- Test Center Tracker: Clearspace fosters collaboration
- CollabNet offers distributed development for Eclipse
- Test Center Tracker: Windows Mobile 6 gives BlackBerry a run for the money
- OSGi technology upgraded for Java community
- Compuware offers apps delivery management
- Enterprise wireless: In search of shootout suggestions
- Test Center Daily: An exclusive look at an evolutionary CMS
- Dispatch from Interop: Voice-data combos creating the buzz du jour
- Microsoft poised to unfurl DPM 2007 Beta 2
- Test Center Tracker: OSBC puts open source in the spotlight
May 31, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Clearspace fosters collaboration
Build customer relationships: Communication is essential to keeping customers satisfied. In a hands-on review of Clearspace X, Test Center contributor Mike Heck finds that Jive Software has brought many notable improvements to its external collaboration platform. On top of the requisite wiki, blog, and document management features, users can take advantage of a rating system, as well as a rewards system to foster participation. Moreover, server clustering supports high-traffic sites, while LDAP and Active Directory integration speeds setup and maintenance.
Palm's phone friend: Is your mobile phone feeling lonely? Well, Palm yesterday a mini PC yesterday, the Foleo, that the company is touting as a smartphone companion. The 2.5-pound Foleo stays connected to its companion smartphone through a Bluetooth wireless link, plus it supports Internet browsing with either its own Wi-Fi card or the smartphone's radio. Users will be able to read their e-mail and office documents on a large screen instead of a cramped phone display, Palm boasts. If seeing is believe, check out our slideshow and video about the device.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 31, 2007 09:32 AM
May 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
CollabNet offers distributed development for Eclipse
CollabNet announced a distributed software development platform for Eclipse IDE-based developers on Wednesday.
CollabNet Desktop, Eclipse Edition enables software engineers to collaborate globally using CollabNet Enterprise Edition as a backbone to track and manage the lifecycle of source code, project tasks and assets, CollabNet said. Free Eclipse software for distributed development is offered as part of the package.
Featured in CollabNet Desktop, Eclipse Edition is use of the Eclipse Mylar task-focused UI to update and synchronize projects. Subclipse is used to version and synchronize Subversion-based code hosted in the CollabNet environment. Integration with the CollabNet Enterprise Edition enables collaboration on project tasks and artifacts through the software application lifecycle. A Web interface for CollabNet's Cubit global virtualization solution also is featured, to allow Eclipse users to load and build software using a build and test environment.
Users can access the CollabNet Desktop and related plugins for Eclipse for free here. In addition, CollabNet plans other free products this year for distributed software development,
Posted by Paul Krill on May 30, 2007 02:23 PM
May 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Windows Mobile 6 gives BlackBerry a run for the money
A contender enters the ring: Will Windows Mobile 6 really give BlackBerry a fight in the wireless OS world? Senior Contributing Editor and Hawaii lab guru Brian Chee says it might, based on what he's seen over the past few weeks while experimenting with a slew of mobile devices, including the new Dash (HTC S620). Check out his lists of pros and cons to find out the verdict so far.
Hardware heaven: Senior Contributing Editor Paul Venezia is enthralled by the power and performance he's seeing in the combination of a Sun Ultra 40 M2 and a 3Ware 9650SE SATA RAID controller: "I've been beating up the 9650SE and the Ultra 40 M2 with my normal brand of workstation torture -- cyclic MD5 sums on multi-gigabit files, kernel recompilations, DVD ripping, MP3 encoding, and two virtual systems running under VMware Workstation 6, all while playing movies from NFS shares and running Beryl with all the widgets enabled." So far, he says, the system still purrs. Today's blog post details the setup and configuration process; stay tuned for more.
Security on my mind: Roger Grimes has been busy of late (a security maven never sleeps), and he's sharing several resources that could help with your own data security efforts. First, the Honeyd honeypot has been updated and ported to Windows for your intruder-trapping pleasure; second, a new report on anti-virus testing and malware collection; third, a site that recommends the best cryptography key sizes for various applications. That fits nicely with the most recent Security Adviser column and the news that the second of three password hash challenges has been cracked. One more to go...
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 30, 2007 10:36 AM
May 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
OSGi technology upgraded for Java community
The OSGi (Open Services Gateway initiative) Alliance announced on Wednesday that it has released OSGi Service Platform Release 4 Core Specification 4.1, responding to requirements received from the Java community.
OSGi technology, providing a service-oriented, component-based environment for developers, serves as the basis for the Eclipse runtime and has been called the heart of everything at Eclipse.
With Wednesday's announcement, the alliance is responding to requirements received from the Java Community Process Java Specification Request (JSR) 291 Expert Group. JSR 291 provides a framework for packaging Java applications as independent modules with lifecycle management, to reduce development time and minimize down time.
The JSR brings the core OSGi framework of JSR 232 Mobile Operational Management to Java Standard Edition and Enterprise platforms. This provides a consistent programming model for Java modularity across Java Standard Edition and Mobile Edition platforms. A management environment is provided for installing, updating and removing Java and associated native components.
"Utilizing the well known OSGi Service Platform Specification, JSR 291 provides a mature, proven technology for constructing Java modules and installing, uninstalling, and updating them without restarting the JVM and disrupting service," said Stan Moyer, president of the OSGi Alliance and Telcordia Technologies executive director, in a statement released by OSGi. "Working cooperatively with the JCP JSR 291 Expert Group, we have revised and improved our core specification to better serve our joint constituencies."
OSGi technology serves as platform for universal middleware in server environments and embedded devices, OSGi said.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 30, 2007 08:35 AM
May 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Compuware offers apps delivery management
Compuware next week plans to unify its "application delivery management" products, for application lifecycle management, under the Compuware Optimal nameplate.
Featured in the Optimal suite are an integrated set of offerings for application delivery management, business requirements management, project management, quality assurance and performance assurance. Among the product families included in Optimal are DevPartner and QACenter. The suite is integrated through the new Optimal Delivery Manager, which features dashboards giving IT managers visibility and control of application delivery projects, Compuware said.
"It is a set of management dashboards that are aimed at [application delivery] delivery managers and gives them end-to-end visibility across the application lifecycle for all the projects that they have in their portfolio," said Mike Burba, Compuware marketing director for application delivery management.
Key to the product portfolio is a new integration between requirements management and other products in the suite. Business requirements are captured in the Optimal Trace product.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 30, 2007 07:53 AM
May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Enterprise wireless: In search of shootout suggestions
As a ten-year veteran of the Interop NOC team, I've noticed a change in the enterprise wireless market. We used to say that we sure had to run a lot of wire for the wireless system just so that we could separate the Wi-Fi network from our production network. Today's Wi-Fi market seems to be demanding multiple wireless network separation with multimedia features, while still keeping my wireless users safe from attackers. I'm also seeing a significant amount of integration with wireless IDS vendors.
So while we've seen offerings from both Aruba and Trapeze, I'm thinking it might be time to pit thin access points versus thick access points. What kinds of things do you want to see in an enterprise wireless shootout? Toss me an e-mail at brian_chee@infoworld.com and drop us your two cents' worth as we plan our next enterprise wireless shootout.
