Opinion

10 enterprise software companies to watch (LinuxWorld)

LinuxWorld just posted an article identifiying 10 hot enterprise software startups to watch. Not all the companies are open source (some are SaaS, for example). In fact, one sells "extensions to the Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Iomega Announces High-End 450r NAS

Iomega's all about small and medium-sized businesses. In fact, only the SMB market–they're very vocal about that. So when Iomega says 'high-end' don't go thinking about a honking rack full of disks and servers like you&#039

Support for Abstract Data Types Required by SOA

Once again, in the world of SOA, we need to focus a bit more on data. Let's look at critical data management mechanisms, including abstract data types. Transformation mechanisms, which are part of SOA (e.g., semantic mediation), also need to sup

PlateSpin’s PowerRecon 3.0 Promotes Green

PlateSpin announced major enhancements to its data center planning and analysis solution that will help organizations achieve new operational efficiencies while accelerating the path to environmental responsibility. The company's PowerRecon 3.0

SMB Tech News Today; 4/12

* Oracle CRM goes BlackBerry. Oracle announced that its taking its Siebel CRM software mobile. Idea is to provide a Siebel-compatible mobile interface, tho whether it'll be full-powered or not remains to be seen. (Source: InfoWorld) * Vista beta

The IT person’s guide to quarterly earnings doublespeak

Is your vendor — or employer — a financial hero or goat? You'll never figure it out unless you know the lingo

Open Source and New Math

In the early days open source was all about lower costs, but these days the apps have matured to such a point (on par or better than proprietary) that the conversation is shifting to value – getting more from your applications at a lower cost and ena

Open Source Security Motherload: 105 Tools, Applications and Resources

Network Security Journal just posted a compendium of open source security tools for your enjoyment and adoption. Lots of cool apps I have never heard of on the list….

The geek shot round the world….

In honor of former Microsoft exec Charles Simonyi's ongoing vacation in space, our sister publication PC World is asking its readers which high-tech executive they'd like to see shot into space next. You can guess who's number one. Yes

Folks, it’s not (just) a Microsoft thing

I came across this great schematic while looking for graphics for an upcoming presentation at COSS.fi in Helsinki: It's very clever, and generally well done. But I think it overlooks more than half the threats to open source by fixating on Micro

QLogic Introduces Virtual HBA Ports to Novell’s SUSE Environment

QLogic has announced an HBA virtualization solution for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server environments from Novell to help ease the creation and management of virtual machines in the data center. Novell is the first vendor to support the QLogic N_Port ID

SYSGO and AMD Cooperate on Virtualization

SYSGO and AMD have formed a cooperative venture to exploit AMD multi-core technology in conjunction with SYSGO's PikeOS paravirtualization real-time operating system. Stated in a recent press release, the two companies aim to provide a unique co

SonaSafe Unveils Virtual Server Protection

Sonasoft Corporation announced the availability of its latest version of the SonaSafe solution – a solution which provides unique features for protecting virtual servers. The company has offered its SonaSafe line for products such as SQL, Exchange an

Open Source, Stat!

Citigroup cuts IT spending…why not increase IT but reduce costs through open source?

Citi is trying to cut $4.6B from its IT budget over the next few years. A laudable goal, especially given how much of that money is almost certainly pure waste, proprietary shelfware that never lived up to expectations. Or maybe IT priorities simply

InfoWorld LIVE! #10: Data Protection

And we're back. This week it's all about Data Protection. We've got Rob Emsley from EMC; FB2's CIO, Paul Lindo and our own InfoWorld executive editor, Doug Dineley. We get into what data protection is, where it's going and wh

The Vista Backups That You Can’t Have

Source: PC Pitstop Tech Notes Dave Methvin points out that the Previous Versions feature of Windows Vista has been left out of the Home Basic and Home Premium editions. That wouldn't be so bad, except that the backups are still being made: you j

Laser killer or wannabe? HP debuts fast, ink-based color MFP

HP's newest, fastest color MFPs, the CM8050 and CM8060, feature an ink-based printing technology called Edgeline (which HP has already been using in photo kiosks). An array of printheads spray ink onto the page, like an inkjet would; but instead

Test Center Tracker: xBox as HD DVD hacking device?

