Test Center Tracker: Apple, SUN and virtualization
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

Apple, SUN and virtualization As improbable as it may seem those apparently unrelated topics have so much in common. Please read on to find out. More SPARCs from that SUN Whatever your preference, rack-mounted or blade architecture, SUN has some news for you, if you are shopping for new servers. The roaring of these three new Niagara powered machines from SUN has not escaped Tom Yager who does a preliminary exploration of their features in his column. Freedom Pac Could be one of the entrées in the Capitol Hill cafeteria menu, (do you want Freedom Fries with that?). MojoPac Freedom... more

Posted by Mario Apicella on October 10, 2007 at 10:24 AM

Mandriva Linux 2008 offered
Filed under: Linux

Mandriva is offering Mandriva Linux 2008, which is intended to offer simplicity for first-time Linux users, the company said on Wednesday. Featured are enhancements such as the new versions of the Gnome and KDE desktop environments. Also featured is the 3D-accelerated desktop comprised of Compiz Fusion 0.5.2 and drak 3D, Mandriva said. A Windows documents and settings migration tool is highlighted for moving from Windows to Linux. Also cited were an optimized control center and enhancements to the rpmdrake software installer. Support is included for the WPA (WiFi Protection Access) Enterprise authentication and security framework, implemented in a new network... more

Posted by Paul Krill on October 10, 2007 at 10:22 AM

Test Center Tracker: A Great Day for Blogs
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

The weather can't quite seem to decide whether it's Summer or Fall, but no such indecision wracks the ranks of InfoWorld bloggers and columnists. It's solid information and strong opinion all around as we look at the issues and technologies that you need for winning I.T. Virtually Sustainable: If you weren't able to make it to InfoWorld's Virtualization Forum in New York, Ted Samson gives you a chance to place catch-up in Sustainable IT. Ted has posted a set of interviews with professionals who were on the Green Datacenter panel. You can listen as Lewis Curtis interviews Ted on green... more

Posted by Curt Franklin on October 09, 2007 at 04:36 PM

Preview: OpenProj brings free, robust project management to the desktop
Filed under: Project management

Microsoft Project 1.0 for Windows (my very first InfoWorld review assignment, by the way) didn't score high. In fact, during the late 1980's Scitor's Project Scheduler – with its speed, usability, and accurate scheduling – consistently won our project management shootouts. Fast forward 20 years. Like other Microsoft Office applications that underwent extensive rework, Project is now a desktop fixture. Plus, it connects to the formidable Microsoft Project Server 2007. As a result, many early desktop project managers have disappeared. Well, not entirely. Key Scitor staff moved on to form Projity, keeping alive their scheduling engine in the form of... more

Posted by Mike Heck on October 09, 2007 at 06:01 AM

Infragistics offers toolsets for Windows apps
Filed under: Application development

Infragistics announced Monday Infragistics NetAdvantage for .Net 2007 Volume 3, featuring toolsets for ASP.Net and Windows Forms. NetAdvantage for .Net is a suite of controls, components and tools for .Net. Developers can build user experiences in line-of-business applications, Infragistics said. Featured in the new release is a reduction in development time. The ASP.Net toolset includes PDF/XPS (XML Paper Specification) reporting capabilities, export to Excel enhancements and charting features for building commercial-class interfaces and rich Internet applications. With the Windows Forms side of the product, new tools, including a navigation bar and tool bar manager, make it easy to build user... more

Posted by Paul Krill on October 08, 2007 at 03:19 PM

Test Center Tracker: Content management, the open-source way
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

CMS at an enticing price: free: Discontent with the state of your companies content? If, indeed, your data and documents are in disarray, a CMS (content management system) might warrant consideration -- and there's no reason open-source options should be on your list. That's a key take-away from Contributing Editor Mike Heck's round-up of five (yes, five!) open-source CMSes from Alfresco, DotNetNuke, Drupal, Joomla, and Plone. All fared well, but only one earned a score of Excellent. Click on to find out which. DreamScene still a nightmare: Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy revisits DreamScene, Microsoft Vista's "motion desktop" technology. When... more

Posted by Ted Samson on October 08, 2007 at 11:51 AM

Compuware adds to business requirements app
Filed under: Business Process Management