Posted by Brian Chee on May 24, 2007 02:30 PM
May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Daily: An exclusive look at an evolutionary CMS
On-demand Astoria leverages the DITA standard: InfoWorld contributor Mike Heck got an exclusive look at Astoria's SaaS (software as a software) content management solution, built around OASIS's DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). He liked what he saw, too: "This easy-to-use solution enables remote teams to author, review, and publish XML-based technical documents."
Context for insider threats: Companies are well aware that security threats don't just lurk outside the organization; there are employees who may very well leak sensitive customer info or code, be it accidently or otherwise. Mike Heck got to try out Version 4.0 of Oakley Networks SureView and found that the product has come along nicely, with improved reporting and more app support, in helping admins pinpoint and plug information spills on a more granular level.
iPhone demo put on hold? When Apple comes to San Francisco for the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 11, it will have new notebooks to show, plus a more mature version of Leopard -- but no iPhone to demo, a Wall Street analyst predicts.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 24, 2007 01:07 PM
May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Dispatch from Interop: Voice-data combos creating the buzz du jour
Lots of talk at Interop 2007 about voice, data, and combining the two. The phrase "unified communications" is being tossed about more often than acrobats in a Cirque du Soleil show. Avaya announced their new Avaya Distributed Office system, a fully-IP communications system for branch offices - it focuses on high integration, easy rollout, and small TCO with the goal of networking employees across all branches of a company, said Carl Baptiste, Avaya's vice president of converged products. The Avaya Distributed Office i40 and Avaya Distributed Office i120 hardware can be pre-configured to match a company's preferences, and a wizard walks through on-site configuration. It then links up with the central management software to take care of call routing. While the Distributed Office system is aimed at branch offices, it sure sounds to me like it wouldn't take too much to turn it into an SMB-style telephony package...
InfiniBand poised for growth: A new report from IDC forecasts high demand for InfiniBand (IB) as it works its way out of high-performance computing (HPC) environments and into the enterprise. Worldwide IB host channel adaptor (HCA) factory revenues are expected to grow from $62.3 million in 2006 to $224.7 million in 2011, with IB switch port sales expected to grow from $94.9 million in 2006 to $612.2 million in 2011. Demand from datacenter and database environments, virtualization, and the high-transaction and compliance needs of certain verticals (financial companies, health care) are bringing IB into the enterprise - but as a complement to existing FC and Ethernet, according to the Infiniband Trade Association.
Burn, baby, burn: Word has it that the folks from ioSafe - they make "disaster-proof" backup and storage devices - took a couple of their boxes out to a distant parking lot last night and set 'em on fire to show just how disaster-proof they really are (don't worry, it was a pre-planned event with plenty of security measures taken). I still say they should have tossed a few of their products into the Mirage's volcano...
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 24, 2007 12:29 PM
May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft poised to unfurl DPM 2007 Beta 2
Microsoft's forthcoming Data Protection Manager yields encryption, more snapshots, and support for Linux VMs
Microsoft is set to release beta 2 of DPM 2007 at the end of the month. An ambitious replacement for traditional tape-based backups, DPM (Data Protection Manager) has been baking in Redmond for quite some time.
DPM 2007 is expected to offer more powerful backup options and to support many more application environments and servers than its predecessor. As you may have noticed, DPM 2006 was essentially limited to disk-to-disk files protection, with no built-in smarts for database-handling and no direct support for tape devices.
The new version eliminates those significant impediments, offering agents that protect machines running Exchange, Sharepoint, and SQL Server. You also should be able to back up VM clients -- even if running Linux (hear, hear!) -- but Microsoft guest OSes can benefit from proprietary features, such as VSS, that are obviously missing in other systems.
One of the most significant improvements in the upcoming beta release is increased number of snapshots you can take, 512 per volume. Obviously, a higher number of snapshots makes possible more frequent data protection, hence a more granular recovery of your data if something goes wrong.
Also notable: the ability to create policies that automatically transfer protected data to tape, either making a second stop to disk or not.
In addition, the new version can recover a database up to the last completed transaction found in the log. That approach is likely less disruptive than restarting from the previous recovery point, which could be from a significantly earlier point in time.
One of the new features that should be worth evaluating is encryption. According to Microsoft, DPM support media encryption both via hardware and software, something that could make the solution more desirable for many customers.
DPM is still in beta, so I'll refrain from a verdict from now. However, without discounting the numerous improvements it brings, one sorely missing feature is bare-metal recovery, which, ironically, becomes a bit more complicated when you add DPM to your data center.
If you decide to go on and test DPM next week, it would be a good idea to include using third-party tools for server recovery in your test plans.
If interested to try out the new beta version you should be able to download it from here next week. That page links also to a recent Webcast and other related info.
Posted by Mario Apicella on May 24, 2007 11:50 AM
May 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: OSBC puts open source in the spotlight
Open everywhere: Today's the second day of the Open Source Business Conference, and much conversation is circling around the business side of using open source tech. The impact of open source on proprietary software was a main topic (sparked by Microsoft's lawsuit threats, perhaps?) yesterday, but there's lots more going on. Matt Asay has constant updates on the Open Sources blog - check it out.
SOA videos posted: InfoWorld's eighth SOA conference had a lot of case studies featuring companies that have successful SOA projects and they lessons they learned along the way. One video interview highlights BT's ambitious project, as BT Chief Architect George Glass discusses his company's drive to make the entire architecture 100 percent SOA by 2009, while another shows how Amtrak got their SOA project on the right track.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 23, 2007 06:00 AM
May 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Dispatch from Interop: NAC's the word
It's a breezy 85 degrees here in Las Vegas, but the Mandalay Bay convention center AC is keeping thousands upon thousands of Interop-ites cool and content as they bustle from floor to floor. (Note to self: next time, listen to the little voice that says "choose the comfy shoes." My dogs, they're barking!)
The crowds are quite impressive; estimates say there may be 20,000+ here, and I wouldn't doubt it. NAC and security are big attention-getters, and VoIP interest is high (perhaps a sign that enterprises really are becoming comfortable with sending voice traffic over their networks?). Here are a couple of things that caught my eye while roaming the show floor:
NAC attack: Lots of NAC talk out there, but Lockdown Networks is playing the interoperability card with their appliances and "iNAC" interoperability partnerships. The Lockdown NAC strategy is to integrate with your existing security programs and appliances - they've just announced a software update with support for 802.11 wireless solutions from Avaya, Meru Networks, and Trapeze, and they will now pull in event information from any device that supports Web services or syslog. There's a full published API, too, and a hardware update on the way. Nifty.
NAP-NAC news: In case you haven't already heard, Microsoft is publishing a section of its NAP (network access protection) protocol, and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) is making that Microsoft segment part of its NAC. That leaves Cisco out in the cold as the only one not supporting the TCG specs. Should be interesting to see how that plays out.
Hang it all: Hate the way those server racks take up so much space, especially in small offices and branch locations? Very cool alternative making its debut at Interop: the Armarac "zero-footprint" rack, from New Zealand-based Thureon. 
It's a wall-mounted, colorful enclosure that locks servers inside and secures them with a double-lock system: one key opens the KVM on the front, one that opens the enclosure to allow access to the servers. The hinged doors open vertically, so the Armarac takes about 4 square feet of space when opened up, but since you're hanging everything on the wall, there's no squatting and bending to get access to the guts (check out the online demo). There's 6U of space inside, and servers "hang" on racks that swing open to allow access to those in the back. Lots of customization available depending on your environment, and you can even pick your colors if you place a big order (green camo is available for those extremely remote branch offices). Add a neon-light kit, disco ball, and a margarita dispenser, and this server rack could quickly become party central...
