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Software's Sublimation by Alex Goldman (bio)

Data's diffusion throughout business and into the cloud

September 4, 2009, 11:27 AM

SAP acquires SAF to better serve retail businesses

SAP logo.jpgSAP (NYSE:SAP) announced today that it has acquired a majority stake in retail software provider SAF, whose initials stand for Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting.

SAF's three core products, SAF SuperStore, SAF SuperWarehouse, and SAF SuperForecast are designed to help retailers forecast demand and adjust their supply chain accordingly. SAF SuperForecast can be applied to all industries, the announcement said.

SAF employs about 100 people and had sales of about 13.4 million Euros, or just over $19 million, during 2008.

Its products have been embedded in the SAP for Retail solution since 2002, SAP said.

"The takeover of the majority shareholding in SAF will foster the innovative power of both companies and provide more SAP customers with this groundbreaking technology," said SAP.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

September 3, 2009, 4:12 PM

IDS Scheer: U.S. lags in BPM implementations

ids-scheer-web-logo.jpgThe long term view of business process management (BPM) starts in many minds with Michael Hammer who wrote an influential book on the subject called "Reengineering the Corporation" in 1996.

For IDS Scheer, the concept dates back farther to the company's founding in 1984 by August Wilhelm Scheer in Saarbrücken, Germany. "The first ten years was like university research ... at first it was like a startup," Joerg Heistermann, IDS Scheer CEO of the Americas, told InternetNews.com.

"Once BPM became the buzz in the boardrooms around the world, because of the Hammer book, the business changed and in the 1990s SAP began to roll. Many of our implementations complemented SAP," said Heistermann.

Business process management started at large companies, which in Germany meant chemical companies, financial institutions, and automobile makers, according to Heistermann.

"BPM is more widely adopted in Europe than in the U.S.," Heistermann said.

"Culture might have an impact. In the U.S., the focus is on sales and marketing. In Europe, we are more technicians. We optimize the organization for what's coming," he added.

(more) |

Posted by Alex Goldman at 4:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Share

September 2, 2009, 6:24 PM

Report: Snow Leopard exposes Mac users to Flash flaw

apple_snowleopard2.jpg
Source: Apple
Apple's latest operating system, Snow Leopard, which has otherwise garnered rave reviews, downgrades the version of Adobe Flash on a user's system, Graham Clueley, Sophos security expert, said in a blog post that contains a video of the reported action.

That older version of Adobe Flash, version 10.0.23.1, is vulnerable to several attacks, including one caused in part by Microsoft.

"The version you should be running is the latest version of Flash Player for Mac -- 10.0.32.18," Cluley wrote.

Even worse, Apple does not tell users about the software change, according to Cluley. "Mac users are not informed that Snow Leopard has downgraded their version of Flash without permission, and that they are now exposed to a raft of potential attacks and exploits which have been targeted on Adobe's software in recent months," he wrote.

Representatives of Apple (and Adobe, which has only a peripheral role in this story) were not able to immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adobe can help, according to Cluley. "If you're not sure which version of Adobe Flash you have on your computer (whatever operating system you use), take 30 seconds to visit their Web site. Adobe will not only tell you what version of Flash you are running, they will also tell you what version you should be running.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 6:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

September 2, 2009, 3:31 PM

Joomla responds to IBM X-Force security report

joomla-logo.jpgEarlier this week, an IBM X-Force report said that the open source Joomla! content management system led in unpatched vulnerabilities.

Elin Waring, president of the Open Source Matters foundation, which supports the Joomla! project, said that characterization is wrong.

The high rank is due to third party apps developed for Joomla! and not due to vulernabilities in Joomla! itself, she said in a blog post.

"Every six months I explain to the folks at IBM that the Joomla! Project isn't the vendor for third party extensions. They listen, but they don't change," she wrote.

IBM did not immediately return a request for comment, but it sounds as if blaming Joomla! for flaws in extensions would be like blaming Microsoft for the sum total of all flaws in all apps that run on its Windows operating system.

Waring also disputed the number of third party extension vulnerabilities cited by IBM X-Force's report. Some extensions cited by IBM have not been updated since 2005. Others are in pre-release. A few related to actual extensions in current use, she said.

"I think we're seeing solid, steady improvement in adoption of good security practices in the third party development community, and I think that is really contributing to the incredible growth and strength of the Joomla project," Waring concluded.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 3:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Share

September 1, 2009, 11:48 AM

Microsoft chafes at VMworld restrictions

mslogo.jpgVMware is restricting the role that Microsoft can play at its virtualization user conference because Microsoft, like Citrix, is a VMware rival, Microsoft said.

