Microsoft has announced upcoming product milestones designed to help information workers, IT professionals and developers manage data complexity. In his keynote speech at the 2006 Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Community Summit, Paul Flessner, senior vice president of Data and Storage Platforms, detailed priorities for Microsoft's data platform.

SYS-CON.TV invites you to join an industry all-star lineup today at 1:30PM EST - Enerjy CEO, Nigel Cheshire; renowned IT guru, Andrew Binstock; and Java Developer's Journal publisher, Jeremy Geelan - as they shine the spotlight on the increased quality and reliability your applications will enjoy by using quality metrics at the developer level to build your software development process!

IBM has announced its Internet Security Systems division will offer customers a new hardware solution for centralized security management. Based on the existing IBM Proventia Management SiteProtector software, the new appliance is designed to make it easier for companies of all sizes to achieve centralized control of their various security components.

IBM has announced that it is enhancing its line of x86 servers with the introduction of four, quad-core IBM systems and a new blade utilizing the quad-core Intel Xeon 5300 processor. System x servers provide a whole new level of value for clients, delivering three to four times performance of systems that IBM offered less than 12 months ago, enhanced systems management capabilities, expanded memory and I/O.

Gateway's server line, up to now strictly Intel, has admitted AMD to its ranks. It has dual-core 1U, 2U and 3U rack-mounted models to start, promising more to come.

IBM has announced the introduction of two new midrange storage servers designed for companies that require 'hardened' infrastructures because of the industries they address or the data center environments where the equipment is located.

Aladdin Knowledge Systems, dealing in Software DRM, strong authentication and content security solutions, has announced that Transbeam, one of New York City's leading ISPs for hotels and schools, has selected Aladdin's eSafe SecureSurfing solution to offer its ISP customers with a first-of-its-kind security service in the U.S. that filters Web traffic prior to reaching end users. Transbeam plans to begin offering the solution to customers next month.

IBM has announced new migration programs to further accelerate the momentum of clients switching from HP's Mercury software and OpenView systems management software to IBM with a 25 percent discount on select Rational and Tivoli software.

At Microsoft Tech-Ed: Developers, Microsoft has announced that an enhanced version of Dotfuscator Community Edition (CE) will be included in the next major release of Microsoft Visual Studio, code-named 'Orcas.'

At the opening of Storage Networking World, IBM has announced an expansion of its enterprise line of disk arrays, including the introduction of a new flexible choice warranty option, while also adding new models to its enterprise tape portfolio that include the world's first 700 GB physical capacity linear tape media. The new products further IBM's lead in providing customers with the broadest range of storage offerings, from tape to disk.

Cenzic, a provider of automated application security assessment and compliance solutions, has unveiled Hailstorm Enterprise ARC (Application Risk Controller), the first product to address application security assessment across the enterprise. With its intelligent dashboard, Cenzic Enterprise ARC gives companies the ability to automatically discover and inventory applications and provides a comprehensive view of application security status with a complete workflow from a central console for Information Security Managers, CIOs, CISOs, Compliance Officers, and Privacy Officers -- all through a web interface, as per the company.

Dell wheeled out its Intel heartbreakers at Oracle OpenWorld, touting the price/performance, performance per watt and simplicity of its first two Opteron servers. The one-time Intel loyalist started selling AMD PCs in September.

With ATI Technologies in its pocket and only the $5.4 billion acquisition bill left to pay off, AMD is now supposed to deliver on a broad design initiative code named Fusion that creates a new class of x86 processor that integrates the CPU and the GPU at the silicon level. These Fusion chips, which will theoretically make widgets cheaper and less power hungry, are slated for late 2008 or early 2009. They're meant for all market segments.

SGI, fresh out of Chapter 11 and just back trading on the Nasdaq, filed a patent infringement suit against ATI Technologies Inc in district court in Wisconsin, where SGI's research and manufacturing facilities are located. The suit was filed Monday, two days before AMD closed on its pricey $5.4 billion purchase of the Canadian graphics and chipset house.