Keep an eye on Oliver Rist's SMB IT blog for more tasty Interop tidbits, as well as our special report page
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 22, 2007 01:14 PM
May 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: What happens in Vegas gets reported on InfoWorld
Gambling on Interop 2007: Joining the mass of networking enthusiasts at Interop in Las Vegas are Senior Contributing Editors Oliver Rist and Brian Chee, as well as Test Center Senior Editor Stephanie McLoughlin. They've already been pretty busy, as you can see from Oliver's updates in the SMB IT blog, as he's chatted with the folks at Splunk about log management and authentication via cell phone with Positive Networks. The easiest way to keep up on Interop: Bookmark our Interop special report page.
HP declares SOA's time has come: Though the concept of a service-oriented architecture continues to baffle some people, HP has declared that SOA is ready to move out of the prototype phase and into mainstream. Analysts think the announcement is indicative that HP's acquisition of Mercury is bearing fruit. Of course, InfoWorld has been talking about SOA for quite a while now, and some companies already have embraced it. If you're still hazy on the concept or the route to implementing it, consider checking out an upcoming InfoWorld SOA Executive Forum.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 22, 2007 09:21 AM
May 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Telelogic this week announced Telelogic System Architect for SOA and Tau 3.1, which are intended to accelerate SOA adoption by enabling business and IT collaboration in enterprise architecture and service development.
System Architect for SOA provides planning and implementation of enterprise architecture and business process analysis for SOA. Organizations can model business processes and relate these to new and existing services.
Tau 3.1 is a model-driven development environment for designing and assembling business solutions for SOA. The new product features automated import and generation of WSDL, XSD (XML Schema Definition) and generic XML framework details. Expanded Java and C# capabilities also are featured.
Telelogic said that with the two tools, the company unites model-driven applications for SOA and service-based capabilities that enhance business agility.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 22, 2007 08:23 AM
May 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)
IBM at its IBM Impact 2007 conference in Orlando, Fla. on Monday unveiled a series of services and products focused on SOA.
More than 4,500 IBM customers have modeled their businesses around SOA, IBM said.
"SOA has been a growth engine for IBM as well as our customers because it gives companies the much-needed flexibility to focus on achieving business results without being hindered by the constructs of established infrastructures," said Steve Mills, senior vice president, IBM Software, in a statement released by the company. "IBM's differentiation is in its ability to address business challenges using the right balance of business and technical skills along with an unmatched, multi-pronged approach to meeting customers’ needs."
IBM announced tools and programs to boost SOA skills and understanding. These include:
* SOA roadmaps featuring business blueprints fo specific industries. These include: insurance, member enrollment and benefits/eligibility for healthcare, payments for banking, personal shopping for retail, service provisioning and delivery for telecommunications and supply chain for the industrial space.
* IBM TV: Impact Channel, an online portal featuring webcasts, podcasts and other components to develop technical and business skills.
* Innov8, an interactive SOA game.
* Enhancements to SOA certification and education programs, including self-paced and instructor-led courses.
* Professional services for SOA Diagnostics, SOA Strategy, SOA Implementation Planning and Business Process Management enabled by SOA. Also introduced were SOA Design Development and Integration and SOA Management services.
IBM also said it has integrated technology acquired from DataPower, SOA appliances and FileNet Content Management and Business Process Management software into the IBM SOA portfolio. The company announced WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance X150, which supports direct database connectivity and supports WebSphere's Transformation Extender design studio. This provides common tooling across the company's enterprise service bus portfolio.
A new version of IBM's DB2 Dynamic Warehouse integrates with IBM Information on Demand and SOA strategies for "Dynamic Warehousing" solutions. Organizations can analyze and use information to optimize business processes and perform other tasks.
To bolster governance, IBM introduced Rational Asset Manager, providing service lifecycle management.
For SOA on the mainframe, IBM introduced a new version of WebSphere Process Server on System z, to automate business processes and consolidate mission-critical elements of a business onto a single system.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 21, 2007 06:53 PM
May 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)
MyEclipse IDE updated with Java spec
Genuitec announced on Monday the general release of its MyEclipse 5.5 Enterprise Workbench IDE, which is based on the Eclipse platform.
MyEclipse features a variety of value-added capabilities on top of the base Eclipse platform. "We add no less than 2,000 features on top of the Eclipse baseline," said Maher Masri, president and co-founder of Genuitec.
Featured in the latest update is conformity with the Java Enterprise Edition (EE) 5 specification, including Enterprise JavaBeans 3, for persisting of Java objects to databases. Also included is Java Persistence Architecture (JPA) support, providing a model to bind data elements to an application without having to be vendor-specific.
JavaServer Faces backing, for Web development, is included as well. Support of Facelets allows for quicker writing of user interfaces.
Also featured is the MyEclipse Derby database. "The database gives you an out-ot-the-box ability to write applications without having to go out of your way to find a different [database]," Masri said. Future plans call for embedding Web and application servers in MyEclipse.
Genuitec had offered a preliminary, "milestone" release of version 5.5 in January that did not feature Java EE 5 capabilities but focused on SNAPs (Simple Nonintegrated Applications) tools for development tasks.
MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench IDE is available now and cosgts $29.95 for an annual subscription to the Standard edition or $49.95 for the Professional edition, which adds capabilities such as Unified Modeling Language support and development of Swing-based interfaces.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 21, 2007 01:20 PM
May 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Data integration wonders from Interop
Integrate, and be free: Brian Chee is going cuckoo for Apatar's open-source data integration tool - and so are other Interop Team Members, he says. The drag-and-drop data transformation process is so clear-cut and straightforward that Chee says he can now "give folks read-only access to my company database and let them pull data out and push it into their desktop contact tool. The mind boggles at the possibilities." Find out more about Apatar and other Interop news on the Geeks in Paradise blog.
Salesforce goes SOA: Perhaps this is an announcement long forseen, but Salesforce.com today removed the bubblewrap from Salesforce SOA. According to InfoWorld SOA Maven Eric Knorr, the product seems to be "the first enterprise mash-up platform" rather than the grand "SOA as a service" touted by Salesforce.com. Check out Dave Linthicum's Real World SOA blog for more on the new offering. (On the flip side of the coin, Ed Foster recently took a closer look at a Salesforce.com-Office 2007 compatibility gripe over at The Gripe Line.)
Come on in, the water's fine: Randall Kennedy finally jumped in to the deep end, moving over to 64-bit Windows. Learn more about the beginning of his journey on the Enterprise Desktop blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 21, 2007 08:51 AM
May 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Impressions of InterACT: Business Rules as a Science
I just returned from the Fair Isaac user conference, InterACT, in San Francisco, where I attended sessions on the new lineup of products for BRMS. There they introduced a new product roadmap and vision for Enterprise Decision Management (EDM), which includes their Blaze rule engine.
Fair Isaac's vision of the future for BRMS includes not only the traditional management of the business rule lifecycle, but also the application of the company's modeling and analytic environment to the optimization of the decision making process. This is achieved by linking the company's modeler product, used to build mathematical models of, for example, consumer behavior, with the Blaze 6.5 rule engine to execute rules based on those behaviors.
