February 2001 News

• SUN appliances
• W2K on the roll
• Outlook 2K ASP
• Lotus will have the Knowledge but late

SUN applies itself

W2K rollout begins

Outlook 2000 goes ASP

Better late than never - or ....

Egg on Pru's face

Shorties

• MS has issued a strong warning that a security weakness in IIS allows malicious users to read and execute files on web sites.
• Oracle released its 8i database three months ago as being the database for the internet and then came 9i the database for e-business. Could it be that 8i without clustering is not really internet ready?
• Microsoft buys $135M of Corel stock. Corel pitted itself against MS with WordPerfect and was badly mauled so it must have been quite a surprise to be given the money by the perpetrator. It will be interesting to see how the Linux dimension is handled.
• Hackers, exploiting security flaws in Linux RPC.STATD and WU-FTPD, are planting tools that can be used to launch coordinated attacks on Web sites. The advice is to disable the programs until patches from the vendor are available.
• MS has confirmed that it will not have final code for its 64-bit Windows operating system ready until the first quarter 2001.
• Woolworth to re-launches its website after closing it after security problems. The uncertainty about the volumes could further delay.
• MS is licensing operations management software from NetIQ to help manage W2K and .Net enterprise servers.
• Novell's falling stock price creates linkage with Red Hat. The targets may be eDirectory and DirXML.
• IBM renames its server line and with a move that has surprised the industry the new server line name starts with an e. Yes it's eServer. Nobody would have ever guessed and Netfinity is now the xSeries, RS/6000 is now the pSeries. Lets hope that the alphabet can cope.
• Linux is moving too fast and because if this its own worst enemy. The problem is that when Linux is shipped it is well over 800 different programs that are updated at least once per year. That is not to mention the patches, fixes and special features. An added complication is that with Linux you also get the source which can be modified.
• Halifax subsidiary (Intelligent Finance) has delayed its online banking launch because of uncertainty about volumes. Lloyds TSB are just beginning their selected customer trials of Evolvebank in Spain. These online internet services are not as easy as they look.
• Lernout & Hauspie, voice recognition specialists, have profit problems, are subject to a regulatory investigation (change of chief executive) and have had a 60% share price drop. This in a marketplace that has potential but is not taking off.
• Chip manufacturer Intel has issued a profit margin so shares plunge. The value of the euro and flat PC sales are blamed. Maybe the pace of change and a saturated market has also influenced this.
• Baltimore Technologies have launched security development tools for the Palm OS platform just weeks after the first PDA virus was discovered.
• Design flaw in GSM mobile phone protocol opens security hole. The vulnerability is partly caused by encryption technology export restrictions. The "mitma" - man in the middle attack, is undetectable and tricks that end points into thinking that the phone is in a foreign country so not to use encryption.
• Sun launch "service grid" strategy based on UltraSparc 3 chip to support its Internet-oriented computing model. Starting at the low-end with SunBlade 1000 the high-end server (StarCat) will be available in ca. 12 months.