IBM has announced a new dynamic data warehousing platform, built upon the industry-leading DB2 9 'Viper' data server, that is designed to help customers quickly and easily gain greater insight into their business information.

Sun lost $56 million, or two cents a share, on revenues up 17% % year-over-year to $3.189 billion, which Sun attributed to its acquisitions, the increasing acceptance of the Solaris and growth in its services business.

A new digital archive storage system from Sun Microsystems, the creator of the Solaris Operating System, is helping computer generated imagery (CGI) leader Rhythm & Hues protect Superman's secret lair and the studio's 20 years worth of groundbreaking CGI work. Sun's solution has helped Rhythm & Hues achieve dramatic five-fold performance gains, improve ease of archive management, and reduce its hardware footprint, and prepare for continuing data growth.

Apple has announced that its entire MacBook Pro line of notebooks now includes the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor and delivers performance that is up to 39 percent faster than the previous generation. All MacBook Pro models now offer double the memory and greater storage capacity than the previous generation, as well as a FireWire 800 port for connecting to high-speed peripherals.

Sun ended the first fiscal quarter of 2007 with significant customer momentum for its recently enhanced IT product portfolio and the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS), including key wins with Alcatel, MasterCard, Research in Motion (RIM), the US Library of Congress, and Verizon Wireless.

Parallels have often been drawn between the computer security landscape and the biological world, since security threats such as computer viruses and worms can be viewed as digital incarnations of common biological threats. Similarities exist in terms of modes of reproduction as well as infection, and some research even suggests that digital threats follow the laws of evolution that predict these threats will become more sophisticated and effective as time progresses. A logical extension of this concept has always been to therefore consider the idea of computer security as a form of digital immune system, and in many regards, current security measures do in fact overlap with the protections present in biological systems.

Information has always been vital to running a business. Today, with businesses striving to meet compliance requirements, minimize legal risk and protect overall business health, information has become even more critical to survival. This means that organizations must continually raise the bar for protecting and recovering information.

The mobile industry is at the dawn of a new era of convergence that has been primarily driven by three key factors. First, mobile network operators (MNOs) have made huge investments over the past five years in 3G and 3.5G licenses and in building out high-speed data networks. This has enabled the development of a new generation of handheld devices featuring a growing number of new multimedia applications including cameras, music, and video players. Finally, consumers have seen the value of these developments and driven the demand for devices and bandwidth. With all of this activity and the lure of multimedia applications, recent research (iSuppli; Data Flash Market Tracker, Q2 2006) indicates that by 2009 there will be more than 900 million mobile handsets in the market. Of this number, more than 700 million will feature cameras, more than 600 million will include music players, and 100 million will have integrated TV capabilities.

SYS-CON Events (www.events.sys-con.com) announced today that the first international 'AJAXWorld(TM) Conference & Expo' (www.ajaxworldexpo.com), taking place on October 3-4, 2006, at theSanta Clara Convention Center, California, will offer AJAXWorld University - Developer Bootcamp program. The AJAX Developer Bootcamp will take placeon Monday, October 2, 2006, one day before the conference opens.

Further increasing its performance, capacity and innovation lead in network storage, DataDirect Networks will showcase its highest performing and most dense storage solutions, the S2A9550 Cluster Solutions and S2A9550 Archive Solution, at this year's SEG (Society of Exploration Geophysicists) International Exposition and 76th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, from October 1st to the 4th in booth 2719.

The latest Internet Security Threat Reportreleased today by Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) shows that because home users areless likely to have established security measures in place, they are beingincreasingly targeted by attackers for identity theft, fraud, or otherfinancially motivated crime. Furthermore, attackers are now using a varietyof techniques to escape detection and prolong their presence on systems inorder to gain more time to steal information, hijack the computer formarketing purposes, provide remote access, or otherwise compromiseconfidential information for profit.

