Industry News

Open Source Is No "Get-Rich-Quick Scheme" But If You Get It Right...

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Money is being made with Open Source. Some make spectacular money by exploiting Open Source (Google, Apple) and some things wouldn't even exist without it (Internet, Software as a Service, Cloud Computing) - so it really boils down to finding the right business model.

ELASTRA Delivers Cloud Portability With Support for Open Source Eucalyptus Platform

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:44:00 EDT

ELASTRA announced Elastra Cloud Server support for the Eucalyptus platform. ELASTRA’s products are designed for portability across compute clouds and currently provide support for the Amazon EC2 and S3 compute and storage environments. Because Eucalyptus exposes its virtual machines through an EC2-compatible API, ELASTRA’s portability to Eucalyptus was a straightforward addition to its platform offering.

Jitterbit 2.0 Delivers New Enterprise Capabilities, Scalability and Manageability

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Jitterbit has announced the availability of Jitterbit 2.0 Enterprise, which includes new capabilities, scalability and management tools. With this new release, organizations have the ability to solve integration challenges between legacy, enterprise, and on-demand applications and data.

LinMin API Adds Bare Metal Provisioning All Around

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:45:00 EDT

A new API is supposed to integrate LinMin Bare Metal Provisioning 5.2 into environments that haven’t been able to do bare metal provisioning of Windows, Red Hat, Novell, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora or Asianux on physical systems or virtual machines before. The rev also features single-command installation.

Appeals Court Overturns Injunction-Denying Open Source Ruling

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:00:00 EDT

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Wednesday overturned a year-old San Francisco district court decision that deprived the aggrieved plaintiff in a dispute over open source software governed by the Artistic License of the right to sue for copyright infringement and get an injunction against the defendant.

Cloud Computing Expo - Google’s Now in the Encryption Business

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:11:00 EDT

Google has waded into the encryption business with an open source cross-platform toolkit called Keyczar that’s supposed to make it easier for ISVs to put cryptography in their applications. It says Keyczar supports both encryption and authentication with both symmetric and asymmetric keys as well as Java and Python implementations, promising C++ soon.

Obama May Win by a Landslide: Thomas M. DeFrank

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Also in the book, DeFrank writes about Ford's opinion of Bill Clinton's addiction to women. Ford says about Clinton: 'He's sick - he's got an addiction. He needs treatment. He's sick. You know there is treatment for this kind of addiction. A lot of men have gone through the treatment with a lot of success. But he won't do it, because he is in denial.' DeFrank saved his thoughts on the upcoming election in a separate speech, which he gavae the next day. 'If Obama wins, he will win by a landslide margin. If McCain wins, it will be a very small margin.' thinks DeFrank.

AJAX RIA Toolset for IBM WebSphere Platform Released

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:15:00 EDT

The AJAX for IBM WebSphere Platform Early Program is an optionally installable product extension for IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 6.1 and WebSphere Application Server Community Edition that offers targeted, incremental new features that can make Web applications running on WebSphere Application Server easier to use.

Grid.org Open Source Community Surpasses 5,000 Software Downloads

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:00:00 EDT

Grid.org, the online community for open-source cluster and grid software, announced that their open source cluster software stack, UniCluster, has exceeded 5,000 downloads by the HPC community. Grid.org, launched in November 2007, was developed to provide a single aggregation point for information and interaction by the community of grid and cluster users, developers and administrators.

Top Keynotes at SYS-CON's World-Beating RIA Conference & Expo: AJAX World

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:45:00 EDT

Two of the biggest launches in Rich Internet Application history took place in 2007/2008 when Adobe launched AIR 1.0 in February '08 and Microsoft launched Silverlight (September '07). At the 6th International AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo in October SYS-CON Events is delighted to be presenting major industry keynotes from the two industry executives with overall responsibility for both of those massive richer-web initiatives: Adobe's CTO Kevin Lynch and Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's .NET Developer Platform.

O3SIS and Open-Xchange to Deliver Mobile Open Source Collaboration Technology

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Open-Xchange announced an agreement with O3SIS. The companies expect to release in the third quarter software that will enable Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telcos and web hosting companies to offer their customers a mobile extension of the Open-Xchange Hosting Edition.

