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OS Wars: Solaris vs. Linux

Setting up the perfect enterprise server architecture seemed straightforward just a few years ago. "You went with [Sun Microsystems'] Solaris for the OS, put Oracle on top of Solaris for the database, used EMC for storage, and Cisco for routers," Yankee Group senior analyst Dana Gardner told the E-C...

Informatica, a supplier of data integration and business intelligence solutions, has announced it plans to buy Striva Corporation in a cash-and-stock transaction worth about $62 million. Sanjay Poonen, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Informatica, told the E-Commerce Times that Striva...

Oracle boosted earnings in its first quarter, with net income rising 28 percent to $440 million, but it did so largely as a result of internal cost controls put in place during 2002. Revenues in the latest quarter barely increased, up just 2 percent to $2.07 billion, while new license sales actually...

Merger Mania: Who's Next?

In the past few months, it seemed as if new mergers were being announced every week. High-profile players like PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards, as well as EMC and Legato Systems, found they had enough in common to join forces. Meanwhile, Oracle attempted to convince PeopleSoft shareholders that it would...

In a bid to grab a larger share of the booming market for managing stored data, Microsoft has released the latest version of its storage server software, Windows Storage Server 2003, at the Storage Decisions 2003 conference in Chicago. The company said the product will be available through a host of...

E-BUSINESS SPECIAL REPORT

Does the Killer Worm Really Exist?

Although worms can create media furor and disrupt business, to date they have adhered to a strange dichotomy: A given worm may spread rapidly or deliver a destructive payload -- but no worm has accomplished both tasks with equal aplomb. August 2003 was the worst-ever month for malware attacks, than...

Last week, major record label Universal did one of the first logical things in the entire history of the music industry's fight against digital piracy: It decided to lower prices on CDs. But this is a war, and the record labels can only lower prices so far, after all, so the dangled carrot of cheape...

Saying his company's hostile bid to acquire PeopleSoft is anything but dead, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has stated he remains committed to seeing the deal through to the end. Meanwhile, rival IBM reportedly has told the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division, which is weighing whether or not ...

When it comes to e-commerce software, IBM's WebSphere still reigns supreme. With market share of about 20 percent, the software giant has successfully fended off competition from feisty software integrators. However, competitive pressure has prompted major changes to the product line. For example, B...

PRODUCT REVIEW

Test-Driving Assistive Technologies

I'm writing this article on my computer with a pen input tablet, forsaking the usual speed and ease of the keyboard to see how the other 14 percent lives. I'm referring to the 39.5 million Americans over age 5 with some kind of disability, acording to the 2000 U.S. census. When I broke a bone in my ...

Two new studies have been released that provide fresh fuel for the Windows-vs.-Linux debate that has burned in the high-tech sphere for years. One, sponsored by Microsoft, argues that Windows is actually less expensive to own and operate than Linux; the other states that deploying Linux on the deskt...

Soul of the New IT Department

There was a time, not so long ago, when the IT department was like an island unto itself. The CIO may have had to venture into the boardroom and chat with "the suits," but many IT staff were high-tech gurus who did not need to care about the bottom line, refined communication skills or managing empl...

After flooding ISPs and universities with thousands of subpoenas targeting individual consumers, the Recording Industry Association of America has moved from threats to open warfare, filing 261 lawsuits against those whom it terms the most egregious offenders -- users caught sharing more than 1,000 ...

With the high-tech spotlight focused squarely on it as the annual OracleWorld expo kicks off, database giant Oracle is unleashing products aimed at making it easier for customers, particularly small and mid-size businesses, to take advantage of grid computing. The company, which will release its fir...

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is planning to offer file swappers a reprieve from prosecution, provided they adhere to certain conditions, according to published reports. People who have illegally downloaded copyrighted music files allegedly would be required to destroy all of ...

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