Compuware plans Tuesday to announce Compuware Optimal Trace 5.0, a new version of the company's business requirements management software intended to make it easier to adopt a business requirements management solution. Version 5.0 enhances propagation of requirements to all aspects of the application lifecycle, according to Compuware. Organizations can grow into a sophisticated use of structured requirements, Compuware said. With the 5.0 release, customers can propagate "business intent," the company said. "What we've done is we've just put out Optimal Trace 5.0 and it's kind of important from our perspective because it really offers the ability for customers to completely... more

Posted by Paul Krill on October 05, 2007 at 04:10 PM

Test Center Tracker: Green storage, converged storage, and rich enterprise apps
Filed under: AJAX , Application development , Storage , Test Center Tracker

Rotating green matter?: So while AMD and Intel have been shouting in our ear about how they are putting money in our pockets by making their processors more power efficient, storage vendors have been eerily silent. Now they're starting to get the green religion too. Green storage starts with management tools like thin provisioning (hey look, we were green already!) but is moving toward power management technologies like MAID (massive arrays of idle disk) and Hitachi Data Systems' PSSS (Power Savings Storage Service). Ted Samson outlines these developments in yesterday's Sustainable IT. And don't miss his video interview on the... more

Posted by Doug Dineley on October 05, 2007 at 09:38 AM

Test Center Tracker: California's vision for an accessible Web, Microsoft's blunted run at Flash
Filed under: AJAX , Application development , Test Center Tracker

Opening the Web to everyone: The state of California has taken the long overdue step of enforcing Web site accessibility requirements. Developers, dev tool vendors, content creators and on-line advertisers should be making accessibility a priority if for no other reason than the substantial market they're turning away. Some software companies, like Apple and Adobe, get it. Apple added support for captions to QuickTime, and Adobe's Web authoring tools check for accessibility standards adherence. Perhaps this judicial nudge will make accessibility core of the next-generation Web. Sorry, Microsoft, but Flash already has its AIR apparent: Martin Heller's review of... more

Posted by Tom Yager on October 04, 2007 at 12:52 PM | Comments (1)

Test Center Tracker: The future of digital media and math tricks
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

The future of digital media and math tricks Looking back from year 2107 - In this week "Ahead of the Curve" Tom Yager pauses to imagine what our legacy of digital images will look like 100 years from now, and what he sees is not a pretty sight. Will we be remembered as the generation that loved quantity more than quality? Will our collections of digital media be assimilated to other plastic debris littering out planet? Will our grandchildren even be able to explore their content? Tom answers are here Pick a number, any number.. Are you good with math?... more

Posted by Mario Apicella on October 03, 2007 at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)

Preview: Websense Content Protection Suite brings Web smarts to DLP
Filed under: Data leak prevention

Websense acquired PortAuthority Technologies in late 2006 shortly after I reviewed PortAuthority 5.0. Renamed Websense Content Protection Suite, version 6 blends in some Websense technologies along with enhancements that PortAuthority already had in the pipeline. Content Protection Suite 6 improves detection accuracy by looking at the destination of a message -- a technique seen in Websense ThreatSeeker, a technology that protects against Web-based threats. And it enhances the existing PreciseID NLP feature, which uses natural language processing to tell whether similar data is confidential or risk-free; this further boosts detection rates without going through the step of uploading and scanning... more

Posted by Mike Heck on October 03, 2007 at 06:00 AM

Java development to be easier
Filed under: Application development

Interface21, builders of the Spring Framework, are partnering with Tasktop Technologies, builders of Eclipse Mylyn, to develop Spring Tool Suite, with the goal of reducing complexity in Java development and maintenance. Mylyn is an open source, task-focused UI for Eclipse while Spring is a popular open source framework for Java. Building on Eclipse and Mylyn, Spring Tool Suite will simplify the large aggregation of tools used to develop complex enterprise Java applications. This will reduce information overload and streamline developer workflow, Interface21 said. The suite will support: Spring 2.0 framework features, including namespace-based configurations; Spring Web Flow; tools for Spring... more

Posted by Paul Krill on October 02, 2007 at 03:55 PM

SOA testing tools advance
Filed under: SOA

Mindreef and iTKO are making separate moves Tuesday in the SOA testing space. Mindreef has integrated its SOAPscope Server SOA and Web services testing software with HP Quality Center, a centralized platform for managing processes and automating software testing. SOAPscope Server tests for functional regression and performance. This adds to what Quality Center does, according to Mindreef. Teams can centralize and manage testing and automation efforts using HP Quality Center while leveraging Mindreef capabilities for Web services testing and SOA quality management. "Quality Center is more of a central dashboard for running and reporting on tests. It's not a tester... more

