- On premise ISV to offer on-demand deployment model
- IBM to roll 3Com VOIP solution into System i
- LSI Logic unveils first SAS switch
- RingCentral adds rules to hosted call handling
- Webalo User Proxy boosts SOA, Web services
- Oracle releases upgraded UDDI registry.
- Tacit Networks adds WAN acceleration to Ishared
- Bell Microproducts launches new Zetera -based storage for SME
- Compellent bundles its SAN with NAS from Onstor
- Stonefly introduces entry level IP storage
March 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)
On premise ISV to offer on-demand deployment model
Chalk up yet another traditional on premise application joining the software as a service [SaaS] ranks.
Callidus Software will announce next week that it will offer its TrueComp Enterprise Incentive Management [EIM] application as an
on-demand solution.
Targeted at companies with 100 to 1000 payees with revenues of $300 million to $1 billion, the EIM application will use a hybrid single and multi-tenant architecture on a Sun grid-based platform, according to Shanker Trivedi, chief marketing officer.
Each company will get their own instance of the underlying database but Callidus will use grid computing on a multi-tenanted basis to process compensation transactions.
The Sun Grid solution fee structure for Callidus is based on $1 per CPU hour while Callidus fees to its customers are $50 per subscriber per month.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on March 31, 2006 03:39 PM
March 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
IBM to roll 3Com VOIP solution into System i
IBM and 3Com announced plans on Thursday to offer the 3Com VCX suite of IP telephony solutions on IBM's "all-in-one" System i business computing solution.
3Com said by using SIP and other open standards, telephony offerings would "more easily integrated with other applications on the System i to extend their functionality with telephony features and applications, including unified messaging, large scale audio conferencing, video conferencing, presence, contact centers and enterprise mobility..."
The companies said the solution would be aimed at the mid-market of 100 to 2,000 users.
"The availability of the 3Com solutions on the System i platform will give our broad base of clients a powerful option to run a complete IP telephony solution without adding new boxes to their environment," said Mark Shearer, general manager, IBM System i.
IBM said the first software products for integration onto System i were expected to be available by third quarter of this year.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 30, 2006 10:44 AM
March 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
LSI Logic unveils first SAS switch
LSI Logic Corporation announced today that a prototype of their first SAS (serial attached SCSI) switch will be on display at Storage Networking World Spring in San Diego.
The switch has nine connectors each grouping 4 SAS ports, and can be used to create a network of servers and storage devices. SAS switches are expected to offer a more affordable alternative to FC for short distance connectivity.
"A SAS copper cable has a distance limitation of 8 meters, which still makes possible building storage networks with a 16 meters diameter" suggests Charlie Kraus director of the HBA business unit at LSI Logic.
Another limitation of SAS switching when compared to FC is the total number of ports.
"A fully non blocking crossbar is at the heart of our product" says Kraus - "but right now is a 36-port crossbar".
"The sweet spot[for the SAS switch] until crossbars with more ports become available is a dozen of servers and a handful of storage devices" Kraus suggests.
The switch supports port zoning and can be managed via command line and graphic interface. In the future, SAS switches should offer also address-based zoning, an area of the standard that is still being perfected by the T10 Committee.
Similarly to FC, SAS switches can be cascaded. Test conducted by LSI Logic with 8-level deep cascades have shown negligible latency, according to Kraus.
SAS switches can also create redundant network configuration with storage devices and servers connecting to both switches in pair.
LSI Logic should begin shipping SAS switches in Q3. Pricing was not disclosed in today's announcement.
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 30, 2006 07:14 AM
March 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
RingCentral adds rules to hosted call handling
RingCentral, a hosted telecommunications service for wired and wireless cellular phones, unveiled version three of its RingCentral Online service this week.
The RingCentral services gives users a local number and allows them to manage through a personalized Web site, the same phone features available through a typcial PBX system.
The difference is users manage their own phone number rather than relying on a company telecommunications manager.
The new features available in version 3 include Answering Rules which will allow users to schedule, filter and route incoming calls based on time of day, a date range or caller ID information.
