John S. McCright

IBM and Best Software Inc. are making more moves toward small and midsize businesses with scaled-down, less expensive applications. IBM last week introduced WebSphere Portal-Express, a scaled-down version of its Enterprise Portal that is designed for simple deployment and usage. This is the first of several software products that the Armonk, N.Y., company is expected […]

Novell Inc. is moving fast to update the Extend application development suite it acquired in July as it tries to remake itself as a platform-agnostic software and services company focused on Web services. Novell this week at the Gartner Symposium/IT Expo in Orlando, Fla., will release Extend Version 4, which features new portal functionality and […]

Customers and partners of information management software maker Crystal Decisions can expect its new CEO, Jon Judge, to steer the course more than rock the boat. Crystal, a unit of privately-held Seagate Technologies, this week named Judge its new president and chief executive replacing company founder Greg Kerfoot, who will chair Crystals board of directors. […]

A new appliance from Netezza Corp. promises to increase the performance of business intelligence queries by 10 to 20 times. The Netezza Performance Server 8000, or NPS, combines server, storage and database technologies in one appliance that acts as a standalone data warehouse. In this way it is optimized to handle the exploding amount of […]

Cisco Systems Inc. and Nortel Networks are both giving users more options for securing their networks. Cisco this week announced an upgrade for its security management software, known as Cisco Works VPN/Security Management Solution, or VMS, that allows enterprises to control multiple types of Cisco security gear and software from a single application. It also […]

Dedicated users of Apple Computer Inc.s Mac OS who have been forced to switch platforms to move to an enterprise-level database soon will not have to switch. Sybase Inc. this week will begin shipping Version 12.5 of its ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise) database with support for Mac OS X Version 10.2, which was code-named Jaguar. […]

IBM is looking to add to the high-availability, scalability and ease-of-management features of its DB2 Universal Database with an upgraded version of the software. The Armonk, N.Y., company last week announced that DB2 Version 8.1 will be available Nov. 21 and include such things as Self Managing And Resource Tuning, or SMART, capabilities, which simplify […]

Ray Ozzie is chairman and CEO of Groove Networks Inc., a maker of peer-based collaboration software. The company launched the first version of Groove in October 2000 and is now readying Version 2.5 for shipment. Faced with a tight economy, the company is intent on proving that its software can deliver tangible value and that […]

Oracle Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Lawrence J. Ellison is stepping down from his position on the board of directors at Apple Computer Inc. the company announced this morning. “I will continue to offer my advice to [Apple CEO] Steve [Jobs] and the executive management team at Apple, but my schedule does not currently allow […]

Technology vendors Vemics Inc., Polycom Inc. and Broadwing Inc. are rolling out IP-based videoconferencing offerings that will give educators and corporate trainers a richer platform to interact with students at remote locations. “Interactivity is a key learning variable for most people,” said Charles Edinger, an associate provost at Seton Hall University, which is using Vemics […]