Posted by Paul Krill on October 02, 2007 at 11:43 AM

Test Center Tracker: Silverlight Shines
Filed under: Application development , Green IT , Search , Test Center Tracker

It's a great day in the Test Center, with a review on a top web app development system, and looks at sustainable reading and hacker tools. Coding by Silverlight: The race is on for web-application development framework, with Ajax, Flash, Curl, Ruby, and others all muscling and edging one another for attention. Microsoft has thrown Silverlight into the mix, and Martin Heller finds a lot to like in the upstart development language. Between a well thought-out development environment and a clear division between tasks for designers and programmers, Martin thinks that Silverlight can offer a lot to new web app... more

Posted by Curt Franklin on October 02, 2007 at 10:30 AM

Preview: Reconnex 7 takes a smarter view of insider data leaks
Filed under: Data leak prevention

Picking a data leak prevention (DLP) solution used to be fairly easy -- it all depended on what you needed to protect. One solution might best handle data in motion (such as e-mail), while another used agents to sniff out sensitive data in use on desktop systems and laptops. And yet others guarded intellectual property resting in data repositories. Now the major solutions -- Vontu, Websense (formerly PortAuthority), Tablus, and Reconnex (click for reviews) -- cover all three situations, and their protection is darn good. I've been investigating the key differences among these solutions today and have narrowed it to... more

Posted by Mike Heck on October 02, 2007 at 10:00 AM

Exclusive preview: Xyratex goes modular
Filed under: Standards and technologies

Xyratex goes modular If many new storage arrays look surprisingly similar to you, don’t jump to the hasty conclusion that vendors are copying from each other. Quite possibly the reason is that many new units are based on SBB (Storage Bridge Bay), a new standard that sees many vendors cooperating to create a compatible form factor and a modular architecture for components such as backplanes, power supplies and controllers. For more info on this new standard, now reaching version 2.0, and to read the full list of participating vendors please explore the Storage Bridge Bay Working Group site. Xyratex, a... more

Posted by Mario Apicella on October 01, 2007 at 03:00 AM | Comments (0)

OpenLogic opens up open source library
Filed under: Open source

OpenLogic is now offering free Web access to its certified library of open source software. With the launch of OpenLogic Exchange (OLEX) this week, the company is providing a Web site where companies can find and download enterprise-ready open source packages. The site is designed for enterprises that want to use open source software but without having to comb through massive repositories to find a short list of open source products. More than 300 open source software packages are accessible on OLEX. OpenLogic is selling support and indemnification services for software packages available on OLEX. Previously, OpenLogic limited access to... more

Posted by Paul Krill on September 27, 2007 at 03:54 PM

TC Tracker: Don't pass the buck
Filed under: None

Does a brake shop say that you don't need new brakes? Architectural device from vendors turns out to be risky business, as David Linthicum points out in his latest blog on Vendor Designed Architecture. Just the phrase makes me shudder. It's comfy, David points out, to pass the buck to vendors who are only too happy to solve your problems for you. It's also expensive, and big surprise, vendors don't always have your business interests in mind when they lend a hand. I say, this is what happens when you hire inexperienced IT staff or "streamline" technical management. Lousy... more

Posted by Tom Yager on September 27, 2007 at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

TC Tracker: What not to do with backups - Got Macs?
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

Label me moron? I can't resist taking a shot at the latest "Off The Record" story where the anonymous (keep it that way, pal) writer narrates of a trouble with Monday backups. What put me off is not as much that person using scotch tape to keep tape labels in place, although that warranted the "Label me moron" award from one of the comments. What calls for immediate expulsion from the IT community, is that this individual responds to a tape full message during a Monday backup starting to delete files. Now that's more than moronic, that's dangerous behavior, like... more

Posted by Mario Apicella on September 26, 2007 at 08:48 AM

Test Center Tracker: Virtually Productive
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

The wheels on the I.T. model go round and round, and they're turning back around to centrally-managed, fully-hosted environments. Manageability, security, and economics all play into the push for a re-imagined virtual data center. Virtual Desktops: Randall Kennedy has looked at three of the latest desktop as a service offerings and finds that we're farther down the road to a virtual Shangri-la than you might think. The three products he tested, from Microsoft, Symantec, and Thinstall, are aimed at an enterprise rather than a service provider, but each could provide a starting point if you're ready to begin stepping into... more