Calls can be routed to various mailboxes, extensions and or any phone anywhere in the world. Calls can also be blocked.
Music On-Hold gives users the option of downloading the music
incoming callers will hear when on hold.
A dial by name directory is also available.
At present the service does not work with VoiP phones.
Prices range from $9.99 per month for 100 minutes to $79.99 for 2,500 minutes.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on March 28, 2006 12:42 PM
March 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Webalo User Proxy boosts SOA, Web services
Eyeing SOA deployments, Webalo on Tuesday unveiled a Web service called "User Proxy," which is intended to provide a consistent user experience across Web services regardless of the device being used.
Acting as a mediator between Web services and the end user, the software provides a proxy for end user interface devices such as PDAs, smart phones and notebook computers. Users are able to have a continuous "always on" presence, in which User Proxy accepts information on behalf of an offline user and then interacts with the user later.
Through the User Proxy, an application can write to a "super device" and then reconcile formatting of the application's data and the device interface protocols to match the device being used at the moment.
User Proxy also features a dashboard-type approach to the interface itself and how it should react to changing circumstances. Integrators and developers can implement SOA applications with device-independent interfaces.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 28, 2006 12:36 PM
March 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Oracle releases upgraded UDDI registry.
Oracle this week began shipping Oracle Application Server (OracleAS) Service Registry 10.1.3.0.0, a UDDI v3-compliant platform for publishing and discovering Web services across the enterprise, the company said.
UDDI v3 compliance is new to this version of the registry. Calling the registry a key component of an SOA, the registry enables service providers to expose service offerings, allows service consumers to access and invoke services and provides for SOA governance, Oracle said.
Oracle licenses the registry from Systinet. The registry functions with Oracle Application Server.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 28, 2006 10:13 AM
March 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Tacit Networks adds WAN acceleration to Ishared
Tacit Networks announced today Ishared 3.0, a new version of Tacit's flagship WAFS solution for branch and remote office consolidation that includes ARC WAN Optimization Technology, a set of techniques to expedite data transfers between remote locations.
According to Tacit, ARC (acceleration, reduction and compression) WAN Optimization adds functionality such as TCP protocol acceleration, eliminating transfers of repeated data patterns, and data compression.
Among other new features, for example integrated support for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, this new version of Ishared supports single appliance fail over and seamless switching to a secondary data center in case of failure.
The new features of Ishared 3.0 should be available to customers, at no additional cost, in April.
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 27, 2006 06:47 AM
March 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Bell Microproducts launches new Zetera -based storage for SME
Bell Microproducts, Inc. announced today two new products for the SME, the Hammer Z-rack HZR1U, a 1U rack mountable device, and the Hammer Z-box HZD4B a desktop unit.
Both products are based on Z-SAN by Zetera, and offer the typical features of that technology including unified files and blocks serving, spanning LUNs across units and concurrent LUN access from multiple servers.
Each unit can mount up to 4 SATA drives, supports RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1 and 10, and connects to a LAN via 1 GbE port.
A single device can host 2TB of disk space and has a transfer rate of up to 80Mbps. However, according to Hammer Storage aggregating multiple devices gives the solution much larger capacity and much faster performance, limited only by external factors such as the target OS or the LAN bandwidth.
Both units can serve storage to Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 hosts, with Redhat Linux to follow by the end of April.
The two products should be available starting mid-April at a price of $1,300 for a 1TB Z-box and $4,000 for a 1TB Z-rack.
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 27, 2006 12:43 AM
March 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Compellent bundles its SAN with NAS from Onstor
Compellent Technologies and ONStor announced today a partnership to offer a unified NAS and SAN solution based on their products.
The joint offering, named Compellent Storage Center with ONStor Bobcat will be sold and supported by Compellent and will combine their Storage Center SAN with Onstor Bobcat NAS Gateway.
According to the vendors, integrating the two products gives customers the first unified file serving and block serving solution that can automatically move data to a different storage tier.
Combined solutions are available immediately. Price starts at $71,000 for a 2TB Storage Center SAN and a Bobcat NAS Gateway.
