NetIQ Adds Federal IT Support to Compliance Manager Suite

Add one more acronym to the list of security compliance laws supported by NetIQ’s Security Compliance Suite. 09/21/2005

Pondering the Partner Repercussions of Microsoft's Reorg

Microsoft's announcement that it is realigning into three business units and—probably more importantly—appointing Ray Ozzie to help it deliver more software-based services has the partner community wondering what it all might mean to their businesses. 09/21/2005

Microsoft Unveils Major Realignment

Microsoft shuffled the deck of top executives on Tuesday, consolidating its seven divisions into three and naming four presidents to report to CEO Steve Ballmer. One of the new presidents, former senior vice president Jim Allchin, will retire at the end of 2006 when Windows Vista ships. 09/20/2005

Microsoft Works to Sharpen its Small Business Focus

Microsoft has always tried to nab every sale it can, but it hasn’t always been great about servicing the SMB channels, particularly channels for small businesses. That’s changing, according to senior Microsoft officials, or at the least, the company is renewing its emphasis on those smaller customers. 09/20/2005

Microsoft Buys Alacris

Microsoft this week acquired certificate management and identity assurance software provider, Alacris Inc. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. 09/20/2005

IT Weekly Roundup, Sept. 16

From the business wires this week: a beta desktop virtualization software, an e-mail storage software suite and a KVM-over-IP device for remote management of servers. 09/16/2005

Database Mirroring Not Ready for Production When SQL Server 2005 Ships

Report: Microsoft in Talks to Buy Stake in AOL

Microsoft is in talks with Time Warner about buying a stake in the media giant's AOL unit, according to reports in the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal Thursday. 09/15/2005

Six Benefits Enhanced or Added to Software Assurance

Microsoft volume licensing customers who sign up for Software Assurance will get Windows "Eiger," Virtual PC Express and Windows Vista Enterprise Edition among other new benefits. Most of the benefits start in March. 09/15/2005

Windows Sidebar Makes a Comeback

Microsoft's on-again, off-again Windows Sidebar feature, a prominent new interface element that could make it into the Windows Vista desktop, is definitely on again. 09/14/2005

Partners Step Up for Katrina Relief Effort

Microsoft has been pushing the idea of partners helping other partners for some time now, as has the IAMCP. 09/14/2005

Version 2 Posted of Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 SP4

Microsoft on Tuesday posted version 2 of the Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 less than three months after originally releasing the security-focused update. The new version addresses four serious problems with the original Update Rollup but does not fix several issues with prominent third-party software. 09/14/2005

Microsoft, Google Both Claim Victory with Judge’s Ruling

Tuesday’s highly-anticipated ruling by the judge hearing Microsoft’s ongoing lawsuit against Google was a bittersweet irony with both sides declaring victory. The suit itself will grind on until trial early next year, however. 09/14/2005

NuView Aims to Speed File Restores

NuView will ship in the next month a new product aimed at providing fast, on-demand file restoration following a failure or for routine maintenance. 09/14/2005

Database Mirroring Not Ready for Production When SQL Server 2005 Ships

When SQL Server 2005 is released to manufacturing in the next few months, Microsoft will take the exceptional step of designating one of its high-profile features as being intended for evaluation only. 09/14/2005

'Monad' Beta Widely Available

Microsoft posted a second beta of its "Monad" shell, the interactive command-line and task-based scripting technology that appears to be on a separate timetable from the Windows Vista release. 09/14/2005

Microsoft Handing Out Vista CTP at PDC, More CTPs on the Way

Microsoft is distributing a Community Technology Preview of Windows Vista to attendees at its Professional Developers Conference 2005 in Los Angeles this week. The September Vista CTP, loaded with new features, comes fast on the heels of Windows Vista Beta 1. 09/13/2005

Office 12 to Sport a New UI

Microsoft showed off Office 12 publicly for the first time on Tuesday, featuring user interface changes that the company describes as the "biggest, most visible change to the way the core Office applications work since the introduction of the toolbar in 1997." 09/13/2005

Sun to Ship New x86 Servers

Sun Microsystems introduced three new AMD Opteron x64-based servers this week – servers it says begin a new generation of 64-bit x86, multi-core systems. To round out the offering, the company announced four new storage products as well. 09/13/2005

Microsoft Cancels Only Security Patch Planned for September

Due to quality concerns, Microsoft cancelled the release of a critical security bulletin for Windows that was supposed to be posted on Tuesday. 09/13/2005

Develop a Security Plan Now

The best place to start the secure enterprise is with a comprehensive security plan that works as you do. 09/13/2005

Microsoft's Near-Term Storage Strategy

When it comes to storage, Microsoft has several important enhancements in its product lineup. One is the Windows Server 2003 R2 release, which will bring a number of new storage features to the server OS. The other is a brand new product for backup and restore that launches at the end of this month. 09/12/2005

WinFS' Groove Factor

Whenever Microsoft talked about WinFS in the past, the emphasis was on the technology's usefulness for search and file navigation. 09/12/2005