Your Atari 2600 can't do this: Turns out the xBox may be able to do more than just serve up Madden NFL. A resourceful individual figured out a way to hack HD DVDs using the xBox's DVD drive. Will blu-ray discs be next? VMware Workstation re

5 Things to Consider Before you start your SOA Project

In thinking about the Webinar I'm doing on Friday, I just wanted to put together a list, based on my experiences, of the 5 things you should consider before you start your SOA project. Clearly, not the only things to consider, but as I'm wo

Shopping for a Laptop: Best Buy 0, CompUSA 1

I took my oldest daughter shopping for a new laptop last Thursday, as her old Compaq laptop is on its last legs. She's a married graduate student who often commutes to school and work on the T (Boston's s

Google’s open source OCR work

This is the sort of thing that makes me like Google again. Google just announced work on the open source OCRopus project, a document analysis and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) system:The goal of the project is to advance the state of the art in

Farewell sweet prints?

This blog is nearly two weeks old. And during that time I've gotten lots of feedback about it (and InfoWorld's) shift from paper to packets, mostly from readers who are unhappy about the move. Like this note from longtime reader K.H.:…

WEP security is mere clicks away, in Windows

Cracking open Active Directory and making some tweaks can give you peace of mind using the old wireless standby

SMB Tech News Today; 4/11

* IBM and HP make new SMB plays. It's the final frontier and the big vendors are chasing it. IBM's introing a new server line, while HP is releasing a new storage platform. (Source: InfoWorld) * Darwin launches online data loss calculator.

Content management 2.0 from Salesforce

Way back at the turn of the century the Irish poet William Butler Yeats said, "Things fall apart: the center cannot hold." Who knew he could have been talking about core enterprise applications. As promised this morning, here's a follo

Oregon Dept of Human Services turns to open source (SugarCRM)

Folks, the end is near. The Proprietary Bloc may not feel it quite yet, but the nails are already hitting the coffin. Here's just one nail: the Oregon Department of Human Services (9,500 employees and a $10B budget) just scrapped its proprietary

VMware Workstation 6.0 Redux

Often when I review a product for the Test Center I'm asked to re-confirm my findings by one of the participating vendors. This is especially true when benchmarks are involved. For example, in the case of my recent roundup of desktop virtualizat

Apache and FSF: Time to come together (Allison Randal)

Allison captures the alleged GPL/Apache incompatibility really well, and makes an implicit plea for the FSF to stop pretending the two are incompatible. She writes, trying to decipher the FSF's apparent attempts to strain at the Apache gnat (and

Blossoming Green Grid to hold first technical summit

With its first technical summit just over a week away, The Green Grid now boasts a rather well-rounded lineup of IT players, having added new storage vendors, networking companies, and heavy tech-using companies. A consortium of companies and individ

Salesforce gets trendy with Web 2.0 solution

Salesforce.com's announcement that it will offer content management and content collaboration as one of its services raises some interesting questions. For the full story of what the company is unveiling today read Salesforce.com wants to be a c

Apache to Sun: Open up

Geir Magnusson of the Apache Software Foundation has issued an open letter to Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, asking Sun to provide an "acceptable license" for the test kit for Java SE. He writes:Since August 2006, the ASF has b

How to handle an exit interview

Dear Bob … About four weeks ago, I gave six weeks notice at my job. Since that time, the company put out an employee survey. One of the major deficiencies they discovered was a big part of my decision to leave. Company communications since then ap

You’d think the partnership covered this sort of thing… (UPDATED)