An example of this might be a rule that says:
If the user is in the high risk category
then increase rate by 50 basis points
How do we know if the user is in the high risk category? Because the modeling tools can construct a detailed mathematical model of high risk customers in a particular industry. When these models change, or "drift," they can be updated in the modeler and the new model deployed to the Blaze rule engine with a point and click interface.
Furthermore, using the Decision Optimizer, business analysts can simulate various business rule scenarios and determine the effect that changing rules will have on profits or other variables in the models. This allows analysts to maximize the "decision yield" of a rule base.
These new developments may mark the beginning of a move from art to science for business rule systems, and I look forward to a full review of Blaze, Modeler, and Decision Optimizer in the near future.
Posted by Steven Nunez on May 21, 2007 06:20 AM
May 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Hands on: Seagate FreeAgent Go
Seagate FreeAgent Go
Anyone who travels knows all too well how inconvenient is to carry along a heavy laptop. If you are thinking of an hand-held device such as the Blackberry consider that many people can't survive just on an e-mail diet when on the road.
I belong to that group, which is why I was eager to try out FreeAgent Go, a recent offering from Seagate that bundles a sleek portable USB drive and, to quote the vendors' hype:
..software that let's you take your desktop environment and all your files to go..
The FreeAgent Go I tested has a nominal capacity of 160GB but the drive comes also in 80GB and 120GB capacity. In addition Seagate offers a Small version with only 12 GB and just a notch over 2 inches long.
The FreeAgent Go is slightly bigger than the Small version, about 5" x 4", or the size of a man's wallet. The drive has a large orange front window that pulses during data transfers or when there is an error but you can turn that feature completely off if needed.
The opposite side of the drive hosts the USB 2.0 port and is covered by a clear Plexiglas screen through which, with the proper light, you can see the 2.5", 5,400 RPM drive inside.
Setting up the Ceedo software on my Windows XP laptop was a no brainer. Ceedo Personal is an application that makes possible installing your most needed programs on the FreeAgent Go drive.
Those programs run directly from the drive, so when on the road you only need to borrow a PC or laptop with 2 USB ports, plug in your FreeAgent Go and you'll have your files and applications with you.
When connecting the drive back to your home machine Ceedo will automatically sync your files with the portable version.
For my test I installed Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox plus a graphic editor on the FreeAgent Go. After choosing the directories to take with me I let FreeAgent complete the copy.
Then I moved my drive to another machine to simulate being on the road on a borrowed computer.
After connecting my drive to the foreign PC, I saw the main menu of FreeAgent appear on my screen. I was able to launch my applications from the drive without problems, and without installing anything on that machine. My files were there and easy to access as expected
Moreover I had all my bookmarks and IE favorites, but I found out with a bit of disappointment that all browser's add-ons need to be reinstalled manually.
To bring with you more applications, simply repeat the same process but it's important to understand that Ceedo can install only a limited number of programs.
If you use other programs not included in that list, you can download Argo, an add-on to Ceedo that makes possible installing programs from a regular setup file. Argo is not free but you can purchase it online for $20.
After installing Argo the list of supported programs grew quite a bit longer. However, Microsoft Word, probably the application that I use the most was not in that list.
Seagate FreeAgent Go
Availability: Shipping
Pricing: around $200 for the 160GB model
Verdict:
After playing with FreeAgent Go for a few days I still like the drive and its 5 years warranty, but have serious doubts about being able to take my desktop environment with me, unless I can work around not having the Office suite and other unsupported apps I use.
Another concern I have is that whatever files I change or create anew while traveling would be my only copy.
If that thought doesn't make you uncomfortable and the applications that Ceedo and perhaps Argo support fit you well, you can probably leave your laptop behind. For now I'll pass.
Posted by Mario Apicella on May 18, 2007 12:30 PM
May 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Secure those wireless networks
Fresh from the Test Center: A one-two punch from Trapeze Networks and AirDefense makes it easier to figure out what's happening on your wireless network and control who goes where. Brian Chee set up Trapeze RingMaster 5.0 with AirDefense 7.0 at his lab and was impressed by the system's intelligence - based on his policies, it knew which threats were serious and which ones were minor, and could send alerts accordingly. Want to lock down your own WLAN? Read our review first.
Power hunger strike: Does Vista's Aero UI really eat battery life? Randall Kennedy put that myth to the test, and his results may surprise you. Take a look at his findings on the Enterprise Desktop blog.
All around the site: A slideshow of products and features from Dell's Project Hybrid announcement has some snazzy stuff (liquid-cooled server! Super-thin monitors!). This week's Storage Insider column wants to speed up acceptance of built-in disk encryption to protect data, while Roger Grimes rails against real-time block lists that don't allow innocent servers a way out (that means you, AT&T) in this week's Security Adviser column.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 18, 2007 09:20 AM
May 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Preview: ActiveBatch 6.0's new tools make its good job-scheduling software better
ActiveBatch 6.0 is going GA soon, and it boasts some impressive enhancements added since my review of the previous version. There are actually too many to talk about here, but I'll highlight my favorites.
I ask myself one question each time I pick up a new tool: does it actually save you any real time? Of all ActiveBatch 6.0's features, the new built-in job library is the one that will not only save you time in your day-to-day work, but it will also decrease your learning curve so you can get up and running faster.
This built-in job library is a group of job type templates that contain all the logic you need to perform major jobs. There are database libraries for DTS/SSIS packages and for Oracle blocks, as well as libraries for FTP, file operations (move, copy, etc.), iteration, and ZIP, just to name a few. These are functions that almost every enterprise-level job contains, and now that ActiveBatch includes them, you can concentrate on the specifics of what you're doing and not on all the hassle of creating them by hand each time. The libraries also greatly reduce the likelihood of errors.
Taking more of an object-oriented approach to jobs, ActiveBatch now has what it calls "reference objects." Reference objects are like classes in .Net: You create the objects once, and you can use them in multiple jobs and plans. It’s like building your own job library. It really doesn't get any better than that for speeding development time and reducing errors.
Job variables are my next favorite feature. They allow you to pass information between different jobs in your plans, so you could get data back from an SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) package or a script execution and use it in the next step.
Even without the timesaving enhancements mentioned above, this feature alone makes ActiveBatch 6.0 more useful than ever before. You can use these variables to iterate through customers and perform actions on each one, or pass values to error notifications so that you can get customized errors. You can even pass the relevant information to an error handler and attempt to fix the problem programmatically.
Other ActiveBatch enhancements include embedded script, resource/time constraints, constraint variables, triggers, customizable alerts, and new job operations (test job, restart, etc.). All together, they make version 6.0 a job scheduling product worth checking out.
ActiveBatch 6.0
Availabile: Next week
Cost: Cross Platform Enterprise Job Scheduler, five Execution Agents (Windows, Linux, Unix, or OpenVMS), and unlimited access to the Client Interface (Graphical UI): $11,500. Price includes a seat in a training course and version upgrades for one year.
Verdict: ActiveBatch 6.0 is ushering in a new era for enterprise job scheduling. The built-in job libraries get you up and running quickly, and you can re-use your work by saving your jobs as reference objects. You can perform true enterprise-level work by passing variables between jobs. This really will take your ActiveBatch processing to places you never even considered before.
Posted by Sean McCown on May 17, 2007 11:10 AM
May 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Daily: Do the mobile hop!