Open Source News: Aster Data Systems and Pentaho Establish Partnership

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:45:00 EDT

Aster Data Systems announced a strategic partnership with Pentaho that combines product integration, certification, and services. The two companies will also partner on joint sales and marketing efforts. Aster will provide its Aster nCluster analytic database to work in conjunction with Pentaho open source business intelligence (BI) products, to enable customers to collect and analyze large volumes of data for deep analysis and reporting.

XAware Enhances Open Source Data Integration Software

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:45:00 EDT

XAware announced the general availability of XAware 5.1, the open source data integration solution for creating and managing composite data services for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. The product enhancements included in this release have been greatly influenced by the rapidly growing XAware community, which has downloaded more than 150,000 copies of the solution in the five months since its general release. XAware has also been listed as one of the top 100 projects on Sourceforge.net, an Open Source software development web site, hosting more than 100,000 projects and with over 1,000,000 registered users.

Schroepfer Quits Mozilla, Joins Facebook as a Director of Engineering

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:00:00 EDT

The latest director of engineering at Facebook, one of four, is Mike Schroepfer - from Mozilla. In his blog on the move, he wrote to his Mozilla colleagues: "This is the first time I’ve decided to leave something I really truly love - I will dearly miss getting a chance to work with all of you every day. Everyone that I’ve met from the community has, and will continue to be, a huge inspiration to me.”

Commercial Packages vs Open Source: Which is Better Long-term?

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:30:00 EDT

MySQL is one of the positive examples of open source. However, I find that far too many people go for open source due to short term advantages (e.g., it is free), without adequate consideration of the full cost/benefit considerations and the long term implications. To begin with, to a certain extent you get what you pay for. If the package is free, then the support and service is going to be limited as there is no funding for it. Not many people would buy a commercial package with no guaranteed support, so likewise they should carefully consider this for open source.

Google's Top Copyright Man Ceases Blogging: The State of Copyright's Too Gloomy

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Although Google's top copyright man, William Patry wrote his blog in a purely private capacity as one of the leading copyright scholars in the world. But now he has decided to end the blog, after doing around 800 postings over about 4 years. When one of the world's pre-eminent experts in the field is so depressed by the state of copyright that he can't bring himself to blog about it, you know that something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Mozy Claims 100% Growth in Six Months

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:24:00 EDT

Mozy, EMC’s online backup property, says it doubled the size of its enterprise and SMB customer base in the first half and now has more than 750,000 users and 20,000 business customers backing up 7.6 billion files to its 10-petabyte storage system.

Mozilla Deploys Pentaho, Vertica

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:55:00 EDT

Having outgrown its homemade log analysis scripts, Mozilla has deployed Pentaho’s commercial open source business intelligence (BI) Data Integration widgetry and Vertica Systems’ high-performance analytic database to analyze large volumes of log file information in a data warehouse and business intelligence system.

Microsoft’s Appeasement Party Strikes Again

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:48:00 EDT

Like Google and Yahoo, Microsoft is now suddenly a platinum sponsor of that open source touchstone, the Apache Software Foundation, and has pledged its $100,000 check. The move was announced Friday at the Open Source Convention in a speech by Microsoft senior director of platform strategy Sam Ramji, who described it as an endorsement of the “Apache Way.”

Alfresco Looks To Oust SharePoint

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:17:00 EDT

Alfresco pounced on that SharePoint protocol that the European Commission forced Microsoft to disgorge and turned up Thursday with what it claims is the first fully compatible open source alternative to Microsoft SharePoint, one of the fastest-growing and stickiest products in the Microsoft arsenal.

Cloud Computing - SnapLogic-SugarCRM an Item

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:00:00 EDT

SnapLogic, the outfit that calls itself the really simple integration company and leverages RESTful web technology, has announced a SugarCRM Solution Pack, an extension to its open source data integration framework. SnapLogic enables enterprises to integrate data on both sides of the enterprise firewall and create custom integration solutions, including application integrations, enterprise mashups and rich Internet applications (RIAs).

