Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8

InformationWeek Daily - Friday, March 20, 2009

Oracle CEO Ellison: We'll Keep Taking Market Share Oracle will "continue to take market share from [SAP] for years to come," has produced a better database machine than Teradata, and is taking database share from both Microsoft and IBM -- all because of the $3 billion Oracle invests each year in R&D, CEO Larry Ellison said Wednesday. As noted in a news story by InformationWeek's Mary Hayes Weier, Ellison said in a conference call with financial analysts that Oracle's commitment to cloud computing is more vigorous than SAP's, and that Oracle has simply made investments in new-product development that SAP has not matched. In making those points yesterday (link good through March 25), Ellison's references to Oracle's commitment to cloud computing did not include the dismissive type of language he's used in the past when referring to SaaS or cloud-based products. In a conference call with analysts three months ago, he mentioned those terms and then added "or whatever you want to call them." So while the $3 billion annual investment is by far the most-credible commitment the company is making, Ellison's language also offers a strong indication that he has given his full blessing for SaaS and the cloud to move well within the mainstream at Oracle. In another departure in tone and substance from comments he made three months ago to analysts, Ellison spoke again Wednesday with enormous enthusiasm about the company's new Exadata Database Server (aka HP Oracle Database Machine) but, unlike last time when he made no mention of competitors' products; this time he spoke directly to how the new Oracle product was superior to Teradata's and has been outperforming it in customer trials. Describing the Oracle Database Machine as "the most exciting new product we've had in many, many years," he said one customer had experienced a performance increase of 28X compared with an existing Oracle database, while another customer saw monthly aggregation drop from 4-1/2 hours to 3 minutes. And then he went very specifically after Teradata. To keep reading, click here. Bob Evans [email protected] www.informationweek.com
Latest resources on the State of Storage: - State Of Enterprise Storage: Changing Priorities and Practices - The NetApp Storage Efficiency Guide - Empowering IT to Optimize Storage Capacity Management - Optimizing Data Storage for Software Development http://tinyurl.com/aqczuz "The man who enters a library is in the best society this world affords." -- Andrew Carnegie
Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8 Improved security, increased standards support, and an overhauled UI are among the browser's most significant features. Related Stories: Google Launches Chrome Experiments To Showcase JavaScript's Power IE8: Better, But Still Not Best Should Facebook Be Your Company's Intranet? For at least one midsize company, the answer is "Yes!" But using Facebook as a business intranet raises serious questions about security, privacy, and the effect on company culture. bMighty gets an inside peek at Serena Software's social networking experiment. InformationWeek Analytics: State Of Enterprise Storage Moving from simply meeting all storage demands to actively managing business unit requests is immensely complicated, but it must be done. If you haven't started on this path, this report will help begin the process. SIGN UP TODAY Maiden Flight Of 'Flying Car' Called Rock Solid The Terrafugia Transition is a two-seat aircraft that converts into a Volkswagen Beetle-like automobile. Nokia To Close Content-Sharing 'Mosh' The cell phone maker will integrate the free-wheeling Mosh site into its Ovi line of services, but it will screen content. Psystar Defies Apple, Releases Mac Clone Despite an Apple lawsuit, Psystar launched the $600 Open(3) that has a faster processor, more memory, and increased storage over the comparably priced Mac Mini. Safari Hacked... Followed IE And Firefox Last year's winner of the CanSecWest security conference's Pwn2Own contest repeats his success in record time. SAS, NetSuite, Salesforce.com Announce Cloud Computing Efforts SAS Institute will build a $70 million cloud computing facility, and NetSuite joins the platform-as-a-service market. SEC Settles With Stock Spammers Agreement calls for two Houston men to pay about $3 million to the government. Firefox's Fennec Mobile Browser Hits Beta Code-named Fennec, Mozilla's mobile beta adds support for extensions, as well as stronger JavaScript support with the TraceMonkey engine. Cisco To Buy Flip Camera Maker For $590 Million Pure Digital's CEO will become general manager of Cisco's consumer business group in the deal. Feds To Shut Down Google Apps? FTC is weighing request from privacy group that claims data stored in the cloud isn't secure. AT&T To Offer iPhone 3G With No Contract Those without a contract will have to pay a premium, though, as the 8-GB model will cost $599 and the 16-GB version will be $699. Microsoft's Ballmer Signals Renewed Interest In Yahoo CEO says there is "a good opportunity" for the two companies to complete a search deal. All Our Latest News Innovations in Storage Virtual Event This virtual event will not only discuss storage technologies on the vanguard of innovation, but also the business issues that companies face in optimally storing, protecting, retrieving, and using corporate data. Hosted by InformationWeek and Byte and Switch. It happens March 25. To learn more and to register See InformationWeek's daily breaking news on your mobile device, visit mobile.informationweek.com and sign up for daily SMS notifications. ---------- It's Crunch Time, You Need InformationWeek Analytics InformationWeek Analytics is dedicated to providing you with comprehensive, real-world assessments of technology solutions. These in-depth research reports are written by IT professionals with real world experience, so you can make sound decisions. informationweekanalytics.com/ ---------- Evaluating a New technology? Need Real World Answers? Get them directly from your peers and industry leaders at InformationWeek Forums. These technology specific events will immerse you in real life issues and solutions and provide peer to peer networking to answer your specific questions. informationweekevents.com ---------- Want it all - in one place? Get it at InformationWeek Reports Technology reports - for IT Professionals by IT Professionals. With hundreds of reports in 15 plus technology areas, you will find the research you need, when you need it. Easy to search and download - bookmark it today! informationweekreports.com ---------- 2008 InformationWeek Strategic Security Survey This year, it's all about managing risk. That's the overall finding of our 2008 InformationWeek Strategic Security Study, which quizzed nearly 2,000 IT professionals about their plans and priorities for securing their companies' assets. strategicsecurity.techweb.com/ ----------	Maiden Flight Of 'Flying Car' Called Rock Solid Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Seeks Dominance Nokia To Close Content-Sharing 'Mosh' Psystar Defies Apple, Releases Mac Clone Safari Hacked... Followed IE And Firefox Virtualization At The Desktop? Examine how more than 250 companies plan to adopt server virtualization technology in this recent InformationWeek Research report, Server Virtualization. The BI Explosion Examine the business intelligence strategies of 500 companies, including deployment drivers and challenges, spending plans, and vendor selection, in this recent InformationWeek Research report. HP, IBM, Sun Execs Blast Obama's Protectionist Policy While touring India this week, execs from HP, IBM, and Sun criticized the Obama administration's anti-outsourcing policies as unrealistic, claiming they fly in the face of the global economy and will not produce positive results. Is The Mobile Thin Client An Impossible Dream? During numerous interviews I did for a story to publish March 30 on software and smartphones, many CIO-types said they hoped to one day avoid distributing software to employees' BlackBerrys, Windows Mobiles, and other devices, and instead have smartphones entirely dependent on software in the cloud. But given what my research revealed about how employees use smartphones, that seems an impossible goal. Where Was Linux In The Pwn2Own Contest? The first round of the Pwn2Own was something of a redux of the previous one: the Mac was the first to fall (I'm actually not surprised given Apple's culture of obscurity-over-security), with Windows 7 via IE 8 shortly thereafter. But Linux wasn't even in the running this time. What gives? iPhone 3.0 SDK Providing Hints About Future Features And Devices iPhone developers have been downloading the iPhone 3.0 OS SDK since it became available earlier this week. As they sink their teeth into the new SDK, lots of gems are popping up that suggest new, unannounced features -- and devices! -- are on the way. The Problem With Sun's Cloud Strategy Sun's plans for a cloud computing platform and related Sun Cloud services are getting a thumbs up for the technology, innovation, and openness that Sun promises to bring to this emerging market. Unfortunately, Sun's cloud could be dead on arrival. BBC Responds To Allegations About The Legality Of Its Report Nick Reynolds of the BBC directed me, and many other writers covering this story, to the BBC's official response to allegations that BBC's technology show, Click, violated the U.K.'s Computer Misuse Act when it purchased and used a botnet as part of an investigative report into cybercrime. New Search Site Debuts For Business Users The Financial Times Group has launched a public beta of Newssift, a business-oriented search engine that provides multifaceted search and other cool features. Consolidation Causing Angst In IT It was once axiomatic that you couldn't get fired for buying IBM, although you could extend that security blanket to include the likes of Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle. Using DNS To Distribute Trust In "DNSSEC: Forgetting The User, Again," I opined about why users should be notified about signed vs. unsigned DNS responses. Dan Kaminsky, a security researcher with IOActive, and I got into a quick conversation about DNSSEC, SSL, and trust on the Internet. Kaminsky had some interesting thoughts on distributing trust. Wolfe's Den Vlog: iPhone Gets Battery Life Boost From Mophie Even fanboys admit that, when Steve Jobs gifted his iPhone with wonderful attributes, he skimped in the battery life department. Fortunately, what the creator omitted, a cool add-on gadget called Mophie delivers. Read on to see a short demo video of this useful "juice pack" for Apple's iPhone. Gmail Users Can Now View YouTube Videos From Within Gmail Google just doesn't stop. New in Labs this week are several added features that let users access YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Yelp content without the need to open a separate window, tab or link. Real-World SOA: Definition, Implementation and Use of SOA with CentraSite Web services are having a dramatic impact on improving enterprise architecture and application development practices. This paper highlights three sample case studies illustrating how Fujitsu's CentraSite delivers SOA solutions. Forrester Consulting: Unified Communications Delivers Global Benefits This Forrester Consulting study shows how Unified Communications (UC) makes it simpler to contact others over any device in any location, enhancing business agility, cutting costs, and boosting employee productivity. Forrester finds that UC is already delivering major savings for organizations around the world in retail banking, manufacturing and education. Download the full report for free. Software as a Service Research Report No longer a niche software delivery model, software as a service (SaaS) can help small and midsize companies get access to enteprise-class software functionality without having to commit enterprise-level capital resources. Download the full report for free. The Internet & The Developing World The evolution of the Internet has been full of surprises - surprises that have sometimes resulted in radical changes in the commercial landscape, such as the arrival of Amazon, eBay, Google, YouTube, and Skype. Could one of the next big surprises turn out to be linked to developing countries? Read the full report for free from InternetEvolution.com Featured Jobs: Booz Allen Hamilton seeking J2EE Developer in Kansas City, MO Apollo College seeking Medical Billing/Health IT Instructor in Portland, OR Lennar Corporation seeking Director, Business Intelligence in Miami, FL Pitt County Memorial Hospital seeking Instructional Designer in Greenville, NC Osram Sylvania seeking Marketing Manager in Hillsborough, NH For more great jobs, career-related news, features and services, please visit our Career Center. 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Latest resources on the State of Storage: - State Of Enterprise Storage: Changing Priorities and Practices - The NetApp Storage Efficiency Guide - Empowering IT to Optimize Storage Capacity Management - Optimizing Data Storage for Software Development http://tinyurl.com/aqczuz
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