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Think of the ideal software asset management system as a monitor that displays what exactly drives your business operations. It provides a readout of all the software installed throughout the company's computer systems, and much more. SAM programs also help IT departments rein in duplicate or redund...

One figure that's drawn much attention in Facebook's $200 million investment deal with Moscow-based Digital Sky Technologies announced Tuesday is the implied valuation of the privately held social networking company: $10 billion. While impressive, the number is off a third from the $15 billion figur...

As the business use of mobile devices such as laptops and smartphones proliferates, IT departments are scrambling to implement adequate security safeguards both inside and outside company walls. The cost of implementing security measures is problematic for many small-to-medium-sized enterprises, but...

There are more signs that the unveiling of Microsoft's revamped Live Search -- codenamed "Kumo" during its development phase -- is at hand. It's been widely speculated that Steve Ballmer will introduce it this week at the Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference. Rumors about the launc...

When he tried to log on to Nokia's new Ovi app store Tuesday, ABI Research senior analyst Jeff Orr found a lot of blank screens. "They either got off to a wild success because everybody's trying it, or more likely, there are some bugs along the way," Orr said. The Finnish mobile phone giant made it ...

Cloud computing is a hot tech growth category that shows no signs of cooling. These are still early days, though, and companies that are experimenting with this computing model are doing so in a piecemeal fashion, or on a case-by-case basis. The result, for some firms, is a mishmash of IT functiona...

Depending on which technology blog you read, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is either engaging in pre-Palm Pre marketing hype or covering up some major smartphone production problems. Hesse told an industry conference audience earlier this week that he expected shortages "for a while" when the Pre launches at...

Microsoft has withdrawn its request for an oral hearing over the latest antitrust charges levied against it by the European Commission. An oral hearing in the case is voluntary, and whether one is held should, theoretically, not impact its outcome. However, the EC's apparent inflexibility in accomm...

After weeks of striking a conciliatory and cooperative tone, Craigslist is going on the offensive in the controversy over its erotic services section. Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster filed a complaint in a federal court in South Carolina, seeking declaratory relief and a restraining order against the ...

After a couple of weeks of discussion and speculation in the media-obsessed blogosphere, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has finally gone on the record and admitted that his company has considered buying a newspaper but decided against the idea. In a wide-ranging Thursday interview with the online Financial...

A while back, someone convinced businesses that if they outsourced work overseas, costs would fall off a cliff. The Wall Street lemmings jumped, believing they could fly, but instead plummeted to the depths of a global recession. Many of them are still falling, yet they continue to outsource their w...

Google will start field testing its PowerMeter software with over 10 million customers of eight large utility partners in three countries. Google on Wednesday announced it's lining up energy companies so it can enlist the utilities' customers to start using the home energy consumption software. Powe...

Smartphone sales worldwide grew 12.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to recent figures from research firm Gartner. Growth was led by Apple's iPhone, which doubled its market share, and by Research In Motion's BlackBerry phones, sales of which grew by almost 50 percent. While Nokia ag...

As the frequent news reports of data breaches attest, maintaining data security is a tough row to hoe -- even for large enterprises. It's even harder for small and medium-sized businesses, which don't have the money or IT resources their larger counterparts have. The plethora of threats is daunting,...

Napster's choice of a headphone-wearing cat for its logo has turned out to be quite appropriate. The grand-tabby of all digital music services enters its second decade apparently intent on using up every one of a feline's nine lives, with the latest reincarnation coming Monday in the form of a new b...