Posted by Curt Franklin on September 25, 2007 at 11:58 AM

Sun bolsters Solaris Developer Edition
Filed under: Platforms

Sun Microsystems is announcing Monday new support subscriptions and enhanced graphical user interfaces for its Solaris Express developer Edition, as part of version 9/07. The changes are intended to make it easier to install and use the product. "At zero acquisition cost, and featuring easy installation on most x86 computers, Solaris Express Developer Edition is the modern, integrated platform for developing Solaris applications," said Marc Hamilton, vice president of Solaris Marketing for Sun Microsystems, in a statement released by the company. "With the new installer, we're offering developers a significantly streamlined installation experience. The new service offering extends the value... more

Posted by Paul Krill on September 24, 2007 at 06:00 AM

Test Center Tracker: Let the virtualization begin
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

Virtualization and the City: Greetings from New York! Wish you were here -- especially if you're organization is contemplating adopting virtualization to get more bang from your servers and platforms. But if you weren't able to make it out here, fear not: We've got plenty of coverage on InfoWorld.com, including five case studies plus a spiffy round up of virtual desktop solutions. What's your network security IQ? School's in session across the country. You may not be a student, but that doesn't mean you can't test your knowledge on weighty subjects such as, oh, network security. So put your books... more

Posted by Ted Samson on September 24, 2007 at 05:01 AM | Comments (0)

BluePhoenix assists with Cobol migrations
Filed under: Application development

BluePhoenix Solutions this week announced a solution for migrating mainframe customers from outdated or unsupported versions of Cobol to Cobol Language Environment (LE). Older Cobol compilers are no longer supported for DB2 V8 and CICS TS V3.1, BluePhoenix said. Only the Cobol LE runtime is supported for these environments. DB2 V8 only supports Enterprise Cobol V3.4 and starting with CICS TS V3.1, transactions compiled with OS/VS Cobol or earlier must be converted and re-compiled to an LE environment. With IBM's withdrawal of support for older Cobol versions, mainframe customers must migrate to LE environments to receive full support for mission-critical... more

Posted by Paul Krill on September 20, 2007 at 02:41 PM

TC Tracker: Lights on (we hope) on data protection
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

Progress with data protection Mike Heck takes for a ride Vontu version 7 and finds significant improvements over previous versions. If the name Vontu doesn't ring a bell, think of a modular suite of applications to help corporations preventing disclosure of sensitive data. Locking the door that lets data flow to external devices is a feature still to come, but Vontu 7 is a near-total solution for guarding confidential customer and company information, Mike says. Someone didn't get the memo Seems to be the only logical explanation for some disturbing data points reported by our Ted Samson in the latest... more

Posted by Mario Apicella on September 20, 2007 at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

Test Center Tracker: Keeping it Green
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

The Green Scene: Yesterday, the Daily pointed you to 7 Reasons Your Software is So Slow. Proving that we read our own stuff, Ted Samson has looked at the environmental impact of slow apps in his Sustainable IT column. The longer we're at this business of information processes, the harder it becomes to justify putting up with poor performance from any process or system. Bad Guys Get Better: It would be really nice if the information thieves were really stupid, or just very bad at what they do. Unfortunately, some of them are quite good, and they're changing malware behavior... more

Posted by Curt Franklin on September 18, 2007 at 11:58 AM

Test Center Tracker: All aboard the Adaptec SAN that can
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

Small format, big features: Senior Test Center Analyst Mario Apicella got yet another exclusive look at a shnazzy, features-packed pieces of entry-level storage hardware, this time Adaptec's Snap Server 720i. The machine "combines good administration tools, easy iSCSI connectivity, tight integration with Windows, a mirroring capability that larger arrays will envy, and scalability that should match even the fastest growing repositories," writes Mario. 7 reasons your software is slow: If you're like me, you don't like to wait, and high on my list of pet peeves is waiting for a slow application to respond so I can get on with... more

Posted by Ted Samson on September 17, 2007 at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

StrikeIron, IBM partner on enterprise mashups
Filed under: Application development

