Lisa Vaas

A quartet of glitches in IBMs DB2 database software tripped up Denmarks largest bank in mid-March, Danske Bank Group reported in a release [pdf] sent out on Thursday. According to the release, the outage had “significant” consequences that involved payments and the trading and settlement of currencies and securities. The outage started March 10 as […]

Relational database heavyweights are pushing the XQuery standard for querying XML documents, with IBM and Microsoft Corp. expected to present a test suite for the standard to the W3C on Friday, and Oracle Corp. recently having posted a prototype of the standard on its site. The test suite IBM and Microsoft will present is considered […]

Startup Vembu Technologies has unveiled an SQL conversion tool thats designed to parse any relational database dialect and automatically convert SQL queries into other SQL dialects. Vembu SwisSQL is an API designed to relieve DBAs (database administrators) of the need to port SQL queries. The idea is to write only one SQL query that can […]

MetaMatrix Inc. and IBM are rolling out enhanced virtual database technologies to untie the knots created when IT tries to connect business users to disparate data sources. MetaMatrix this week will unveil an update to its namesake information integration and data management system that uses virtual database technology to enable two-way transactions across a heterogeneous […]

Software licensing, ever a sticky subject, has of late been getting stickier still for Microsoft Corp. SQL Server customers. In February, a Washington state Superior Court judge decreed that some SQL Server 7.0 developers could be liable to pay additional licensing fees, stating that Microsoft could not sublicense patents of another company—Timeline Inc.—to SQL Server […]

Coinciding with Microsoft Corp.s announcement that Windows Server 2003 has been released to manufacturing, the company on Friday posted online a free skills assessment for IT professionals to determine what training theyll need to be ready for the new platform. Online Microsoft Skills Assessment for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 lets IT workers compare their skills […]

Microsoft Corp. today announced it has released to manufacturing both Windows Server 2003and the 64-bit version of its SQL Server 2000 database, as well as releasing to the Web its Visual Studio .Net 2003 application development environment. Officials said that Visual Studio .Net 2003 will be released to manufacturing soon. Bill Veghte, corporate vice president […]

Seeking to slow the impending loss of more than half of data center professionals to retirement, AFCOMs Data Center Institute has created a new program to help IT groups retain and replenish mainframe and enterprise data center skills. The announcement was made at AFCOMs Spring 2003 Conference and IS Expo in Las Vegas. According to […]

BMC Software Inc. on Monday plans to announce new SmartDBA data management tools for Microsoft Corp. SQL Server databases. SQL-BackTrack for Microsoft SQL Server 3.0 is the SQL Server version of the Houston companys backup and recovery solution. New features include logical extraction, which allows DBAs (database administrators) to selectively recover individual objects from physical […]

Former Oracle Corp. president and chief operating officer Ray Lane has joined the board of directors at MetaMatrix Inc., a 6-year-old metadata integration software maker, in New York. Lane left the Redwood Shores, Calif., database giant in June 2000, following a power shuffle with CEO Larry Ellison. After Oracle, he joined venture capital firm Kleiner […]