News


Microsoft Updates BI Tool

Microsoft on Wednesday released an updated version of a tool to help system integrators and other Microsoft partners build business intelligence applications atop SQL Server.

Important Security Flaw Affects Windows 2000 Servers

Microsoft on Wednesday put out a pair of security bulletins, including one alerting users to an important security flaw affecting the Windows 2000 servers.

Dell to Ship Madison-based Servers

Dell officials on Wednesday said the company would ship two-way servers based on the upcoming Itanium 2 “Madison” 64-bit processor. The announcement marks the computermaker’s return to Itanium, after skipping the “McKinley” generation of the chip.

Microsoft Names Chief Privacy Strategist

Microsoft has gone outside the company to fill the position of chief privacy strategist. Peter Cullen, the corporate privacy officer for Royal Bank of Canada, will join Microsoft on July 14.

Licensing 6.0 Step-up Program on Tap

A few weeks after introducing a blockbuster list of changes to Licensing 6.0, Microsoft gave the licensing program another significant tweak in allowing customers with standard edition server software to upgrade to the enterprise edition at a reasonable price.

ERP Market Revenues Declined in 2002

As top ERP vendors battle in court and in corporate boardrooms, newly published Gartner research shows that the Enterprise Resource Planning market was on the decline in 2002.

HP Unveils Mobility Push

HP launched a business mobility push on Wednesday that involves new laptops, handhelds and a rebate program for trade-in PCs.

West Virginia Settles in Antitrust Case

Holding out of the Microsoft antitrust settlement paid off in a big way for West Virginia. The state, one of the poorest in the nation, settled on Monday with the software giant for $21 million in cash and vouchers.

Microsoft Strikes at Alleged Spammers with Lawsuits

Microsoft opened a legal offensive against spammers on Tuesday through a flurry of lawsuits filed in Washington state and the United Kingdom.

Microsoft Reiterates SQL Slammer Warning

In response to the publication of the SQL Slammer source code in a major industry magazine, Microsoft officials are warning users to make sure they've taken advantage of the rash of SQL Slammer defenses on the Microsoft Web site.

Instant Messaging Tidal Wave to Hit Corporate IT

Corporate instant messaging will take off in the next four years, according to a new study by messaging researchers at The Radicati Group.

Dell, EMC Extend Storage Alliance

About two years and 4,100 customers into a storage partnership, Dell and EMC have decided that the arrangement is working out well enough to extend it.

Gartner: Intrusion Detection Systems a Bust

Investing money in intrusion detection and prevention technologies is a mistake because the systems are failing to provide value and will be obsolete by 2005, according to research analysts at Gartner.

Microsoft Buys Antivirus Vendor

Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it has bought the intellectual property and technology assets of a small Romanian antivirus vendor, but Microsoft left its intentions very fuzzy for how extensively it intends to get involved in the antivirus market.

New Version of Bugbear Strikes

A variant of the Bugbear mass-mailing worm started hitting corporate networks late last week, prompting the first worm alert since Microsoft launched its Virus Information Alliance.

Exchange 5.5 Support: Get It While It Lasts?

Underwhelmed by the feature set of Exchange Server 2003? There’s still a bogeyman that could push you, the entrenched Exchange 5.5 user, to make the move to the new version of Exchange: The probability that Microsoft will phase out support for the aging messaging system by the end of 2003.

Exchange 2003: Spam-killer?

Many Exchange administrators cite Exchange 2003’s improved spam-filtering capabilities as another attractive feature of the new messaging platform.

New Tools Emerge for Keeping Spam in the Can

Spam has grown out of control and is choking many corporate e-mail systems. About 24 percent of e-mail coming into corporate systems is unsolicited junk mail, a percentage projected by Radicati Group to grow to about 50 percent over the next few years. A number of approaches are emerging to help organizations get a grip.

Exchange 2003 -- Is There Enough There There?

Researchers say that as many as 60 percent of Exchange seats continue to run on Exchange 5.5, even with Exchange 2000 approaching its third anniversary. Microsoft has put a lot of features into Exchange Server 2003 to entice those 5.5 users to move on up. Will it be enough?

Host Integration Server Lives!

Microsoft Host Integration Server, Microsoft's product for connecting Windows servers to mainframes and other so-called "legacy" systems, has seen its marketing budget killed and its development team slashed, yet the product keeps selling. In fact, Microsoft plans to ship an updated version, Host Integration Server 2004, next year.