StrikeIron and IBM are partnering to deliver more than 100 data services from StrikeIron to IBM's enterprise mashup maker, QEDWiki, Also, StrikeIron has developed seven widgets allowing users to drag and drop data directly onto the mashup maker, for users to leverage Web 2.0 and SOA, StrikeIron said. Mashups are quickly-developed new applications pieced together from parts of other applications. To build enterprise mashups, users need data sources and the StrikeIron-IBM parternship provides access to business services such as business intelligence, address verification, e-mail verification, currency rates and more. QEDWiki is a browser-based assembly canvas to build mashups. Web users... more

Posted by Paul Krill on September 17, 2007 at 10:44 AM

Test Center Tracker: Barcelona seems nice, this time of year...
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

Weather in Barcelona: Turns out the climate in Barcelona is pretty much the same as that in Hammer's Rev F, according to AMD. Ted Samson has taken a close look at Barcelona from an energy perspective, and the results are exciting if you want top performance that won't lead to immediate ice-cap melting. In further Barcelona news, Tom Yager has been comparing the AMD and Intel processors, and he's reaching conclusions that will matter to you if new servers are in your future. Building a better Internet: There's a lot to like about the Internet as it stands: information is... more

Posted by Doug Dineley on September 14, 2007 at 08:52 AM

Koders assists with code search
Filed under: Application development

Koders released this week Koders Pro Edition, for individuals and teams to search private code bases. Koders Pro Edition lets developers find, reuse and share source code on their computers and in networked version control systems. Development teams get access to existing code assets and visibility into distributed code repositories, Koders said. Once deployed, Koders Pro can be shared using email or instant messaging. Specifically, developers can search multiple version control systems from Eclipse, Visual Studio or a Web browser and generate source code metrics across repositories. Opportunities for reuse can be identified through reporting and analysis. Featured in Koders... more

Posted by Paul Krill on September 13, 2007 at 04:42 PM

JBoss touts AJAX in RichFaces developer platform
Filed under: AJAX

JBoss.org is releasing Thursday JBoss RichFaces 3.1, an upgrade to the company's JavaServer Faces (JSF) component library boasting AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) capabilities. JSF provides capabilities for building user interfaces for JavaServer applications. Version 3.1 of RichFaces supports AJAX through JBoss Ajax4jsf, an AJAX framework. With this inclusion, developers do not need to write JavaScript to gain AJAX functionality, JBoss said. RichFaces and Ajax4jsf were contributed to JBoss.org by Exadel; the projects have been merged. Also featured in RichFaces 3.1 is integration with the JBoss Seam application framework for Web 2.0. This enhances the RichFaces user experience by simplifying... more

Posted by Paul Krill on September 12, 2007 at 03:24 PM

Test Center Tracker: Taking the north bridge to Redmond
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

Project Server 2007: Installing it is a project in itself. The Brian Chee - Oliver Rist duo tackles quite a big job with the review of Microsoft Project Server 2007. If you ever thought that the folks in Redmond sometimes over-analyze and over-program their solutions, this a review you shouldn't miss. Be sure to allow plenty of time, because three pages were barely enough for our duo to start scratching the surface of this software behemoth and to show how it fits in the Microsoft software galaxy. What's in your socket? If what processors keep your servers running is... more

Posted by Mario Apicella on September 12, 2007 at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)

Amazon Web Services seeks start-ups
Filed under: Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is launching Wednesday the Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge, a contest in which start-up ventures leveraging Amazon's in-the-cloud services compete based on originality and promise. Contestants also will be evaluated on the degree to which the business leverages pay-as-you-go technology solutions offered by AWS. The contest is for entrepreneurs and software developers, with the winner to receive $50,000 in cash, $50,000 in AWS credits, mentoring sessions and an investment offer from Amazon.com. Four second-place winners will receive $5,000 in AWS credits. AWS provides businesses access to services based on Amazon technology infrastructure, including Amazon Simple Storage... more

Posted by Paul Krill on September 12, 2007 at 08:38 AM

Test Center Tracker: Speedy Storage
Filed under: Test Center Tracker

Partnerships, confusing acronyms (or, at least, confusing usage), and high-speed disk arrays get the day started here in the InfoWorld Test Center. Entry-level Speed: If you've been looking for a reason to get into the network-attached storage game, NetApp may have the perfect reason to jump. Mario Apicella looks at the new FAS2020 and FAS2050 and finds them high-performance kings of entry-level NAS, with prices that might leave your CIO with a big gulp at the outset. If speed and management matter, though, the gulp will go away as the performance of the boxes wins fans from users who have... more

Posted by Curt Franklin on September 11, 2007 at 09:42 AM