News


UltraBac Refreshes Backup Software

UltraBac Software has released the second installment of planned incremental upgrades to its flagship UltraBac 7.0 backup and disaster recovery software. The new version, 7.0.3, builds in encryption, compression, improved back-up granularity and administrative enhancements.

Windows Datacenter Program Overhauled

Microsoft's Windows Datacenter Server has been about more than technology features since its launch in late 2000. Fittingly, the tightly controlled support program that makes Datacenter Server so different from other Microsoft server operating systems is getting a complete overhaul for the Windows Server 2003 launch. Microsoft unveiled details of the program Wednesday, including the new name, the "Windows Datacenter High Availability Program."

Study: Linux Server Roles Expanding

A new study by IDC finds that enterprise Linux server usage is moving beyond its traditional bastion of Web serving and moving into Unix and Windows strongholds such as application serving and database serving.

AMD Releases New High-end Athlon

AMD refreshed its line of multiprocessor chips for servers and workstations this week with the introduction of the AMD Athlon MP 2600+.

Appeals Court Stays Java Ruling

A federal appeals court on Monday stayed a district court judge's order for Microsoft to distribute Sun's Java Runtime Environment with Windows XP.

Microsoft Withdraws Security Patch

Microsoft pulled the Windows NT 4.0 version of a security patch it issued in December because the patch was causing systems to crash.

AMD to Launch Opteron in April

Chipmaker AMD will launch its 64-bit server and workstation processor, the AMD Opteron, on April 22 in New York City. The launch date synchronizes the alternative to Intel's 64-bit Itanium family with the first general release of a 64-bit Windows server operating system.

Microsoft Agrees to Beef up Privacy Protections in Passport

Microsoft .NET Passport users will get better privacy protection, due to an agreement between European Union regulators and Microsoft.

Digex: IIS 6.0 Delivers the Goods

IIS 6.0 isn’t in final form yet, but that doesn’t mean it’s not in use. In fact, one of the largest managed hosting companies in the world has been using it for two years now—and not just on a test network.

Group Estimates Slammer Damage at $1 Billion

A U.K.-based security firm is estimating that economic damage from the SQL Slammer worm is already over $1 billion, making it the ninth most damaging malware attack yet in the firm's estimation.

Lawyers Confirm Late 2004 Ship Date for Longhorn

A Microsoft legal document put a late 2004 expected ship date on the next client version of Windows, code-named "Longhorn," putting in black and white what Microsoft officials have been telling partners, customers and reporters in private conversations.

Microsoft Gets Specific on Windows 2003 Security

While Microsoft has been promoting the security focus of Windows Server 2003 since delaying the operating system release in 2002 for a code review, Microsoft uncovered some specific security features in the OS for the first time last week. Newly disclosed security settings and features include details of some of the services that are disabled or running with reduced privilege by default, a Security Configuration Wizard tool that will be available this summer and new documentation for administrators configuring systems and networks for security.

Fujitsu to Build 128-processor Itanium Systems for 2005

Fujitsu Limited late last week joined the growing number of hardware vendors building massive server systems based on Intel's 64-bit Itanium processor family.

Microsoft Extends Windows NT 4 Server Support

Microsoft this week pushed back the support deadline for its Windows NT 4.0 Server products by a year to the end of 2004. So-called "extended support," which includes security support and paid incident support, will be available until Dec. 31, 2004.

SQL Slammer Hits Web Hard

The SQL Slammer worm, exploiting a vulnerability in SQL Server 2000 patched by Microsoft six months ago, flooded the Internet with traffic and infected about 35,000 hosts over the weekend.

Microsoft Appeals Java Order

Microsoft on Wednesday formally appealed a federal judge's order to start distributing Sun's Java Runtime Environment with every U.S. and German copy of Windows XP and Internet Explorer by June 4.

Veritas Refreshes Backup Tool for Windows Servers

Veritas Software this week unveiled version 9.0 of its Backup Exec for Windows Servers. The software is retooled to support Windows Server 2003, to back up Exchange servers more quickly, for faster setup and with browser-based, remote administration.

Critical Vulnerability Found in Domain Controllers

Microsoft alerted users to a critical unchecked buffer vulnerability in a service that is enabled by default on Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 domain controllers. The alert was one of three security alerts that Microsoft sent to users on Wednesday night.

Altiris Refreshes IT Asset Management Suite

Altiris released an updated version of its IT asset management suite that integrates more smoothly with common databases and provides users with new ways to look at their IT inventories.

Microsoft CRM Ships

Microsoft made its highly anticipated move into the customer relationship management market on Tuesday with the North American launch of Microsoft CRM.