Apparently, OpenSUSE is a bit hobbled in its functionality, as Slashdot is reporting. Why? Funny you should ask. Apparently, because of the Novell/Microsoft patent deal. No, it makes no sense to me, either. I'm assuming that there is a mistake h

Test Center Tracker: Virtualize with care

Virtually insecure: It's easy to get excited about virtualization, what with the numerous benefits it promises, like simpler management and potentially significant cost savings. But virtualize with care, cautions David Marshall, author of the In

A footnote to the footnotes

Eagle-eyed reader D.M. points out something I missed entirely in yesterday's screed about Windows Vista and FUD. Did you happen to notice that the MS Vista Footnotes webpage you provided today lacks certain bulleted letters? Namely, the letters

New Podcast: Software AG buys webMethods…Interviews with ZapThink and Software AG

Download file…

SMB Tech News Today; 4/10

* 5 patches today. Microsoft is releasing 5 patches today, including four security patches one of them ranked 'critical.' There's also an update to the Malicious Software Removal Tool. Get 'em while they're hot. (Source: Redm

The perils of nonprofit

With some jobs, avoiding the booby traps can be serious survival business Before you make a move, it's a good idea to make sure you're actually in the fire, and not just the frying pan. One morning about three years ago I woke up to discove

Search fatigue

Improving search has less to do with goosing numbers than honing the relevancy of results A year ago March, Neil Holloway, president of Microsoft's Europe, Middle East, and Africa operations, boasted about how good Microsoft's search engine

A Macro Vision of Defective DRM

What do you when Digital Rights Management (DRM) keeps you from using a product that you legitimately purchased? Who can help you figure out how to make it work – the publisher of the material, the manufacturer of the playing device, or the DRM suppl

Choosing an MBA program

Dear Bob, and Bob's readers … I just came across this blog, and actually need an answer to a question at the moment – which MBA program to pick. I have been accepted into Emory, Georgetown & Babson – from which I am seriously looking a

Organizations That Rush to Adopt Virtualization Can Weaken Security

According to a recent press release from analyst firm Gartner, virtualization offers organizations the opportunity to reduce costs and increase agility, however, if this is done without implementing best practices for security, virtualization may act

VMware’s TSX Event Filled with Information

While not as big as VMworld, VMware's TSX Event for EMEA is providing quite a bit of information to those lucky enough to be in the audience. Topics are across the map covering Fusion, Lab Manager, VMTN, certifications, appliances and more. I ca

VMware’s Awards Continue to Grow in 2007

VMware continues to stack up software awards early on in 2007, as the virtualization giant gets the nod from industry analysts, the media as well as consumers. VMware Lab Manager recently won the 2007 Jolt Product Excellence Award in the Utilities ca

VMware Launches Fusion Beta 3 for Mac

VMware has released a new beta update to its VMware Fusion virtualization product for Intel-based Macs. The product uses a Cocoa-native user interface and allows the Intel-based Mac to run Microsoft Windows operating systems as well as many other x86

Open Source Startup Mechanics: Hiring decisions matter far more than you realize

Over the last year I have found that everyone I run into has some comment or question about managing a growing business. Matt and I thought it would be good to discuss some of the startup mechanics that are unique to an open source model and those th

Green can be blue and red

I try to focus on one color in this blog, and that's green. Shades of green, actually, both of the monetary and environmental persuasion. But I'm not out to let my political hues — red nor blue — shine through — at least not too much. Bu

Mozilla: Desktop email still better

I have tried/used pretty much every email client in existence (remember when Pine was like gold?) I've found that the biggest issue — even beyond the UI is the ability to easily get mail in and out of various clients if you want to switch. I wa

Entertainment, DRM, and disruption (Shuttleworth)

Mark has a great post on the foibles of DRM. His verdict? DRM simply does not work. It never has. It's an old way of attacking an old problem. I don't have any religious antipathy to DRM, myself. I'm a strong critic of it when it comes