DiVitas handless wireless hand-offs: Getting cut off in the middle of a phone call isn't just annoying; it's not good for business. DiVitas has devised a wireless solution, its Mobile Convergence Appliance, lets a mobile-phone user seamlessly move from cellular to Wi-Fi to Bluetooth, and Senior Contributing Editors Brian Chee and Oliver Rist had a chance to give it a try. Their conclusion: "It delivers better connectivity for your users, but considerable cost savings for organizations with lots of road warriors." (Check out our video of the wireless-to-wired rollover, too.)
The SOA way: Over in the Real World SOA blog, Dave Linthicum offers a recap of a discussion from InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum in the Big Apple. The topic was linking processes to services, and some of the points included the fact that "SOA has always included business processes ... [though] many people think it's new," and "processes are able to abstract distributed services turning them into solutions within a SOA."
Microsoft to pad patch previews: Surprises can be fun, but not if you're, say, an IT admin bracing for a patch to an undefined problem. Yet every month, admins at Windows shops have had to endure several days of waiting and wondering specifically what was coming the pike on Patch Tuesday. Well, Redmond has announced that it's improving the process, the IDG News Service reports, letting you know not just what apps will be patched and how important the patches are -- but also offering a summary of the problem.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 17, 2007 09:31 AM
May 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Rails management riding in at conference
FiveRuns is announcing on Thursday FiveRuns' Management Suite for Rails, a hosted service providing application lifecycle management for Ruby on Rails application development.
Being announced at the RailsConf 2007 event in Portland, Ore., the suite automates the setup and maintenance of an integrated Rails development environment and ensures Rails applications perform well in production, FiveRuns said. The suite was built as an extension to the company’s Enterprise Management Platform, a hosted service introduced last August.
The first product in the suite, RM-Manage (Rails Management) manages the production performance and availability of Rails applications in the context of underlying hardware and software such as Web servers and databases. Transactional analysis also is featured. It is available now.
A second product, RM-Install, follows in June. It deals with installing and configuring of software components and supports platforms such as Windows and Linux. RM-Install features a Rails stack with binaries for Ruby, Rails, the MySQL database and other libraries.
The final three products in the suite are due later this year. They include RM-Develop, RM-Deploy and RM-End-to-End.
RM-Install is free but maintenance services are available for $49 per server per year. RM-Manage is offered at a subscription pricing model starting at $20 per server per month.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 16, 2007 09:01 PM
May 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Tibco readies AJAX messaging service
Tibco has announced plans to release its Tibco Ajax Message Service 1.0 software, which pushes live data and events from servers to Web pages, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) applications and other software.
Recognizing the growth of AJAX rich Internet applications, Tibco sought to incorporate AJAX into messaging capabilities to support HTTP and enable users to offer rich, interactive services such as real-time notifications via Web infrastructure, Tibco said.
Tibco Ajax Message Service enables data and events to stream to a client over firewall-friendly HTTP networks. No plug-ins, applets or ActiveX controls are needed. The service supports multiple concurrent users, performance monitoring and multiplexing to combine message streams over a single HTTP connection, Tibco said.
"The ability to push data to the browser has been around for a while, however the real differentiation as it relates to enterprise use is with scalability and reliability of such solutions," said Kevin Hakman, Tibco director, in a statement released by the company. "Tibco Ajax Message Service is a specialized server for this purpose. With features such as message multiplexing, filtering, automatic bandwidth detection and data throttling, Tibco Ajax Message Service simplifies the inherent difficulties of scaling such capabilities and makes them turn-key for our customers. Accordingly, Tibco expects Tibco Ajax Message Service will deliver tremendous value across the enterprise by further extending event-driven SOA."
Tibco Ajax Message Service Version 1.0 will be generally available at the end of the month.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 16, 2007 05:29 PM
May 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: AMD attempts to fight FUD with facts
Intel-AMD battle rages on: Tom Yager spent some time in Monterey, California last week at AMD's CTO Summit, and got an "unusually detailed look at unpublished products and plans." Alas, he's bound to secrecy on most of it, but he did come away with a few new insights into AMD's response to Intel's FUD on production levels.
Oh, those patent woes: Oliver Rist files his own take on the Microsoft patent complaints and the news that Longhorn's virtualization features (aka Viriidan) just hit the fan. Looks like you can have your Longhorn on time or with all features intact, but apparently not both. (And yes, given Longhorn's cattle-themed code name, I could have made a castration joke here. I chose to take the high road...)
Why open source matters: Some readers that say that "CIOs don't care about open source." Matt Asay puts a finer point on it: While the CIO may not care, that doesn't mean they can ignore open source - mainly because the workers in the trenches are the ones that do care about open source, and they're the ones using these technologies to get their jobs done. And if the jobs get done, that should please the CIO - right? (P.S. - Are you signed up to attend OSBC next week? There's still time...)
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 16, 2007 09:02 AM
May 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
IBM offers hosted Web development tool
IBM is announcing a free Web application development tool on Wednesday, featuring a simple user interface to accommodate persons without technical skills in small businesses and other organizations.
With IBM Development Engagement Service, or DevEngage, users will be able to build applications that solve daily tasks, IBM said. The tool, built at IBM's Haifa Research Laboratory in Israel, requires no programming skills and serves as a user-friendly interactive tool for developing online forms.
"This new application development tool will let users with no software development expertise skill create online forms with ease that complete routine tasks," said Gal Shachor, project lead for this technology at the IBM Research Lab in Haifa, in a statement released by IBM. "IBM wants to ensure users at small- and medium-sized businesses are able to capitalize on modern Web 2.0 technologies in a simple, user-friendly way."
Available as a hosted technology, DevEngage leverages technologies such as AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Online forms can be developed with any Internet browser. The tool also features a Java-based server component where an application is constructed.
DevEngage is hosted on IBM's alphaWorks Services.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 15, 2007 09:01 PM
May 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Opening Apple's MacBook
MacBook holds appeal: InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager evaluates Apple's MacBook product line, finding it a popular choice among the pros, "despite lousy 3-D graphics performance, a much smaller display and a non-traditional keyboard." Among other things, Tom says, the newest MacBooks hint that 965 chipset derived MacBook Pro notebooks will debut at the Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference next month.
Get your code in order: Test Center Contributor and DB maven Sean McCown has fallen hard for Red-Gate's SQLRefactor, "a tool that lets you setup templates to organize your SQL code, rename objects," and more. Not only does he say it beats Microsoft's Visual Studio Team System for DBAs; it just makes the life of a DBA a little easier.
Buzz from the Honeypot: Matt Hines shares some findings from the Web Application Security Consortium's Distributed Open Proxy Honeypot Project, which has been identifying targeted Web app attacks. Among its findings: "Of the million Web requests processed, almost 20 percent displayed known malicious attacks or anomalous behavior."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 15, 2007 02:48 PM
May 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Serena Mariner 6.2 focuses on ALM integration
Serena Software unveiled a product this week intended to integrate project and portfolio management into a single application lifecycle management (ALM) offering.
Serena Mariner 6.2, for project and portfolio management, integrates with Serena's Dimensions package, for automating the development lifecycle, and TeamTrack product, for collaborative application development. This helps IT executives make better decisions and manage their application portfolio like a business, Serena said. The integrated offering gives CIOs visibility into operations; they can drill down on current project metrics and communicate IT value back to the business.