Based on the agreement Microsoft signed in order to exhibit at the show, "we don't believe we have the right to demo our products in the booth. This decision runs counter to Microsoft's geek culture, as you can imagine, but we've also become more pragmatic over the years," said Patrick O'Rourke, Microsoft group product manager for Windows infrastructure, in a blog post.

According to O'Rourke, the agreement read in part:

Sponsors and exhibitors must market or demonstrate products on the exhibition floor and in the sessions which are complementary to VMware products and technologies. Complementary products and services are defined as products/services that do not overlap/substitute with VMware's products/capabilities, and help expand the reach and solution scope of VMware's capabilities solely as deemed by VMware.

That's a big contrast to last year, when Microsoft used the show to hype its own hypervisor.

(more) |

Posted by Alex Goldman at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

September 1, 2009, 8:44 AM

Cast Iron promises easier adoption of Amazon's cloud

cast-iron-logo.gifCloud and SaaS infrastructure provider Cast Iron Systems announced today that it has developed code to help enterprise developers move applications to Amazon's EC2 cloud. The company's own Cast Iron Cloud is also running on Amazon EC2.

"As the pioneer in utility cloud computing, Amazon is leading the movement to the Cloud," said Ken Comée, Cast Iron Systems' CEO, in a statement. "The Cast Iron Cloud on Amazon EC2 enables companies to migrate their data and integrate their enterprise applications rapidly, no matter where they are deployed, and immediately start realizing the benefits of Amazon Web Services."

"As enterprises increasingly look to Amazon Web Services for highly scalable, reliable and cost effective computing resources, services like Cast Iron migration and integration solutions provide an onramp to move enterprise data to Amazon EC2 and connect their enterprise applications regardless of where those applications reside," said Terry Wise, Amazon Web Services director of business development, in a statement.

Cast Iron's preconfigured templates eliminate the need for enterprise developers to write their own custom code, Cast Iron said.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 8:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 31, 2009, 4:54 PM

Citrix vs. VMware in open source Xen cloud initiative

citrix_logo_gray_200x78.gifAmid many VMware-related VMworld announcements, Citrix announced today that Xen.org, the home of the open source Xen cloud computing project, will build an open-source cloud infrastructure called the Xen Cloud Platform (XCP).

"Today Xen is already the most widely used hypervisor in the service provider market and the community will be able to build on this momentum to develop a complete, open source, cloud-optimized Xen virtual infrastructure platform," said Ian Pratt, creator of Xen and founder of Xen.org, in a statement.

The project aims to build open standards for virtualization management, improve the allocation of virtual workloads including transitioning workloads between datacenters, build a virtual switch, and enable massive cloud infrastructures.

A challenge to VMware?

It all sounds like a challenge to VMware, and specifically a challenge to VMware's latest core software product, vSphere 4.0. For example, a virtual switch, namely Cisco's Nexus 1000V virtual switch, played a large role in the launch of vSphere 4.0.

A key executive admitted that VMware looms large in the psyche, but claimed that Xen is simply providing features its users need.

(more) |

Posted by Alex Goldman at 4:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 31, 2009, 10:01 AM

Trend Micro offers Web Gateway Security

LogoTrendMicro_3d.gifTrend Micro today announced Web Gateway Security, a solution designed to enable IT managers to track Web usage in the extended enterprise and to defend their growing network.

Security managers are facing some tough challenges, Trend Micro noted. While Web security systems are designed to prevent employees from accessing dangerous Web sites, many legitimate sites pose a threat.

Protecting employees from threats on social media and mobile networks is also challenging.

Trend Micro's solution integrates two products, the InterScan Web Security Virtual Appliance 5.0 and a new Advanced Reporting and Management (ARM) module.

"Not only are most Web gateway security solutions not doing enough to stop Web threats, they have very high management costs," said David Lieberman, Trend Micro gateway and collaboration director, in a statement. "Trend Micro Web Gateway Security gives customers better protection, more flexibility and lower total costs.

The ARM module enables security managers to track all Web activity.

"As a software virtual appliance, it fits the growing trend toward standardized hardware and virtualization," the company said.

The InterScan virtual appliance complements ARM by scanning HTTPS traffic, delivering a comprehensive and flexible filtering policy, and delivering object-level blocking, "which secures Web 2.0 Web pages by providing more granular enforcement of policy without blocking the entire page," the company said.