Sun's MySQL Enterprise Helps LinkedIn Scale Its Web Systems

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

As a leader in our field, we are committed to providing the best service to our users, and a web experience that meets members expectations and that starts with IT,” said Jean-Luc Vaillant, Chief Technology Officer, LinkedIn. “The combination of Sun and MySQL means quicker access to the latest innovation in an open and reliable environment and this saves me time and money.”

Black Duck Software Partners with E-Soft to Expand Open Source Presence in Taiwan

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Black Duck Software announced the addition of a new partner in Taiwan, E-Soft Technologies, further expanding the company's substantial presence in East Asia. Taiwanese companies increasingly utilize open source software to cut development costs and accelerate time-to-market of software. Black Duck products and solutions help software organizations realize these benefits while managing licensing, security and other risks and issues associated with unmanaged open source code. E-Soft will promote Black Duck products and offer other Black Duck services to help organizations manage the use of software assets governed by open source licenses.

AJAX RIA News - Zimbra Revs Desktop

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Zimbra, Yahoo's open source Microsoft-opposing e-mail and calendaring folks, bought last September for $350 million, have released rev 3 beta of their offline e-mail client, Zimbra Desktop, which competes with Outlook, Thunderbird and everybody else with a dog in this race. It's unclear what exactly Zimbra brings to the party other than its Yahoo connection.

Open Source - What is the Total Cost of Ownership?

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:15:00 EDT

In 2005, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems quipped that open source software was 'free like a puppy is free.' Just as you can pick out a puppy from the pound without paying expensive breeder fees, you can download and use open source software without buying a single license. But puppies become dogs, and dogs need food, toys, training and lots and lots of love. Even with all this attention, there?s no guarantee your cuddly puppy won?t develop a vicious streak. Will you need endless obedience classes and a chain and muzzle to control it? The same goes for open source software. As soon as you introduce open source into your organization, the real costs, commitments and risks become clear.

Rating JRuby, Jython, and Groovy on the Java Platform

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:15:00 EDT

Open source software, while not synonymous with Java, may often be seamlessly integrated with Java code to produce a versatile synthesis that makes developers' lives much easier. In recent years, developers have taken some open source dynamic languages, commonly referred to as 'scripting languages,' and adapted them to the more mainstream Java platform.

Automating Website Testing Using Open Source Tools

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:30:00 EDT

In today's competitive world, the most important presence for a corporation is their website. It not only acts as a face for the company but also as an interface enabling its clients, users, and prospects to communicate with the company. As websites are accessible to users via thin clients such as web browsers, the quality and reliability of a website are paramount to its success.

Extended Validation SSL Certificates

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:30:00 EDT

Extended Validation (EV) is a new standard in SSL certificates. This guide explains the needs which drove the development of this standard and how it addresses contemporary security challenges. It also delves into the integration of EV certificates into new high security browsers such as Microsoft's IE7.

Cloud Computing - IBM's Got Its Head in the Clouds

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:45:00 EDT

Reminding people of how its backing was the making of Linux, IBM, to no one's surprise, has thrown its support behind cloud computing, that delicious nexus of every chi-chi buzzword technology currently in vogue: Web 2.0, rich Internet applications, software-as-a-service, SOA, grid computing, Web Services, virtualization and utility computing. IBM calls its initiative Blue Cloud - like it could have another name - and claims it's a 'game-changing model for Internet-scale computing,' providing customer with just the right size computer power while at one and the same time being 'green' as well as 'self-healing and self-managing' based on open standards and Linux. Lordy, if this thing was a cute guy with money, it would be every mother's dream.

OrecX Debuts Open Source VoIP Recording Technology

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:15:00 EDT

OrecX announced the formal debut of its Oreka Total Recording (TR) software solution for customer service management professionals, leveraging the power of open source in bolstering efficient call-center operation. Oreka TR allows organizations to comply with regulatory requirements and improve customer service by recording and retrieving phone calls without disrupting operations, exhausting annual budgets, or paying for extra implementation services that never get used.

