News


Unisys Points to Price Performance in New Benchmark Run

Unisys this week touted a new set of benchmarks that it says demonstrates the scalability and the price/performance of its flagship ES7000 Intel servers.

Microsoft Adds to Library of Prescriptive Guidance Docs

Microsoft this week announced the newest edition to its Microsoft Systems Architecture configurations, Microsoft Systems Architecture for the Enterprise Data Center.

IBM to Acquire Rational Software

IBM last week agreed to acquire development tools vendor Rational Software Corp. for $2.1 billion. The deal is the second largest software acquisition in Big Blue's history and brings up interesting issues surrounding Rational's support for .NET.

Microsoft Puts Out 2 Security Bulletins

Microsoft issued new security bulletins warning users of moderate threats due to vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook 2002.

Intel Releases Compilers that Help Build Hyper Threaded Apps

Intel took a step this week to make it easier for developers to use the Hyper Threading technology in its newest processors. The chipmaker released new compilers for translating C++ and Fortran code into the machine language understood by the processors.

Microsoft Group Policy Tool Enters Broad Beta

In rolling out Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 on Thursday, Microsoft also offered the bulk of its user base a first look at a new tool for the prickly problems of Group Policy management.

Windows .NET Server 2003 RC2 Officially Posted

Microsoft officially posted Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 to the Web for download on Thursday.

Microsoft Changes CAL Options

As Microsoft puts the finishing touches on Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 for posting later this week, the software giant also previewed new options for Client Access Licenses that should give customers a little more power to match CALs to their needs.

RC2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 Coming This Week

Microsoft will post Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 this week, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. RC2 will probably be the last widely distributed test version of the server operating system before it is released to manufacturing sometime in the first quarter of 2003. General availability of Windows .NET Server 2003 is scheduled for April.

West Virginia, Massachusetts Appeal Antitrust Ruling

Two of the nine states that sought tougher antitrust remedies for Microsoft will appeal a federal judge's decision last month to accept Microsoft's settlement with the Justice Department and reject the harsher penalties.

HP Unveils Three ProLiant Rack Servers

HP updated its line of ProLiant-branded, Intel-based servers this week by making available a rack-dense, four-processor system and announcing a pair of 1U servers that will ship later this month. All three servers feature remote management and fault resilient technologies.

Netcraft: MDAC Vulnerability Affects Small Number of IIS Servers

Netcraft is trying to correct a misimpression surrounding Microsoft's two-week-old security bulletin involving Microsoft Data Access Components.

Security Firm: Digital Attacks Against U.S. Rise in November

The number of digital attacks in the United States rose by 13 percent in November despite an 8 percent decline worldwide, according to a London-based security firm.

HP to Ship 2nd-Generation Profusion Systems in Early 2003

In early 2003, HP plans to roll out eight-processor servers based on a second-generation Profusion chipset that supports the newer Intel Xeon MP processors.

IBM Releases WebSphere 5.0

IBM Corp. this week officially released version 5.0 of WebSphere Application Server (WAS). With full support for existing Web services standards, compliance with J2EE 1.3, a new workflow engine, and a bevy of Web-to-host connectivity options, Big Blue says that WAS 5.0 marks a major upgrade of its Web application server platform.

IDC: Linux Servers Grow Faster Than Windows in Q3

Linux servers gained market share much faster than Windows servers did in the third quarter, according to research released Wednesday by market analysts at IDC. The analysts note that the Linux growth comes from a much smaller base than Windows enjoys. The Standard Intel Architecture Servers that underpin both OS platforms, meanwhile, continue to make up a growing share of the overall market as Unix servers decline in market share. In other developments, IBM assumed the lead among eight-processor server Intel architecture sellers.

Microsoft Updates Collaboration Solution

Microsoft unveiled a minor upgrade this week to its Microsoft Solution for Intranets (MSI) package that offers consulting on setting up enterprise intranets based on Microsoft technologies. The new 1.5 version of MSI also integrates an upcoming technology offering from Groove Networks that provides users with a way to work on MSI-based collaboration projects while offline or outside the firewall.

IDC: 2002 Worst Year in History of IT

The IT industry is having its worst year ever in 2002, market researchers at IDC concluded. Some of the hardest hit sectors were storage, systems, network equipment and services.

Dell Gets Into Blade Game

Dell this week delivered on an earlier promise to begin shipping blade servers. It is immediately offering a 3U enclosure that packs as many as 12 processors.

Aberdeen Report Points Out Open Source Vulnerabilities

Analysts at Aberdeen Group say the evidence of the last 10 months shows that the popular wisdom about Microsoft security -- that it's the worst -- may be outdated.