near San Antonio next week and you're looking for a foot in the IT door, polish that resume. Dice Inc., an IT career Web site, will be sponsoring a technology, engineering and security clearance job fair on Sept. 28 at the Marriot San Antonio Northwest. Job seekers can get face-time with recruiters from companies like BAE Systems and Rockwell Collins. http://www.targetedjobfairs.com/

New Products: Mobile Testing Platform, IE Security App, XPS

Slow week on the product front, as you can tell with the following products. If you have one that you'd like featured here, drop me an e-mail at [email protected].

mVerify says it's come up with an easy way to test both Web services and Windows Mobile 5.0 apps: the mVerify Testing System Tester Edition, version 1.3. MTS 1.3 is designed to be a scalable, end-to-end testing device that can connect up to 10 Windows Mobile 5.0 devices to any workstation for testing. The product also features a One-Click Repeat function that can repeat any test up to 10,000 times with a single click. http://www.mverify.com

Software producer ByteCrusher has released a beta version of WindowZones, a security application that the company claims can protect IE users from zero-day malware attacks. ByteCrusher says the highlight is its SafeZone feature, where PC users can open Internet-facing applications and prevent malware from abusing their administrator rights. Pricing and final release are expected in October 2006. http://www.windowzones.com

Can't sleep at night? Maybe it's because you're a hardware or software developer who's having a hard time finding a reliable means for testing XPS Document interpretation and rendering capability. Rest easy – you can now download Release Candidate 1 of Global Graphics' XPS Reference Raster Image Processor from Microsoft's Web site. The reference RIP contains version 1.0 of Global Graphics' core XPS kernel, which has been distributed to more than a dozen printer and MFP manufacturers participating in Global Graphics' Early Adopter Program. http://www.globalgraphics.com