Michael Hickins

The U.S. International Trade Commission has voted to institute an investigation into hard disk drives manufactured by Seagate, HP, Dell, Toshiba and Western Digital. The investigation is based on a complaint charging that the hard drives are made using patented products, and requests that the ITC issue a permanent cease-and-desist order against the companies. If […]

Business intelligence software vendor Cognos is making goo-goo eyes at Business Objects customers unsettled by news that their vendor has been acquired by SAP. Business Objects, based in Paris and San Jose, Calif., is being bought by business applications vendor SAP, of Walldorf, Germany, for about $6.78 billion. The deal has stirred speculation that Cognos, […]

A vendor managing job applicant data for clothing retailer Gap lost personal information, including Social Security numbers for some 800,000 U.S. and Canadian job seekers, the company admitted in a press release. The breach affects people who applied for jobs at the retail chain either by phone or online between July 2006 and June 2007, […]

VMware knows it may not be able to hold onto 80 percent of the hypervisor market forever. But its strategy is to move well beyond server virtualization and into value-added services that use virtualization to help customers manage their infrastructure more effectively. While the emphasis in recent years has been on the benefits of virtualization […]

NEW YORK—IT industry leaders signed a memorandum of understanding Sept. 18 with the Department of Energy that puts in place a process for creating metrics that can be used to measure the energy efficiency of data centers. Leaders of the 92-member Green Grid alliance, most of whom are IT industry executives, say the data center […]

The “touch of death” is a martial art that supposedly allows its practitioner to apply a deadly blow without his opponent even feeling it, sometimes succumbing hours or days later. Is it possible that server virtualization market leader VMware has dealt Microsoft such a blow? VMware sought to extend its lead in the server virtualization […]

Forgive Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers if he wasnt impressed with the size of VMwares flagship VMworld user conference, held this week in San Francisco. VMware claimed attendance was more than 10,000, but fewer than half as many were in attendance when Chambers gave his keynote on Sept. 12, the second day of the conference. […]

SAN FRANCISCO–VMware announced today that it has acquired Dunes Technologies, a vendor specialized in software that allows customers to automate workflows for managing their virtual environments. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The move comes at a time when virtualization is moving speedily from leading edge to mainstream, with VMware positioned as the vendor […]

NEW YORK-Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff isnt spitting fire like he used to. That may not be a bad thing. There was a time when Benioff wouldn’t spare Microsoft a bit of criticism and wouldn’t stint Google a bit of praise. Microsoft, after all, represents the antithesis of the business and software delivery model Salesforce.com champions. […]

Microsoft revealed Aug. 29 that it will not release Windows Server 2008, the successor to Windows Server 2003, on time. In a posting to the companys TechNet site, a Microsoft spokesman confessed that “Windows Server 2008, which we have been saying would Release to Manufacturing (RTM) by the end of the calendar year, is now […]