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HP, Intel Push Itanium, But Sun Goes to 32-Bit

It's been a rough year for large IT providers, but some major industry leaders say they are bullish on their near-term prospects, and will continue to aggressively pursue new technologies. At Gartner's ITXpo/Symposium in Orlando, the CEOs of HP, Intel, and Sun Microsystems all say their organizations are weathering the economic storm, and seeing growth in some areas.

Ballmer Owns Up to Microsoft Licensing Flap

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had a lot of explaining to do about Microsoft's new licensing and Software Assurance policies Wednesday morning at Gartner's ITXpo/Symposium, being held in Orlando, Florida. Owning up to customer disenchantment with Licensing 6.0, Ballmer admitted that the process and ensuing customer pushback resulted in a "lot of learning for us." The CEO also provided further clarification to Microsoft's .NET approach, stating that the intention of the architecture is introducing XML into Microsoft's products.

Unisys Tests High-Performance Wintel Computing at CTC

Unisys will collaborate with Cornell University’s Cornell Theory Center (CTC) to test high-performance computing solutions based on its ES7000 servers.

3 Microsoft E-Business Servers Combined to Form "Jupiter"

Microsoft will consolidate Commerce Server, BizTalk Server and Content Management Server into one set of technologies code-named "Jupiter" that will be released in two stages in 2003 and 2004, the company disclosed during the opening keynote of the MEC 2002 conference in Anaheim, Calif.

Exchange Titanium Gets a Preview at MEC

Microsoft used its Microsoft Exchange Conference in Anaheim, Calif., to offer more details about the next version of its Exchange messaging and groupware platform, code-named Titanium.

Content Management Server 2002 Will Ship by Year End

Microsoft announced plans this week at its MEC 2002 conference in Anaheim, Calif., to ship Content Management Server 2002 by the end of the year.

IBM Opens x440 Lab in Redmond

IBM Corp. is moving to build the market for high-end Windows-based server systems by opening a demonstration and testing lab near Microsoft's Redmond, Wash. campus.

Feature Packs Coming for SMS 2.0

Microsoft has two free "feature packs" in the release candidate stage for Systems Management Server 2.0. The packs are called the SMS 2.0 Software Update Services Feature Pack and the SMS 2.0 Administration Feature Pack. Both should be available later this month.

SQL Patch Addresses 3 Critical Vulnerabilities

Microsoft released a cumulative patch for SQL Server and the Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) to fix three newly discovered critical vulnerabilities. While Microsoft has rolled together fixes for multiple vulnerabilities in a product into one patch regularly this year, rarely has one patch fixed more than one critical hole. The patch posted on the day that the SANS Institue and the FBI listed SQL Server generally as one of the top security vulnerabilities on Windows systems.

Microsoft Error Reporting Drives Bug Fixing Efforts

Microsoft is prioritizing its bug fixing efforts based on the pop-up error report windows that appear during setup and application crashes in newer versions of Windows and Office, according to a letter Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent to customers.

Fast and Furious: 4 Patches Out of Microsoft Wednesday Night

Critics frequently allege that new security fixes come out of Microsoft on a daily basis. Most days that's an exaggeration. Wednesday night, however, Microsoft made the hyperbole seem tame by posting four new security bulletins to its Web site. They involved critical vulnerabilities in SQL Server and the Windows Help Active X control and moderate vulnerabilities in three client versions of Windows and the Services for Unix 3.0 Interix SDK.

Lotus Unveils Domino R6

IBM Corp.’s Lotus Software Group on Tuesday officially took the wraps off of the long-awaited Release 6 (R6) of its Notes and Domino messaging and collaboration products. The major enhancements to Notes/Domino since Lotus last refreshed the products almost three years ago involve efforts directed at reducing total cost of ownership (TCO).

Beta Available for SMS 2003

Microsoft this week released the beta code for Systems Management Server 2003, a follow-up product to the aging Systems Management Server 2.0. Little has changed in terms of features since this spring when Microsoft formally unveiled the SMS 2003 name for the product formerly known by the code-name "Topaz".

Group: Attacks Spike in September

An independent security vendor based in London, mi2g, says September was the third consecutive record-setting month for what it calls "overt digital attacks." Windows systems made up the lion's share of targeted systems.

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Bugbear of a New Worm Hits the Web

Antivirus vendors warned customers on Tuesday that corporate networks worldwide were being hit by a new worm, appropriately called Bugbear, which is listed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as a synonym for "problem."

Critical Vulnerability in FrontPage Server Extensions

Microsoft publicized a critical new vulnerability for Web servers running its FrontPage Server Extensions.

IDC: Windows Servers Grow Market Share in Tough 2001

Microsoft grew its share of shipments in the server operating environment market in 2001 by seven percentage points even as the overall market declined by about one percent, according to market researchers at IDC.

IBM Doubles Down on Blade Servers

IBM on Tuesday unveiled its next generation of Intel-based server blades, which allow users to stack about twice as many blades per rack as the current 1U generation of server blades. IBM expects to ship the blades, which will support Windows, Linux and Novell NetWare on Xeon processors, in November.

Ignoring Skeptics, Microsoft Touts Java as Key Language for .NET

Earlier this month at its Server DevCon event in Seattle, Microsoft professed its support for Java, describing Visual J# .NET as a primary language for the .NET Framework. And though developer interest seems low, Microsoft continues to insist J# is equally important in the .NET scheme of things as its flagship languages Visual C# .NET and Visual Basic .NET.