Black Duck Software Adds C/C++ Open Source Software to Koders.com Code Search Engine

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:15:00 EDT

Black Duck Software announced a substantial expansion to the volume of open source software managed in the Koders.com code search engine. Koders.com now contains 15 percent more code through the addition of C and C++ code governed by open source and other licenses. The addition will enhance Koders' position as the search engine of choice for developers looking for reusable open source code, methods, examples and algorithms.

Virtualization, Microsoft, Yahoo & Google

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Citrix has tapped its VP of channels and emerging product sales Al Monserrat to replace its departing sales chief John Burris, who, as previously reported, is going to Sourcefire as CEO. A couple of years ago Monserrat was responsible for Citrix' North American sales. Meanwhile, Citrix has named former PeopleSoft chief marketing officer and HP veteran Nanci Caldwell to its board.

Open Solutions Alliance Announces Survey Results

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:30:00 EDT

In the first annual survey of its membership and other open source software and services companies, the Open Solutions Alliance found much optimism despite a murky economy with 83 percent of participants saying they would see a year-over-year increase in revenue in 2008 of open source related software and services.

Sun Microsystems Unveils Enterprise AMP Stack for Solaris and Linux

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Sun Microsystems announced the availability of the Sun Web Stack, a fully supported and integrated enterprise-quality AMP (Apache/MySQL/Perl or PHP) stack for Solaris and Linux operating systems. The Web Stack software includes the open source, standards-based software most commonly used for Web-tier application development and services.

Sun Microsystems Announces Sun OpenSSO Express

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Sun Microsystems announced the availability of Sun OpenSSO Express, a new offering that provides enterprise support and indemnification for the technologies available in the OpenSSO project. OpenSSO is an open source, identity management project, providing highly scalable, high-performance single sign-on, access management, federation, and secure web services capabilities.

KID Delivers Apatar Open Source Data Integration to South Africa

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:45:00 EDT

Knowledge Integration Dynamics (KID) has concluded a system integrator partnership agreement with U.S.-headquartered Apatar to distribute its open source data integration suite in South Africa. KID will use, consult, train, and offer support services for the Apatar integration package that offers a single interface into all integration projects across Mac OS, Windows, and Linux using an open source architecture and modular applications that deliver flexible deployment options.

Zoho Signs Swisscom to Six-Month Pilot

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT

Zoho, the online Office wannabe, has gotten Swisscom, the telephone side of the old Swiss PTT monopoly, to offer its 300,000 business customers a suite of Zoho's SaaS applications as part of a six-month pilot through its Teamnet portal. The Zoho Business suite, including Zoho Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook and Meeting, will be free.

SnapLogic Announces SugarCRM Solution Pack

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:15:00 EDT

SnapLogic announced the SugarCRM Solution Pack, an extension to the SnapLogic open source data integration framework. SnapLogic enables enterprises to integrate data on both sides of the enterprise firewall and to create custom integration solutions, including application integrations, enterprise mashups, and rich Internet applications (RIAs). The SugarCRM Solution Pack enables integration of SugarCRM with other SaaS applications, behind-the-firewall enterprise applications, Web sites, and other data sources. The Solution Pack supports both standard SugarCRM deployments, as well as Sugar On-Demand implementations. SnapLogic also announced that it has joined SugarCRM's SugarExchange program.

IONA and Chariot Solutions Accelerate Adoption of Enterprise Open Source

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

IONA announced that Chariot Solutions has become a FUSE Partner. Chariot Solutions, as a FUSE Partner, will resell IONA's FUSE family of Open Source services and solutions to address customers' enterprise Open Source requirements. As a FUSE Partner, Chariot Solutions' consulting customers will have access to IONA's services for its FUSE product family, featuring fully supported, enterprise releases of leading Apache Open Source projects including ServiceMix, ActiveMQ, CXF and Camel.

DeathWish Might Have Been a Better Name

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

As predictable as the bet that night will follow day, Apple sued a little widely watched wannabe Mac cloner in Florida called Psystar that's been selling a $399 box called Open Computer for the last few months.