Serena Mariner 6.2 features consolidated dashboard views of key project metrics through integrating with TeamTrack and Dimensions. Version 6.2 is available now.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 15, 2007 08:48 AM
May 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: SOA bottlenecks, be gone!
SOA Conference hits the Big Apple: Tomorrow marks the start of the SOA Executive Forum in New York, and if you're anywhere in the area and are considering an SOA implementation at your own organization, then the Roosevelt Hotel is the place to be for our two-day conference. Can't make it? Then our bounty of SOA analysis is for you: "Breaking SOA Bottlenecks" mirrors the conference theme (how to avoid mistakes as your SOA grows), Dave Linthicum's Real World SOA blog will follow the action at the conference and has plenty of good advice; and The Week Ahead with Gina Smith gives you a video glimpse of the action to come. Enjoy!
Fresh from the Test Center: Want your virtual machine to really roar? Innovawave's DXtreme for Windows 2.0 will help you tweak I/O performance to make sure you're running at top performance. A little intelligent caching here, some predictive block retrieval there, and you'll be set for optimal virtualization. Read our review for more details.
Bits and bytes: For those on the virtualization train, VMware just announced version 2.0 of its free VMware Player. Martin Heller says the resurrected XML Notebook 2007 is a "good starting point for people writing other XML processing applications." And this IT worker's tale of woe gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "ghost in the machine."
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 14, 2007 09:43 AM
May 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Progress touts Actional for SOA
Progress Software is announcing on Monday its Actional 7 products, for SOA management.
Actional 7 consists of three SOA management products: Progress Actional for SOA Operations, Progress Actional for Continuous Service Optimization and Progress Actional for Active Policy Enforcement. Each product is intended to address a business need and contribute to a governance strategy that addresses potential SOA runtime risks, Progress said.
The SOA Operations product provides end-to-end visibility across an SOA. The Continuous Service Optimization piece furnishes a business context to manage SOA behavior to meet business goals. Active Policy Enforcement ensures compliance with security and regulatory policies and provides centralized management.
All products in the Actional 7 package are sold separately and will be available in June.
Progress acquired Actional in 2006.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 13, 2007 09:00 PM
May 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Open-source Web services test tools
Fresh from the Test Center: Are your Web services up to snuff? Do they run smoothly, work the way they should? Are you sure? If you're looking for a lower-cost way to test them -- and you and your staff have some solid development skills -- check out the open-source Web service testing tools we recently put through the wringer: soapUI, TestMaker, and WebInject. They're all quite solid performance wise, but some are more capable than others, and some have a steeper learning curve. The choice is yours.
I can see clearly now: Maybe it's a case of not wanting to reveal how they make the sausage, but not many companies offer real insight into how their business runs. That's why David Margulius was surprised to find that Intel's 2006 IT Performance Report offered so much transparency into how and why it runs its business. Read this week's Enterprise insight column, take a gander at the Intel report PDF, and get a better look under Intel's hood.
Columns roundup: Two new columns today for your reading pleasure: Mario Apicella examines disk drive reliability and the push for better performance, while Roger Grimes presents a reader argument that suggests vendors are better off not closing every security vulnerability when first discovered.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 11, 2007 09:43 AM
May 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Red Hat launches Global Desktop
Red Hat at the Red Hat Summit conference in San Diego this week unveiled several initiatives, including a client product for small business users and plans to build a virtual appliance OS.
A new client product, Red Hat Global Desktop, provides a modern user experience with an enterprise-class suite of productivity applications, Red Hat said. The offering is intended for local government and small business customers. Red Hat worked with Intel to develop Global Desktop.
Meanwhile, Red Hat and Intel will deliver a Red Hat-branded software platform that supports desktop PCs with the Intel vPro processor. The collaboration between Red Hat and Intel will bring hardware-assisted virtualization to business desktop computing, Red Hat said.
"The legacy desktop falls short in its ability to provide a secure, reliable and manageable environment," said Brian Stevens, CTO at Red Hat, in a statement released by the company. "Intel vPro technology combined with a Red Hat Virtual Appliance OS will allow customers to create a rock-solid foundation that can then provision, manage and secure the PC. This technology will reduce operational costs and increase operational flexibility. We are delighted to partner with Intel on this project."
Also, IBM and Red Hat announced an effort to encourage growth of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM System z mainframes. A program has been set up to assist companies in evaluation, deployment and support.
Red Hat in the future plans to unveil a new model for protecting the privacy of critical data, to meet the needs of users in areas such as financial services, the company said.
Red Hat on Thursday announced availability of Red Hat Exchange (RHX), a service that extends the company's Open Source Architecture strategy to include business applications from open source partners built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss platform software. Users can access solutions from 14 Red Hat software partners with offerings ranging from business intelligence to customer resource management and messaging.
Partners include companies such as Alfresco, Scalix and SugarCRM.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 10, 2007 12:21 PM
May 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Longhorn 3's got beef
A meaty OS serving: InfoWorld Chief Technologist has sliced into Beta 3 of Microsoft's long-awaited Longhorn and found plenty to chew on. Major advances center on PowerScript, Microsoft's .Net command-line shell, which is accompanied by utilities that enable robust administration from the PowerShell command line or via text-only connections, he writes. The firewall's been spruced up, and the last pieces of Longhorn's virtualization story have fallen into place. Beefy!
Meanwhile, Enterprise Windows columnist Oliver Rist, still weary from his Vista adventures, has reluctantly set down the Longhorn path, and he has insights to share.
Broadband banditry: Over in The Deep End, Paul Venezia investigates broadband banditry: broadband companies' practice of artificially limiting bandwidth options. "One of the major issues is the ridiculously limited upstream bandwidth provided in most residential packages," he notes. "Consumer broadband needs to change. It needs to provide at least a 5:3 down/up ratio as part of the standard package for a reasonable price."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 10, 2007 10:18 AM
May 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Developers of the Spring Framework for Java application development have partnered with Accenture to build Spring Batch, providing for batch processing in the Java realm.
Many enterprise customers have a requirement for batch processing and Java historically has ignored this, said Neelan Choksi, senior vice president of Americas at Interface21, in an email. Interface21 oversees development of Spring technologies. Spring Batch is a generalized batch processing solution consistent with the Spring programming model.
"Spring Batch's aim is to provide tools and applications to support bulk processing in an enterprise environment," Choksi said.
The initial release will feature tools for the Spring Batch infrastructure, enabling operations to be batched together. Work can be retried if there is an exception.
A Spring Batch Milestone 1 release is planned for this quarter.
Interface21 also announced this week that Oracle has contributed its transaction manager integration code to the Spring Framework. This integration will enable organizations to more easily build applications based on Oracle Application Server, Interface21 said.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 10, 2007 05:41 AM
May 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Pondering UIs and mobile Java
More from JavaOne: Martin Heller is wondering if the new JavaFX platform is related to the old Java ME, "which was going to extend the Java platform down to PDAs and cell phones." Is there anything new in the JavaFX announcement? Post your own thoughts on the Strategic Developer blog. For more JavaOne news, check out our special report with the latest announcements and analysis.
