Facebook Rev’s Up Email with Project Titan
Author: John Duckgeischel
on February 8, 2010 - 11:47 AM
Facebook heats up the
competitive e-mail landscape with Project Titan, a replacement for its outdated
messaging service. Rumors are that
Project Titan will have POP/IMA support allowing it to have configurability with
virtually any e-mail client including popular choices such as Entourage,
Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail. Some
analysts see this as a move that will allow Facebook to compete head-to-head
with Google Gmail. In January, Google
expanded its territory a bit by including social search a feature into its beta
product.
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Black Hat: Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in Microsoft IE and Oracle 11G Databases
Author: John Duckgeischel
on February 5, 2010 - 11:18 AM
At this week’s
Black hacking and security conference in Washington D.C, security researchers
disclosed vulnerably to a Zero-Day bug that could affect both Microsoft IE as
well as the 11 G database. After the
Black Hat disclosure of the exposure to the zero-day bug, Microsoft provided a
warning to its users. "Microsoft is aware of the presentation
at Black Hat … which describes proof-of-concept code on an information
disclosure vulnerability in Internet Explorer," a Microsoft spokesperson
told InternetNews.com in an e-mail. " This hole can impact customers running Windows
XP or who have disabled Internet Explorer Protected Mode." Microsoft recommended that users upgrade to
IE 8.
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Cisco adds iPhone Unified Communications Capability
Author: John Duckgeischel
on February 4, 2010 - 9:02 AM
Cisco
announced boosted its unified communications capabilities by adding voice-over-Wi-Fi
to its current iPhone support by April 2010.
Although Cisco mobile currently provides iPhone users with standard
Cisco IP capabilities including Mobile connect and visual voicemail, it now
wants to provide voice over Wi-Fi as a lower cost way to communicate. According to Laurent Philonenko, general
manager of Cisco's unified communications business unit, the new capability
will allow iPhone users to place a call within a Wi-Fi zone without using
cellular minutes. The new version will
be free and will be called Cisco Mobile Voice.
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Smart Phone Competition to Increase in 2010
Author: Leanne Westphal
on February 4, 2010 - 7:41 AM
The smart phones has been a driving
force of cell
phone industry over the past few years however, with many new
vendors entering the market over the next year, the competition is expected to
greatly increase even further in 2010. Neil Mawston from the research
firm Strategy Analytics (SA) confirms the expected competition in the
smartphone industry stating "The smartphone market will become
ultra-competitive in 2010. The smartphone wars will be good news for
consumers, but the fierce competition will inevitably place downward pressure
on vendors' pricing and margins."
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Twitter Resets Passwords as Scams Escalate
Author: John Duckgeischel
on February 3, 2010 - 9:39 AM
According to
a blog on Tuesday, Twitter’s director of trust and safety, Del Harvey,
explained that Twitter had to take action to reset passwords when it discovered
that torrent Web sites were running a scam. A number of torrent sites were built that
required a log-in and password. As these
Web sites and forums were sold to people who wanted to own their own torrent
site, the buyers did not realize that the sites were compromised with security
leaks that allowed the cybercriminals access to the buyers’ log-in info for
Twitter and other sites. As users tried
to log-in to forums, they were sent to third-party Web sites where the users’
passwords were obtained. "These
sites came with a little extra--security exploits and backdoors throughout the
system," Harvey stated. "This person then waited for the forums and
sites to get popular and then used those exploits to get access to the
username, email address, and password of every person who had signed up."