Trend Micro Web Gateway Security is available now. Pricing is $17.98 per seat for companies with 2,001 to 5,000 employees, and volume discounts are available.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 10:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 26, 2009, 5:03 PM

Microsoft starts patent appeal with strong words

officehz_web.jpgMicrosoft began its appeal of a $290 million fine and a pending injunction against the sale of Microsoft Word with a strongly worded appeal today.

"In patent cases, even more than most, the trial judge's role as a gatekeeper is crucial. . . This case stands as a stark example of what can happen in a patent case when a judge abdicates those gatekeeping functions," Microsoft said in its filing.

"This is not justice," Microsoft added. "If district courts are free to admit theories of infringement that nullify a patent's claim terms, specification, prosecution history, and title; if they will allow an inventor to validate his patent by testifying without corroboration that he lied about the date of conception; if they will not intercede to preclude manifestly unreliable -- indeed, concededly manipulated -- surveys of infringing use ... then patent litigation will be reduced to a free-for-all, unbounded by the requirements of the substantive law or the rules of evidence or trial procedure."

Microsoft said that patent law has a goal that is defined in the Constitution. "While that mode of dispute resolution might enrich some plaintiffs and their investors, it hardly can be said to 'promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts.' U.S. Const. article I, section 8," Microsoft said.

"The appeal brief filed by Microsoft is an extraordinary document. It captures the hostile attitude of Microsoft toward inventors who dare to enforce patents against them. It is also blatantly derogatory about the Court system," said Loudon Owen, i4i Chairman.

Let the battle begin.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 5:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 25, 2009, 12:53 PM

IBM Rational supports Open Services with new software

ibm logo.jpgIBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced the release of software products to support the Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) standard for sharing data between applications.

The first portion of the standard, covering change management, was released this summer, IBM said. The goal of OSLC, an initiative that IBM participates in, is to deliver a full set of standards for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM).

"OSLC is breaking down barriers and easing the pain and cost associated with ALM tool integration. Its open community and common integration approach is very appealing for a company like Tasktop that supports integrations with nearly three dozen change and task management systems," said Mik Kersten, Tasktop CEO, in a statement.

Today, IBM announced that IBM Rational Concert and IBM Rational ClearQuest support the interfaces defined by the OSLC change management standard.

In addition, IBM Rational Change will be available in September.

Finally, IBM also announced that IBM Rational Quality Manager and IBM partner Tasktop support the OSLC interfaces delivered by IBM Rational Concert and IBM Rational ClearQuest and planned for IBM Rational Change.

"IBM did not hesitate to embrace the OSLC Change Management services in its Rational software development solutions because we recognize the tremendous potential of the industry coming together to agree on ways to integrate and share data between tools," said Martin Nally, IBM Rational Software CTO, in a statement.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 12:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 24, 2009, 2:42 PM

Delphi malware is an unusual threat

It's looking like fewer software packages can escape the notice of virus creators.

Earlier this month, a rare AutoCAD virus appeared, targeting users of that specialized application.

Now, reports from F-Secure and Sophos say that Delphi, software that helps developers build Windows applications, is vulnerable to a threat that Sophos calls W32/Induc-A.

The virus creates a bad system function and writes code that calls that function into key Delphi system files, according to Sophos and F-Secure.

So far, the threat may be minimal: Antivirus vendors say that the virus doesn't include a malicious payload. But it's capable of spreading quickly, and its method of infecting files indirectly makes the virus more difficult to remove.

"W32/Induc-A is a virus that infects Delphi files at compile time. As such, these files cannot be disinfected and need to be recompiled cleanly," Sophos warned.

"Please be aware -- this virus isn't just a threat if you are a software developer who uses Delphi. It's possible that you are running programs which are written in Delphi on your computers, and they could be affected," wrote Richard Cohen of Sophos Labs in a blog post.

(more) |

Posted by Alex Goldman at 2:42 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 24, 2009, 11:40 AM

Oracle's Ellison takes $1 salary

oralogo_small.gifLarry Ellison, Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) CEO and founder, will take a base salary of $1 for fiscal year 2010, which started on June 1, 2009, according to a recent SEC filing. That's down from a $1 million base salary for each of the previous three years.

But the base salary is just a small part of Ellison's total compensation, which was $56,810,851 for the year ending on May 31, 2009.

That total compensation figure includes over $50 million in option awards. Ellison also earned a bonus related to profit growth as well as perks that included $1,479,072 of home security.

Ellison owns 1,178,771,324 shares, according to the filing, or 23.4 percent of the company. The other top executives own about 0.6 percent of the company.

Ellison's pay cut comes as other executives are also cutting back. EMC's CEO took a pay cut earlier this year, for example.

But Oracle's business is booming, so the cut comes at an unusual time.