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 27, 2006 12:27 AM
March 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Stonefly introduces entry level IP storage
StoneFly, Inc., a subsidiary of Dynamic Network Factory, Inc. announced today the iSC-1620 and the iSC-2420, two single chassis units that combine an IP storage concentrator and scalable capacity on local disk drives.
The 16-drive iSC-1620 can store up to 8 TB locally, while the iSC-2420 goes up to 12TB with its larger, 24-drive chassis. More capacity can be added connecting external enclosures to the concentrators.
Both units mount SATA drives and offer reliability features such as RAID, hot-swappable drives, power supplies and cooling fans.
The management applications included with StoneFly Storage Concentrators provide a variety of storage services such as snapshots, synchronous mirroring and block-level virtualization.
The two products are available immediately, at a starting price of $13,500 for a 2TB iSC-1620 and $39,000 for a 12TB iSC-2420.
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 27, 2006 12:08 AM
March 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Geronimo J2EE server enhancements readied
Las Vegas - Apache has a number of improvements in store for its Geronimo J2EE server, including full clustering and more user-friendly configuration and application management, according to a presentation at TheServerSide Java Symposium on Friday.
Clustering is to be enhanced in the next couple of months, said Jeff Genender, a committer on the Geronimo project and open source practice leader at Virtuas. Geronimo currently lacks full clustering with respect to distributed caching, he said.
"We're working pretty hard on getting something in there," he said.
Geronimo also is being fitted with support for the Java 5 specification through the Yoko project. Yoko is a project for an open source ORB.
More assemblies, to boost customization in Geronimo, also are planned. Assemblies feature a grouping of different components in Geronimo that comprise a stack.
Additionally, a third-party analysis of how Geronimo stacks up performance-wise with other application servers is planned for release in the mid-May time frame.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 24, 2006 03:33 PM
March 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
BitRock has released LAMPStack 5, which provides an integrated package for rapid deployments, and helps encourage adoption of open source software by making it easier to use and deploy across a range of environments.
This version's easy-to-use installer lets users quickly install and configure LAMPStack across a wide range of Linux platforms.
LAMPStack 5 includes the latest major releases of Apache, PHP, MySQL, Python, and supporting libraries.
The stack is available for download at www.bitrock.com.
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 24, 2006 08:28 AM
March 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The second version of next-gen Samba 4, an open source product that lets Linux systems share Windows files and printers, has been released.
Samba wrote Thursday: "Samba 4 is currently not yet in a state where it is usable in production environments. Note the STATUS file, which aims to document what should and should not work."
But it said that with three years of development "it was felt that we should create something we could 'show off' to our users."
It is the second Technology Preview, aimed at allowing users, managers and developers to see how we have progressed, and to invite feedback and support, Samba said. S
Source code downloads can be had here.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 23, 2006 01:50 PM
March 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
OpenConnect introduces soaConnect CDI
OpenConnect Systems is partnering with HostBridge Technology to provide automation to CICS-based applications.
The companies' new joint mainframe software, soaConnect CDI, enables CICS transactions and data to be easily integrated with other applications.
By eliminating the need to rewrite CICS applications, customers can quickly transform existing mainframe-based business systems into Web services or integrate them with business processes within a SOA.
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 23, 2006 07:22 AM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Sun unveils developer programs
Sun Microsystems this week launched two developer programs, including one that provides developers with advice.
The Sun Developer Expert Assistance service offers specialized advice for programming issues pertaining to Sun software on a per-request basis, with guaranteed response times. The service costs $99 per request.
The Sun Community Champions Program helps members of SDN (Sun Developer Network) promote their experience with Sun technologies and tools. Participants can share strategies and solutions with the community through a written column.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 22, 2006 11:58 AM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
DPS releases software only EZBackup
Data Protection Solutions announced today EzBackup Data Protection Software, a set of applications that offer disk-imaging and files backup and restore for Windows.
A new feature, EzExpander, designed to helps users when updating to a larger disk drive, gives the option to control the size of the target partition when doing an image copy with EZBackup.
A full version of EZBackup sells for about $70 and can be downloaded for a trial or for purchase from the vendor's site.