Everything old is new again: Text-based UIs as the next big thing? "But those are so old-fashioned!" you might cry. Tom Yager disagrees, especially with the greater push for mobile access to systems and software. Read the latest Ahead of the Curve posting and find out why Tom things getting back to text is a good thing.
There and back again: Longhorn loomed in the distance for many moons, but now it's almost within sight. Beta 3 is out, but Oliver Rist knows that this is just the beginning of a long, long journey. Like a certain little hobbit, Oliver's on his way, bearing the heavy burden of installation workarounds and Vista-Longhorn code base differences so he can give you all the lowdown on Longhorn's details. Is it weird that he's starting to call the beta disks his "precious"?
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 9, 2007 08:50 AM
May 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Black Duck Software is announcing transactIP, a hosted solution to evaluate the integrity of software code before the software is purchased.
Built on top of Black Duck's protexIP platform for managing software code requirements, transactIP addresses due diligence requirements. It provides a snapshot of whether code is in compliance with legal obligations and license terms.
Due diligence information is provided to the acquirer of software without showing source code or other intellectual property. TransactIP relies on the protexIP Knowledge Base, which features a catalogue of open source projects and code components.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 9, 2007 06:05 AM
May 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Java, Java everywhere
JavaOne 2007: If you feel a buzz from Java like you get from your morning coffee, check out our ongoing coverage of JavaOne 2007. Among other stories from the show, Sun has said it will work with the open-source community to rewrite "encumbered" Java components to replace the current closed-source code. Oh, and the company thinks open-source developers should get paid. Go figure.
Laptop leakage: Can't wait for news about the forthcoming crop of Santa Rosa laptop systems? Well, the information has spilled out a bit early, reports Stephanie Bruzzese over in Tech Treks. Among them: HP has an "enormous new 12-pound notebook with a 20-inch LCD that runs Media Center" due out.
Impolite hosts: StopBadware.org has fingered the top five service providers responsible for hosting the world's most prolific numbers of malware-brokering Web sites. The worst, reports Zero Day writer Matt Hines: iPowerWeb, which had almost 11,000 of the malware infected sites tracked residing on its Web servers. Matt also digs into what can be done to address the malware bane of the Internet.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 8, 2007 11:14 AM
May 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Metastorm announced the release this week of Version 7.5 of the company's Metastorm BPM (business process management) suite.
The suite allows organizations to improve multiple business processes and supports rapid analysis and change across human- and system-based processes, Metastorm said. Version 7.5 boasts "business-user friendly" BPM applications, the company said.
Features include:
* Easier access to external services for process design, for identifying Web service components of value to a process. These services can be tied into new process flows. Business value can be gained from SOA.
* Enhancements to the MetaStorm Insight business process intelligence module, to access process information and business data. A wizard-like interface is featured to assist with configuring custom reports.
* Support for Windows Vista and Windows Workflow Foundation.
* Enhanced backing for MetaStorm BPM within Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and JSR-168 (Java Specification Request) portals.
* The ability to access services via external repositories and business catalogs.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 8, 2007 05:33 AM
May 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Going green can save you some green
Forecast for the week: greener, with a chance of green: Get your green on with the latest energy- and resource-saving tidbits. Ted Samson sat down with Sun's vice president of eco-responsibility to talk about sustainability on the eve of JavaOne - watch the video here. And over in the Sustainable IT blog, Ted's got the lowdown on OSS's Green Series Gemini Servers. The Green Series sports a high-efficiency power supply and uses less power (meaning less out of your pocket when those bills come due), but it also has a modular design that lets you swap in and swap out drives, memory, and other resources as needed. Nice.
Worm alert: A new Trojan worm is out there, and this one has a twist -- it's carried by USB drives. So far, Sophos researchers say there's no evidence of a payload, but it wouldn't take much to add malicious code. The lesson: don't hook up with unknown devices, and practice safe USB connections (whatever that may be).
Stupid is as stupid does: It's baaa-aack! Last year's tales of stupid user tricks proved that lots of people have the same experiences when it comes to dealing with less-than-bright employees. This year, we've got 10 more impressively dumb tricks - take a look and see if any of these are (unfortunately) familiar.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 7, 2007 09:37 AM
May 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Exclusive review of Intransa 10Gb iSCSI system
Fresh from the Test Center: Intransa's StorStac PCU100 is one of the first 10Gb iSCSI systems out there, and based on what Logan Harbaugh saw in his exclusive early review, it's a snazzy, scalable, well-perofrming storage system. Check it out.
First-time caller, long-time listener: The 13th edition of the InfoWorld LIVE! radio show is online for your listening pleasure. This week's installment talks PCI security standards with Quest. It's a rather hot topic these days given the recent rash of credit card theft reports. Listen here.
iPhone, you phone: Much ado lately over rumors that the iPhone won't allow open development, thereby tainting its "smartphone" label. Tom Yager things this runs contrary to Apple's strategy - to allow open access simply because most other vendor's don't. Read about Tom's iPhone predictions on the Enterprise Mac blog, and let him know if you agree or disagree. Only 39 days 'til WWDC07!
DIY RFID and text-to-speech: Courtesy of Make Magazine, learn the basics of RFID and text-to-speech modules.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 4, 2007 09:44 AM
May 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Proventia's spyware stalker
Fresh from the Test Center: Bells and whistles can get a bit irritating at times, so there's something to say for good, solid, simple functionality. Therein lies the allure of the newest version of IBM's ISS Proventia Desktop Endpoint Protection firewall. Roger A. Grimes had an opportunity to review the offering, and found it to be "a good host-based firewall with above-average features," such as anti-virus, anti-malware, and buffer overflow exploit protection.
Dealing with the anti-open source clause: Fear of open-source software still permeates in some organizations, as evidenced by clauses in licenses insisting that "the Software provided, or to be provided, by Company in the manner licensed under this Agreement does not and shall not contain any software covered by a GNU license or other "open source" license." Open Sources blogger Matt Asay attributes this type of fine print to ignorance of what open source is about. But he has some useful suggestions as to how to deal with it.
MS celebrates client security shipment: Redmond has let loose a couple of desktop-defense tools: the Forefront Client Security RTM, and its System Center Essentials 2007 package -- a collection of desktop and server management tools for small and medium-sized businesses, reports Matt Hines in the Zero Day blog. The company is celebrating the integration of its security offerings, something it asserts it can do better than security vendors out there. "Customer interest is being driven around the idea of security that is integrated with their existing Windows environments that works with Active Directory," said Steve Brown, Microsoft's director of product management for security and access products.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 3, 2007 08:20 AM
May 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Progress extends Sonic ESB 7.5 with BPEL server, SOA management
Progress Software this week released Sonic ESB 7.5, an update to the innovative enterprise service bus that adds a BPEL process orchestration server and integrates with Progress Actional, the company's SOA monitoring and management solution. The ESB also now integrates with Progress DataXtend Semantic Integrator (SI), a data validation and transformation engine that can be deployed as a service into the bus.
Last but not least, the rev includes a number of performance tweaks. Progress reps didn't say as much, but if you had to choose a theme for all of the enhancements, it would appear to be improved support for larger, more complex environments.
Calling DataXtend SI "maybe the most interesting single piece of technology in this story," Sonic product marketing guy Ken Schwarz said the technology offers a way to eliminate the "accidental architecture" (aka spaghetti) of multiple point-to-point transformations.
