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.
- By Stephen Swoyer
- November 27, 2002
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.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 27, 2002
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.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 26, 2002
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.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 26, 2002
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.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 26, 2002
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evidence of the last 10 months shows that the popular wisdom about Microsoft security -- that it's the worst -- may be outdated.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 26, 2002
Version 8 of IBM DB2 became generally available on Thursday. The version sports a new pricing structure and enhanced management features that make the database more attractive for smaller companies that have traditionally leaned toward SQL Server.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 21, 2002
Unisys used 64-bit Itanium 2 processors and a 16-processor server to push the performance envelope of Windows-based systems on SAP's Sales and Distribution benchmark by 250 percent, the company announced this week. When compared against larger Unix/RISC systems, however, the result ranks 10th overall and is 17 percent as scalable as the best result.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 21, 2002
NEC Solutions America will introduce three new Itanium 2 servers in the United States by the end of the year. All based on a unified chipset and architecture, the systems are a 32-processor capable server, a 16-way capable server and an 8-way capable server. The systems will be available immediately with Linux, but they will support Windows in April as soon as Windows .NET Server 2003 ships.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 21, 2002
Microsoft warned users late Wednesday of a critical new vulnerability involving the Microsoft Data Access Components, a ubiquitous technology present on most Windows systems. Especially vulnerable are Web servers in the middle of three-tier architectures with a SQL Server database at the back end and most Internet Explorer users. Microsoft also issued an unrelated cumulative patch for Internet Explorer.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 21, 2002
Microsoft on Wednesday introduced two beta programs for SQL Server 2000 customers, one for Service Pack 3 and the other for 64-bit SQL Server. Company officials also discussed for the first time a Hotfix Installer tool for SQL Server to be available near the end of this year.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 20, 2002
Bill Gates introduced a new Office application for taking notes and organizing them during his Comdex keynote this week. The application, called Microsoft OneNote, is scheduled for a mid-2003 release.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- November 20, 2002
AMD is demonstrating systems at Comdex and Supercomputing 2002 this week running prototypes of its 64-bit AMD Opteron processors on 64-bit Windows servers.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 20, 2002
IBM this week unveiled two new Intel-based workstations that feature reliability and availability technologies borrowed from its xSeries server line. Analysts say better price-performing Intel-based workstations, such as the new IBM Intellistations, are elbowing out RISC-based systems in a workstation market that is collapsing in terms of overall revenues.
- By Stephen Swoyer
- November 19, 2002
Hewlett-Packard is running Windows .NET Server 2003 64-bit Datacenter Edition on a massive Superdome server with 64 processors and 512 GB of RAM, HP and Microsoft announced on Monday.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 18, 2002
Intel launched four Intel Xeon processors and three chipsets on Monday in what the company called its "largest enterprise processor product launch" since first delivering multiprocessor-capable chips in 1995.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 18, 2002
Bill Gates told a Comdex keynote crowd Sunday night that Windows .NET Server 2003 will ship in April 2003. Release Candidate 2 for the server will be available in a few weeks, Gates said. The feature differences between the four versions of Windows .NET Server 2003 are also final now, with the biggest surprises in the Datacenter Edition.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 18, 2002
The final beta of Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET 2003 is available, and the development toolset, formerly code-named "Everett," will ship in April along with Windows .NET Server 2003.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 18, 2002
Microsoft's chief ambassador Craig Mundie gave a major speech on Trustworthy Computing last week. He detailed Microsoft's moves relating to the initiative so far and outlined the future of Microsoft's security, privacy and integrity efforts moving forward. "We didn't fall off the turnip truck just a year ago and decide we should think about these things," Mundie quipped.
- By Scott Bekker
- November 18, 2002
Oracle used its conference this week in San Francisco to promote its Oracle Collaboration Suite as an alternative to established collaboration offerings from Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp.
- By Stephen Swoyer
- November 14, 2002