Staid old Dell, which unlike its erstwhile image has turned into a regular trouble magnet, said Monday that it wouldn't be filing its second-quarter 10-Q on time - the one that covers the period when revenues plummeted 51% - because of that mysterious government probe into its books that the company admitted on August 18 has been going on for the last year.

Years ago, when Itanium - or what became Itanium - was still a threat and HP was working closely with Intel on the chip, this paper contacted a guy working deep inside the HP side of the project to find out more about the then-mysterious widgetry. Our budding relationship didn't last all that long. Although he didn't tell us that much - very little, by reporters' standards - HP turned him using phone records. HP police descended on him, ignominiously marched him out of the building under guard, and HP put him on unpaid leave until he successfully pleaded that he was just talking to his cousin, who, as it happens, was one of our reporters.

StillSecure, provider of an award-winning, integrated suite of enterprise network security solutions, has announced Safe Access v5.0, a network access control (NAC) solution.

The Eclipse Foundation, an open source community committed to the implementation of a universal development platform, has announced that it has approved the creation of the Aperi Storage Management Framework Project. The Aperi Project will give customers more choices for deploying open-storage infrastructure software.

Danish security research organisation Secunia states that the rise in the number of discovered vulnerabilities in the period July 2004 to July 2006 was 77%. And 23% of all disclosed vulnerabilities are still without a patch solution - an explosive cocktail for company assets.

For the third week in a row, IBM has spent in the neighborhood of a billion dollars on software acquisitions. This time it's the upscale neighborhood of $1.3 billion cash, which is what it intends to lay out for Internet Security Systems (ISS) in the name of IBM Global Services. Services hasn't been doing as well as IBM's software arm lately. ISS' product line will also be integrated into Tivoli's management portfolio such as identity management, access management, SOA and security part.

'Clients increasingly recognize that security must become a network-integrated business process rather than a reactive response to individual threats,' said Tom Noonan, President and CEO of Internet Security Systems, Inc. (ISS) as it was announced yesterday that ISS had entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire it in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately $1.3BN, or $28 per share.

Graphics chip maven Jon Peddie figures Intel is going to build a GPU in response to the AMD-ATI tie-up, which he says threatens Intel across a broader front than anything AMD has ever be able to manage before. The ATI acquisition will let AMD offer OEMs more one-stop shopping and a greater chance of cutting their procurement costs. Seems they're all determined to bring costs down anywhere from 3%-10% a year.

Storix announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Clark Data Systems (CDS), a computer network development, service and support company. CDS will bundle its routers with Storix's System Backup Administrator (SBAdmin) backup and disaster recovery software for Linux and AIX.

Data storage in the surveillance world is undergoing a major revolution. With an increased focus on capturing and managing digital information, some of the old methods of storing and archiving video footage can?t address the new business requirements imposed by changing times. When planning storage implementations, the high-end surveillance market requires optimal digital storage characteristics.

Security is a hot topic of the moment and as potential threats are identified and news about viruses, worms, bots, and unauthorized access abounds, a multitude of new security technologies continue to be introduced to the market.

A dangerous but likely sight in almost any hospital care unit is an unattended computer workstation, accessible by any passerby. If by chance the computer is locked, simply flip over the keyboard and you?ll often find the generic logon ID and password posted on the bottom; a failsafe for all caregivers in the care unit wanting to log on.

Companies today are very aware of the high costs associated with managing stored data and keeping this data available to business-critical applications. These management costs are escalating at a time when corporate IT organizations are looking to streamline operations to ensure that infrastructure investments lead to increases in productivity and profitability.

Several years ago, when Microsoft recognized its security woes and institutionalized its response in the form of 'Patch Tuesday,' IT and security management had good reason for discomfort. It's now 2006, and if anything, the situation continues to deteriorate, with the number of crippling attacks skyrocketing.

Successful businesses execute simultaneously on three fronts: sustained revenue growth, continuous cost control, and comprehensive risk management. Driven by a significant rise in public awareness of information security breaches, the discipline of risk management is under increased pressure to protect the information assets of the business better.