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Apple’s iPad A Likely Hit with Enterprise Customers
Author: Leanne Westphal
on February 2, 2010 - 1:33 PM
Apple is known for their quality products
ranging from their tiny iPod
Shuffle to large iMac desktop and TV systems. Most
consumers do not have any doubt of quality when buying Apple products however,
the unmarked territory of the iPad is different for there is no other like
products to compare it with. Apple has made a reputation of delivering quality
products with hefty price tags however, the iPad is a way to get computer-like
functions and abilities in a product priced just under $500 dollars. The
iPad is marketed by Apple as "the best way to experience the web, email,
and video." Steve
Jobs, CEO of Apple, once said, "“we don’t know how to make a
$500 computer that’s not a piece of junk.” Well obviously he has disproved that
statement with the upcoming arrival of the iPad. The iPad runs programs,
games, has email ability, internet browser access, and comes with a sleek
screen and keyboard. Those features pretty much sums up what qualifies as
a computer to most people. Its
size, low entry price point, ease of use, functionality, and portability make it
strong potential candidate for use by enterprise customers. It’s not hard to imagine a host of enterprise
software that can be written for this device that will usher it into the
enterprise world.
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Cloud Application Management Platform Company Makara Makes Its Debut
Author: John Duckgeischel
on February 2, 2010 - 9:19 AM
Makara
officially launched this week as company providing technology that facilitates
speedy deployment of applications, allowing migration between cloud platforms. The company has some notable backers including
Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen. The
Makara product is an application management tool for virtual environments. The tool provides flexibility and makes it
easy to port applications across virtual environments and the cloud as it is
designed to fit under the application stack, but above the hypervisor. CEO
Isaac Roth and CTO Tobias Kunze Briseno say that platform approach is similar
to a “capsule” that envelopes the applications, making it possible for developers
to provision applications between cloud providers or across clusters. The company offers a free two node developer
version or an “on-demand” pay as you go product based on hourly usage. An Enterprise Version is available with
volume pricing ranging from $2,250 to $3000 per node.
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Informatica Completes Siperian Acquisition
Author: John Duckgeischel
on February 1, 2010 - 1:02 PM
Informatica, a
leader in data integration software, acknowledged late last week that it has completed
its acquisition of Siperian, known for its Master Data Management (MDM)
infrastructure technology. Informatica
will acquire Siperian by paying approximately $130 million in cash, on a fully
diluted basis. The company also
announced its financial results for Q4, with a 25% increase in license revenue,
and 10% increase in total revenues for the year. The Q4 results helped Informatica reach
$500 million in total revenue for year, a first for the company. Informatica’s revenue growth runs contrary
to industry trends declining revenues and the company is very optimistic about
the future with the Siperian acquisition. “Our acquisition of Siperian will
expand Informatica’s addressable market with an additional high-growth,
adjacent technology category, MDM infrastructure, and will further strengthen
our key strategic partnerships,” stated Sohaib Abbasi, chairman and CEO,
Informatica. “Informatica Data Integration and Data Quality have a proven track
record of enabling successful MDM projects. Together, we will advance
Informatica as a leader in this exciting MDM Infrastructure category.” The move bolsters Informatica’s market position
relative to IBM and OEM partner Oracle.
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Undeclared Cyberwar Targets Infrastructure Companies
Author: John Duckgeischel
on January 29, 2010 - 12:18 PM
Telecom,
finance, transportation, petroleum, water and power companies indicate that
their networks are subject to widespread attacks from foreign governments and
cybercriminals. McAfee published its
cyber security report which was written by the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS). The
report entitled "In the Crossfire: Critical Infrastructure in the Age of
Cyberwar," looks at seven industrial sectors in 14 different
countries. The survey was conducted by
U.K. research firm Vanson Bourne, Ltd., and involved interviews with 600 IT and
security executives. It found general concern the security threats in the
future may get even worse. The report
found that cyber attacks that resemble the attack reported by Google from China
are being experienced by companies across many industries.
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Microsoft Launches Pay-As-You-Go Azure Cloud Services
Author: John Duckgeischel
on January 28, 2010 - 1:25 PM
Microsoft’s
free test period comes to an end on February 1st, as it will start
to bill customers that use its pay-as-you-go Windows based Azure cloud
computing services. Microsoft offers
companies the choice of a pay per use “consumption" pricing plan or a “commitment”
option where companies can obtain discounts for a six month commitment. To help potential customers estimate their
costs and compare programs, Microsoft is providing calculators. The company makes “no warranties” about the
results that the calculators generate.
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