News


UPDATED: Gates To Retire in 2008

Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder, largest stockholder and chairman, announced on Thursday he plans to retire in July 2008. He passed his responsibilities and job title of chief software architect effective immediately to Ray Ozzie who was, until now, one of three chief technical officers.

Council of Customers To Advise Microsoft on Interop

In yet another sign that Microsoft clearly understands its products still need to integrate better with others' -- even fierce competitors' -- applications, the company announced this week that it has formed a council on interoperability with members drawn from among its biggest customers.

Study: Slow Job Growth in Tech Sector

New report says job growth is weaker than IT industry claims.

Microsoft Ships Beta of Operations Manager 2007

At its annual TechEd conference in Boston Tuesday, Microsoft announced the beginning of the beta test cycle for System Center Operations Manager 2007, an update to Microsoft Operations Manager 2005.

Third Parties Demo Visual Studio 2005 Tools

Two third-party firms showcased new development tools designed to work with Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 Team System at the company's annual TechEd conference being held this week in Boston.

HP Unveils C-Class Blade Servers

Computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. on Wednesday unveiled a line of servers that the company claims will reduce by half the cost of maintaining corporate data centers.

Microsoft Releases 8 'Critical' Security Patches

The Redmond software giant released 12 patches -- eight of which are deemed "critical" -- as part of its regularly scheduled monthly security update.

Yahoo Says E-Mail Worm Contained

Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday it has contained a malicious program aimed at the millions of people who use its e-mail service, which ranks as the world's largest.

Microsoft Certified Architect Program Now Live

Microsoft plans to open up senior-level certification to 250 applicants in its first year.

CDW Battles Dell, Slowing Industry Growth

CDW Corp. has long fashioned itself as David to Dell Inc.'s Goliath -- a role CEO John Edwardson embraced when he took a sledgehammer to a Dell laptop at a gathering of senior managers on his very first day.

Microsoft Previews LOBi at TechEd

Looking to establish more pipelines between its Office 2007 suite of desktop applications and several of its server-based applications, Microsoft on Monday at its TechEd 2006 showed off an early version of a technology that would deeply embed processes and data into Office clients.

Quest, Azaleos, Zenprise Unveil Updated Products at TechEd

Quest Software, Azaleos Corp. and Zenprise took advantage of Microsoft’s TechEd 2006 conference in Boston this week to roll out new and updated products that build on Windows infrastructures

Blogger Scoble To Leave Microsoft

A prominent Microsoft Corp. blogger who sometimes bluntly bashed the software behemoth is leaving the company to join PodTech.net, a Silicon Valley video blogging startup.

Ozzie Offers Vision for Software Plus Services at TechEd

Kicking off its TechEd 2006 conference in Boston, Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie said the IT industry is verging on yet another era of technology disruption, this time centering around Web-based services.

DOE Computers Hacked; Info on 1,500 Taken

A hacker stole a file containing the names and Social Security numbers of 1,500 people working for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency. </p><p>

IT Weekly Roundup, June 9

From the business wires this week: database backup tools, a virtualization suite and Windows Vista beta.

Intel Moves Up Server Chip Shipment Date

Intel Corp. is moving up the planned shipment date of a computer chip that will compete against one from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Microsoft Ships Compute Cluster Server 2003

Microsoft has released its high-performance computing (HPC) platform -- dubbed Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 -- to manufacturing, meaning it will be available to customers in August, the company said Friday. However, evaluation copies will be distributed at Microsoft's TechEd 2006 developers conference in Boston the week of June 11.

Cisco's CEO to Take on Chairman Duties

Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. said Chief Executive John T. Chambers will become chairman of the company when current Chairman John P. Morgridge steps aside on Nov. 15.

Microsoft Plans Better Disclosure of Piracy Check Tool

Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform users when its piracy monitoring tool is reporting to Microsoft.