Perhaps the pay cut is related to the mammoth acquisition of Sun, which was approved last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 24, 2009, 9:01 AM

The Open Group announces SOA framework

Thumbnail image for the-open-group.gifThe Open Group today announced two new frameworks to assist organizations in the adoption of a service-oriented architecture, or SOA, an SOA Governance Framework to help companies develop SOA strategies, and the Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model (OSIMM) to help companies evaluate those strategies.

The frameworks were led by executives from the companies that are platinum supporters of The Open Group: Capgemini, HSBC, HP, IBM, NEC, SAP, and Sun Microsystems.

The Open Group told InternetNews.com that the frameworks do not compete with standards such as CoBIT and ITIL. "We expect that many companies will use our SOA framework within an overall context of CoBIT or ITIL," The Open Group said.

"CoBIT provides good practice that can be leveraged to ensure that the deliverable (in this case, for the SOA environment) will indeed meet and exceed business outcomes," Robert Stroud, international vice president of ISACA, the group responsible for CoBIT, told InternetNews.com.

Frameworks help parts of a business work together, Stroud added. "Name a business process that doesn't require technology," he said.

The challenges involved in implementing frameworks can seem daunting. "We're fighting the myth that governance is ... intrusive," said Stroud.

"Governance is a matter for the whole team, not just one individual," said The Open Group.

Everyone has to work together. "One of the first steps for governance, we advise, is finding the stakeholders in the business and setting governance principles. This will identify the places of value for the business first. Getting everyone talking and agreed is a good first step. This should all be done in the context of a good understanding of why and how the organization wants to use SOA," said The Open Group.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 9:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 20, 2009, 10:12 AM

Twitter spam bots obvious thanks to salacious photos

twitter_logo_header.jpgI've said it before here but now that a professional security specialist is talking about it (see Twitter spammers post sexy profile pictures) people should take notice.

Twitter has not responded to a request for comment but it's still early in sunny California.

Meanwhile, it's obvious that a group of spam bots are using sexy photos to try to lure victims to sign up for a pornography service, according to Sophos security expert Graham Cluley.

"Spammers have created scores of bogus profiles and followed random users en masse. Each of the profiles comes has a sexy picture of a young woman, complete with a message from the spammer embedded inside the image," he wrote in a blog post.

"Trust me, the image I've included below is much cleaner than many of the other ones being used by the spammers. Some of the photos you definitely wouldn't want to share with your mother-in-law," he added.

For the sake of science, he replied to one and ended up on an MSN chat where it soon became clear that a bot rather than a person was trying to get his credit card information for a "free" pornographic chat service.

He said that the spammers are evading Twitter's filters by using image spam, a common spam technique, according to Cluley and also according to reports from Google and MessageLabs.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 10:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Share

August 19, 2009, 2:38 PM

Radisson credit card breach a warning to businesses

It's already happened again. One week ago, ProPay warned readers of the benefits of end to end encryption in securing credit cards. Just yesterday, experts commenting on the Heartland hacker indictment told InternetNews.com that in the future, hackers would attack businesses who did not see IT security as their core competence.

Today, Radisson hotels is alerting some guests that their credit card information may have been stolen by hackers. "Between November 2008 and May 2009, the computer systems of some Radisson hotels in the U.S. and Canada were accessed without authorization," said Radisson's open letter to guests, published today.

"Radisson greatly values guest privacy and deeply regrets this incident occurred," said Fredrik Korallus, Radisson COO, in a statement. "Working with law enforcement and forensic investigators, we are conducting a thorough review of the potentially affected computer systems, and have implemented additional security measures designed to prevent a recurrence of such an attack and to protect guest privacy."

"We are also working closely with major credit card suppliers and law enforcement to ensure the incident is properly addressed," he added.

The company said it "arranged with Equifax Personal Solutions to provide eligible Radisson guests with free credit monitoring for one year if they stayed at certain Radisson properties between November 2008 and May 31, 2009. To be eligible for free credit monitoring, they must enroll by November 18, 2009. "

The incident should remind every business that they must have a strong security policy, according to David Ting, Imprivata CTO.

"This breach is just the latest in a string of high profile incidents where an enterprise's systems were inappropriately accessed. In order to decrease the likelihood of these incidents occurring, organizations need to make sure they have security policies in place, strong authentication to support those policies, solid employee education, and the ability to monitor employee access to the organization's proprietary or confidential information. In the end, as an enterprise, you better know who is accessing what, and from where," Ting said.

Because the investigation is ongoing, Radisson did not disclose details about how the attack happened.

Posted by Alex Goldman at 2:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

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