According to Schwarz, DataXtend SI lets you create a common data model, which is basically the union of all the data models in your SOA. Using the Eclipse-based Sonic Workbench, you define the mappings between your endpoints and the model, and the tool generates the Java code for validation and transformation. Finally, the DataXtend service plugs into the bus, and you invoke it as a step in an Itinerary (Sonic's mechanism for content-based message routing) or in a BPEL process.
The new Sonic BPEL Server, which brings WS-BPEL 2.0 compliant service orchestration to the platform, essentially shows the old Sonic Orchestration Server the door. Sonic product manager Jaime Meritt said that "O Server" would continue to be supported, but BPEL Server would be the focus of development efforts going forward.
Here again, the BPEL support is integrated into Workbench, where developers can assemble processes by dragging and dropping controls from a palette of BPEL actions. Schwarz said the company scrupulously avoided adding any language extensions. "We have a lot of secret sauce," he added, "but it's all hidden behind the WSDL interface... because the ability to import other people's BPEL and the ability to transport BPEL is important."
As with Itineraries for content-based routing, Workbench allows you to debug BPEL processes that span multiple messaging brokers across a distributed environment. As Meritt showed in a WebEx demo, you can set break points in the BPEL process, or in the intelligent route, and step through local and remote processes and service states.
On the Actional integration, Meritt had this to say: "We package the interceptors with the ESB and with BPEL for talking with Actional, so it's all integrated out of the box, with zero configuration essentially." Actional can monitor the BPEL Server, the ESB message brokers, and all service endpoints, providing a graphical view of service connections and activity and helping to pinpoint bottlenecks.
Finally, Schwarz and Meritt said the 7.5 release also features these performance boosts (versus version 7.0.1) and other improvements:
* A new embedded HTTP server that speeds broker to broker communications by 2x to 10x
* Faster XML processing capabilities that speed Itinerary throughput (Web service invocation, XPath-based routing, and XSLT operations) by 3x to 10x
* Improved directory service replication for high availability, allowing for fast and transactionally secure replication between multiple directory services
* Redundant network paths between cluster participants
* Finer-grained role-based access control for configuration and management, and improved auditing
* Successful interoperability testing with Microsoft's Windows Communication Foundation and its implementations of WS-ReliableMessaging, WS-Security, WS-Policy, and WS-Addressing
Posted by Doug Dineley on May 2, 2007 02:00 PM
May 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Datacenter tune-up tools
Datacenter check-ups: After tweaking two datacenters in two weeks, Paul Venezia has some valuable advice for anyone who's looking to monitor their own datacenter gear. He has written a couple of new plug-ins for Nagios and Cacti monitoring programs, and is willing to share: the first one, for Nagios, is on Paul's blog now, with the second (for Cacti) coming soon. Keep an eye out for more.
Silicon's last hurrah?: After seeing the news from last month's Intel Developer Forum, Tom Yager thinks the writing may be on the wall for silicon chips. Does the introduction of Hafium - a less-leaky, less-power-hungry element - into chip production herald the future? Read the latest from Mr. Yager and post your comments.
Roam where you want to: Some hard work by the folks at DiVitas and Avaya bore excellent fruit for road warriors who are constantly in and out of offices. As shown in this video recorded at Interop HotStage, you can roll a call from your cell phone to a desktop phone and back. That should save on those roaming charges...
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 2, 2007 09:58 AM
May 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
OpenLogic takes open source inventory
OpenLogic announced this week OpenLogic Discovery, a free tool to help enterprises take inventory of open source software installed on their computers.
Software is found on Windows, Linux and Solaris platforms to help customers manage their use of open source and remain compliant with internal policies. Computers can be scanned for open source packages, including software not explicitly installed but bundled with other software. A detailed inventory is then provided of open source software.
Discovery enables users to become more aware of open source usage in their environments and better manage risks, OpenLogic said. There can be risks, costs and liabilities if an enterprise does not know what open source software is being deployed.
OpenLogic Discovery is slated for free download in June.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 2, 2007 06:44 AM
May 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Micro Focus touts application portfolio manager
Micro Focus launched on Tuesday its Enterprise View product, for application portfolio management.
The product combines technologies from Micro Focus and Hal Knowledge Systems, which was acquired by Micro Focus last year. Customers can build a detailed view of an application portfolio to ensure that application modernization projects are completed in accordance with business needs.
Featured is automated collection of data about enterprise applications and their value to a business. A framework is provided to support modernization initiatives such as off-shoring, out-sourcing and post-merger and acquisition consolidation.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 2, 2007 06:39 AM
May 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Exclusive review: MeetingSense 2.0 makes meetings productive
If you're like me, you let out a big sigh every time a new meeting notice appears in your Outlook mailbox. There's often no agenda, backup documents, nor even the basics of conference call dial-in numbers. And when the meeting's done, no actions have been determined.
After using Yon Software's just-updated MeetingSense 2.0 to whip meetings into shape, I could never do without this package that brilliantly manages the entire meeting lifecycle.
Why such praise? For many reasons, which start with how well MeetingSense plugs into -- and enhances -- Microsoft Office (including 2007). For example, when I scheduled a meeting from Outlook's calendar view, MeetingSense provided a concise form to fill in the agenda and other meeting particulars; this information is professionally formatted and automatically inserted into an Outlook meeting notice.
Yet MeetingSense's full potential can only be appreciated during and after meetings. The software's well-crafted user interface, which is completely customized by moving various pods, helped me present information, capture notes and decisions, and assign action items.
Once you open a meeting, various pods are pre-populated with data from the original meeting invitation, such as meeting files and a list of invited participants (which forms a roll call, since I quickly marked who attended). As meetings progressed, I easily presented documents in one pod, while taking rich-text meeting notes in another area, and then entered key points and decisions in another pod. What's more, MeetingSense records the audio portion of meetings. Importantly, during a meeting I also created action items, which are sent to appropriate people as Outlook Tasks.
At the conclusion of each meeting, the software creates a complete, organized summary of the meeting, which I customized and then e-mailed to all participants. This significant feature ensures that everyone has a record of meeting details, including key points and decisions.
These meeting details are then saved and available through the main dashboard. Version 2.0 adds several options, which helped me better track and manage meeting information. For instance, I grouped meetings by projects and tracked action items that extended from one meeting to another. You can also publish action items to a central repository, such as an Outlook Public folder. A carry-over feature from Version 1.0 let me select action items and request a status update from the owner.
MeetingSense 2.0 is one of those rare products that uncovers -- and then solves -- a common business need near perfectly. The only possible improvement I can see is tighter integration with online services, such as Microsoft Live Meeting, WebEx, or Adobe Connect Professional (formerly Breeze). Still, while each of these has some similar features during a meeting (such as note taking), no other product I've used matches MeetingSense's meeting organization and information management tools. It's somewhat ironic that companies using this product actually report fewer meetings because of productivity improvements. But I doubt anyone's complaining.
Yon Software MeetingSense 2.0
Availability: Now
Pricing: $99 for single seat; custom volume license packs available
Verdict: MeetingSense 2.0 provides an ingenious way to prepare for meetings, capture essential information during a meeting – including audio, notes, and action items, and then manage assigned tasks. Works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook, MeetingSense doesn't inject any extra steps; rather it streamlines meeting workflow and reduces follow-up efforts.
Posted by Mike Heck on May 1, 2007 06:00 AM