Microsoft Still Quiet on Server Piece of WinFS

After acknowledging the need for a server-side piece of WinFS a year ago, Microsoft is quiet about it for now. 09/12/2005

WinFS Fleshed Out

Microsoft's WinFS, or Windows Future Storage, is the descendent of several abandoned projects dating back to Cairo to overhaul the way Windows handles storage. With the delivery of a beta release of WinFS last month, Microsoft brought chairman Bill Gates' long-standing dream of unified storage one large step closer to reality. 09/12/2005

CompTIA Exams Now Eligible for G.I. Reimbursement

CipherTrust Ships New, Improved Secure E-mail Appliances

Secure e-mail vendor CipherTrust released one new model and one significantly upgraded model in its line of reputation-based secure e-mail appliances. 09/08/2005

IT Weekly Roundup, Sept. 9

From the business wires this week: a business security suite for Windows Server, a VSAM-to-SQL Server conversion tool and a small-business dual-core server. 09/08/2005

Salaries Finally Up for MCPs According to 2005 MCPmag.com Survey

Readers report a significant increase in salary over last year's survey results. 09/08/2005

Notes and Domino 7 Now Shipping

IBM Lotus officials announced on Wednesday that the company is shipping version 7 of its Notes and Domino collaboration platform. 09/08/2005

System Aims to Block IM Attacks Proactively

At a time when security threats are multiplying for corporate instant messaging users, IMlogic says it has a solution. The Waltham, Mass. company just shipped its Real-Time Threat Protection System – and if that just doesn’t roll right off the tongue, call it RTTPS for short. 09/08/2005

With Lots of Partner Help, Microsoft Launches Small Business Accounting 2006

Microsoft today added to its small-business arsenal by announcing the general availability and promotional pricing for Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 and Office Small Business Management Edition 2006. 09/07/2005

'Project Green' Renamed Microsoft Dynamics

The realignment of the Microsoft Business Solutions product set previously referred to as "Project Green" got its official name Wednesday -- Microsoft Dynamics. 09/07/2005

Microsoft Lays Out Long-term Commitment to Midsize Business Server

Microsoft on Wednesday laid out a roadmap extending the recent Windows Server System Midsize Business promotion to 2007 and beyond with a Windows "Longhorn" Server version of the package code-named "Centro." "This is really the equivalent of Small Business Server for the midmarket," said a Windows Server senior director. 09/07/2005

Neupert Returns to Microsoft for Health Strategy Role

Peter Neupert, onetime director of operating systems responsible for OS/2, rejoined Microsoft last week to fill the position of corporate vice president for health strategy. 09/06/2005

CLI Rolls Out New Thin Clients

Computer Lab International (CLI) is shipping two new additions to its “Next Generation” line of thin clients that support Microsoft and Citrix protocols. 09/06/2005

DVD-Only Distribution Planned for Exchange 12

The distribution media for Exchange 12 will be exclusively DVD, Microsoft announced in a blog posting. 09/06/2005

PromptPal Spiffs Up Command Prompt with Windows Look and Feel

Technology Lighthouse is shipping PromptPal, an add-on user interface for the Microsoft command prompt that converts the popular administrators’ command line tool into a Windows program. 09/06/2005

Longhorn Server to Support Itanium in Only 3 Specific Roles

The role of the Itanium processor for Windows servers will be tightly defined in the "Longhorn" generation of Windows. 09/06/2005

IT Weekly Roundup, Sept. 2

From the business wires: a firewall that IDs hackers, a GUI command line console and more. 09/02/2005

Symantec Does the Trust-but-Verify Thing

Symantec Corp. is shipping its Gateway Security 5600 Series of multi-function network security appliances designed to proactively protect against blended computer virus and worm threats. 09/01/2005

Parsing Microsoft's Services Strategy

New packaged services spell opportunity for partners, but is the same true of Microsoft's managed services strategy? 09/01/2005

Gates, Ballmer to Lay Out Midsize Business Roadmap

Microsoft's top two executives will lay out a roadmap for customers in midsize businesses next Wednesday at the first Microsoft Business Summit. 09/01/2005

Windows Vista Beta Gives IT a Good View

Admins to get deployment, manageability and security improvements. 09/01/2005

The Vision Thing

Microsoft should keep shooting for the stars, even if it only reaches a few. 09/01/2005

Names for Longhorn Server

A comical take on what we might expect from Redmond when it releases its new server -- whenever that may be. 09/01/2005

New Software Assurance Plan Is Filled with Partner Goodies

Partners to get new opportunities in delivering deployment services and training. 09/01/2005

Complementing Microsoft

The new PartnerPoint portal reaches out to partners by offering services that supplement the Microsoft Partner Program. 09/01/2005

Nowhere Near Theory

Mr. Script dissects a VBA application that automates processes so you can side-step any pitfalls along the way. 09/01/2005

Microsoft's First, Best Customer: A Q&A with Microsoft CIO Ron Markezich

More than 300,000 devices. About 10,000 servers, 2,000 IT staff and the same number of contractors and vendors. The most attacked network in the world. Meet the man responsible for keeping it all going. 09/01/2005