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Former Cisco engineers readies 'firewall killer'

Paul Mah — Tue, 20 May 2008 06:10:48 -0400

On the premise that traditional firewalls no longer are adequate, five formal Cisco engineers have co-founded a start-up called Rohati Systems to offer more fine-grained control to network resources on a per-user basis. The company will mark its debut with a network-based entitlement control device designed to limit access to applications on the network. It works by checking whether users should be allowed access based on user credentials such as Kerberos, VPN SSL, or Microsoft's NTML. Initial configuration is done by putting the device in monitor mode on the network, where it builds a policy that managers can fine-tune later. The appliance competes with entitlement software from the likes of CA, Oracle, and IBM's Tivoli Software. Currently in beta, it is expected to ship in July.

For more on this device:
- check out this Network World article

Parallels adds Leopard Server support

Mehan Jayasuriya — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:47:38 -0400

Virtualization has led to huge energy and hardware savings in a number of large enterprises and that includes Mac shops as well. After all, OS X applications like Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion have brought the benefits of virtualization into the home, so it's not surprising that Macs are seeing a lot of virtualization action, as of late. The latest news on this front is that Parallels has just released a new beta of Parallels Server that allows a single Xserve machine to run multiple copies of Leopard Server, alongside Windows and Linux. While Leopard Server VMs were removed from previous versions of Parallels Server, the company was forced to briefly remove support because of performance issues. "We worked out the technical issues, optimized performance and stability and now we're ready for our community to take a look at us and help to make it perfect," Parallels' Ben Rudolph told Ars Technica.

For more on Parallels Server:
- see this Ars Technica article

Apple seeds OS X 10.5.3 to devs

Mehan Jayasuriya — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:34:43 -0400

It might seem like Apple pushed out its last major release of OS X not too long ago but according to Mac developers, another release is in the pipeline. Apple seeded a beta of OS 10.5.3 to developers on Friday, in an attempt to test the patch before greenlighting it for public release. Among the changes included are critical memory leak fixes for CoreAnimation and iCal, in addition to a number of other minor tweaks for built-in applications. According to AppleInsider, the new release should see release in either April or May.

For more on the new beta:
- see this AppleInsider article

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron goes beta

Mehan Jayasuriya — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:54:25 -0400

Chomping at the bit for a new Ubuntu release? Well, here you go: The beta of Ubuntu version 8.04, colloquially known as "Hardy Heron," has officially been released to the waiting masses. Onboard you'll find GNOME 2.22, Linux Kernel version 2.6.24 and even that hot new Firefox 3 beta 4 that you've been hearing so much about. If you're a Windows user who's looking to dual-boot, you'll be happy to hear that Hardy Heron plays even nicer with Windows than previous versions of Ubutnu. A new feature called "Wubi" allows Ubuntu to be installed and uninstalled like any native Windows app. What's more, it doesn't require a dedicated partition or affect the existing bootloader while running in a dual-boot configuration.

For more on the latest release:
- see this Slashdot article

SPOTLIGHT: Firefox 3 beats IE7 and Opera in memory tests?

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:59:52 -0400

Firefox has never exactly been known for being light in terms of its memory footprint (ever waited for the browser to start up in OS X?) but if word from Mozilla offers any indication, that could change. Mozilla engineers claim that work to reduce memory leaks and the RAM profile of Firefox 3 have resulted in a lean-mean browsing machine that uses less memory than either IE7 or Opera 9.5 beta. I'll believe it when I see it. Article

ALSO NOTED: Beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 released;Toshiba could lose $1 billion as a result of HD DVD;

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:59:50 -0400

> Microsoft acquires desktop virtualization management software firm. Article
> IDC: Data creation outstrips available storage for the first time. Article
> Beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 released. Article
> Toshiba could lose $1 billion as a result of HD DVD. Article
> China poised to be the top Web market. Article

And Finally... To blog or not to blog, corporately - that is the question. Article

Firefox 3.0 beta 4 released

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:58 -0400

Beta 4 of Firefox 3.0 was released just yesterday. According to Mozilla, this latest iteration sports more than 900 enhancements over the previous beta, and is a direct result of community feedback. The new beta includes drastic improvements to performance, stability and memory usage--the latter especially over long browsing sessions. Other notable mentions include a new download manager to make locating downloads easier, the inclusion of a full page zoom, improvements to JavaScript and offline data storage for web applications. In addition, continuing look and feel improvements have been added in terms of platform-specific icons, buttons and other user interface elements on the various platforms such as Windows Vista, Mac OS X and Linux.

For more on Firefox 3.0 beta 4:
- check out the Mozilla blog

IBM goes to the mat for data management

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

It was only a matter of time before IBM came up with a data integration tool that allows customers to manage all data from a single point. IBM's Master Data Management Server, currently in beta, is expected to be available in early 2008. And Big Blue has also released new products to emphasize its commitment to information management. That includes version 8.4 of its Enterprise Content Management product and the IBM Data Studio and Master Data Management Service. The Data Studio is a free, Eclipse-based tool that manages data lifecycles. It will be available for download at the end of this month.

For more on IBM data management:
- see this BPM Today article

ALSO NOTED: CA's former CEO reports to federal prison; Nokia launches beta of mobile social networking service;

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:59:58 -0400

> CA's former CEO, Sanjay Kumar, reports to federal prison tomorrow to begin his 12-year sentence for accounting fraud. Article

> Nokia launches beta of Mosh, a mobile social networking service. Article

> Former Dell CEO Kevin Rollins gets $48.5 million for his stock options. Article

> Sun Microsystems is expected to announce layoffs in 2008; company to spend $100 to $150 million on severance and other costs, according to SEC filings. Article

And finally... NASA uses technology to explore the possibilities of sending astronauts to an asteroid. Article

ALSO NOTED: CIOs as evangelists; keeping server TCO down;

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:01:38 -0500

> CIOs as evangelists. Blog

> Keeping server TCO down. Article

> Microsoft to beta VoIP server soon. Blog

> OpenBravo gains converts. Blog

> Hackers exploiting security flaws device drivers, physical memory and PCI cards. Article

> Apple works to break into the enterprise market. Article

> A minority opinion on SOA. Article

And Finally... IT departments are under unreasonable pressure to support compliance issues. Article