Scaled down versions of the software with disk imaging only or with backup/restore features only sell respectively for $20 and $30.
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 22, 2006 10:25 AM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
BEA boosts data access technology with Microsoft support
BEA Systems on Wednesday will announce the release of AquaLogic Data Services 2.1, for unifying data assets from disparate sources. Version 2.1 adds support for Microsoft's ADO.Net (Active Data Objects), enabling native access to this data. Previously, access required use of Web services.
"Through a set of tooling and run-time support, we provide this interoperability with .Net," said Paul Patrick, vice president and chief architect at BEA.
BEA's technology previously was known as Liquid Data. AquaLogic Data Services is applicable in SOA, helping to service-enable data to build composite applications such as Web applications and portals.
Uniform auditing of events across heterogeneous sources also is featured in the new version. Operational monitoring to capture metrics associated with data service executions boosts SLA tracking in Version 2.1.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 22, 2006 07:52 AM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Nimbus announces 10G unified IP systems
Breeze MX4 and 10G, the two new iSCSI systems announced today by Nimbus Data Systems, Inc. offer combined block and file access.
Both systems can mount up to 12 SAS (serial attached SCSI) or SATA drives in a fully redundant 2U enclosure. Adding up to six expansion modules each system can scale to 55TB with non disruptive updates.
The Breeze MX4 has front-end and back-end Gigabit ethernet connectivity, while the Breeze 10G has one 10G storage port and 48 1GbE host connections versus the 20 host ports of its sibling.
To speed up performance both systems mount an IP coprocessor and a large cache, 2GB for the MX4, 4GB for the 10G.
The Nimbus HALO V3.0 software gives the two systems a range of data protection tools to perform snapshots, snapclone with rollback, and asynchronous replication, for example.
Price starts at less than $20,000 for a Breeze MX4 and less than $35,000 for a Breeze 10G.
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 22, 2006 07:50 AM
March 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Newbury Networks announces location-based developer kit for Wi-Fi
Newbury Networks will release in the second quarter a software development platform, the Newbury Presence Platform, for adding location-based services to any Wi-Fi network.
The platform is targeted at both corporate developers and OEM solution providers who want to add services based on the location of the user.
For example, a user entering a conference room might receive information on the audio-visual equipment available in the room and instructions on its use.
In addition, the presence platform can be used for asset tracking of devices or people.
Security guards might be equipped with Wi-Fi tags on their belts, giving managers a way to track movements of guards and sending an alert such as a page, if the guard has not covered an area within a designated time period.
The Wi-Fi tags become the data collection points with the intelligence at the server layer.
Active Wi-Fi tags they send out signals over a designated time period can be used to track expensive equipment.
In addition to the Presence Platform, Newbury also announced its own Wi-Fi tracking application called Active Asset.
The Newbury Presence Platform and Active Asset will be available within 60 days. Active Asset starts at $12,995.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on March 21, 2006 03:13 PM
March 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Infravio partners with Layer 7 on SOA governance interoperability
Infravio and Layer 7 Technologies announced the integration of Infravio X-Registry Platform, the company's SOA governance solution, and Layer 7's SecureSpan products for governing and accelerating Web service integrations.
The integration is designed to provide customers with comprehensive interaction between policies and contracts maintained in Infravio X-Registry Platform and SOA security enforced by the Layer 7 SecureSpan Gateways.
The interoperability offers SOA governance advantages such as bi-directional integration of Registry Repository and run-time environments, and life-cycle management of security policy metadata.
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 21, 2006 12:08 PM
March 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Sun announces C/C++ support for NetBeans IDE
Sun Microsystems has announced a preview version of the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack, which allows developers to edit, compile, and build C and C++ applications on multiple platforms, including Solaris, Linux, and Windows.
The plug-in is supported in NetBeans 5.0 and preview versions of NetBeans 5.5, and includes such features as editor syntax highlighting, easier code browsing via hyperlinks between invocation and declaration, a makefile wizard, and templates for building C/C++ libraries and applications. The NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack preview version is available at http://cnd.netbeans.org.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 21, 2006 11:17 AM