Michael Hickins

SAN FRANCISCO-Salesforce.com is introducing DevForce, an on-demand platform that will support developers using its Apex programming language. The idea of this “platform as a service” is to provide a comprehensive cloud computing architecture that will allow enterprise developers as well as developers for ISVs and SIs (systems integrators) to create applications without the need for […]

NEW YORK—Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has not only drunk the Web 2.0 Kool-Aid, he’s having it injected intravenously into his bloodstream. The on-demand applications vendor added a new service to its growing portfolio of SAAS [software as a service] applications that allows customers to add other Salesforce.com customers as contacts, much as LinkedIn or Facebook […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is releasing a new taxonomy for Extensible Business Reporting Language on Dec. 4 in the hopes of improving financial reporting and analysis. An XBRL taxonomy, which is akin to an XML schema, describes a standard way to report business information. The SEC has been encouraging public companies to file […]

With the number of things Google is throwing at the wall, some of them are bound to stick. And if the perceived market for location-based services is any indication, Googles plan to offer better mapping and search results on cell phones by using cell towers to determine the location of users could be one thing […]

BOSTON—The mortgage crisis continues to wend its way through the national psyche. The occasional rays of sunshine, such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Groups $7.5 billion investment in Citigroup, and comments from a Federal Reserve official to the effect that the federal government may soon cut interest rates again to stimulate the economy, seem more […]

The other shoe has dropped in the ongoing legal battle between software applications giant SAP and Oracle, its fierce competitor. SAP announced Nov. 19 that Andrew Nelson, the CEO of its embattled subsidiary, TomorrowNow, has chosen to resign, along with several other senior managers. SAP also announced that it is considering several options for the […]

NEW YORK—Microsoft has gotten religion on hosting, and in a big way. Windows Server 2008, to be released Feb. 27, 2008, includes tools and features intended to make Microsoft partners better hosts. It includes tools to ease the deployment and provisioning of Web sites during a data migration, said Michael van Dijken, lead marketing manager […]

IBM announced that it intends to acquire business intelligence software vendor Cognos, a publicly held company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for approximately $5 billion in cash. IBM said the acquisition of Cognos will help it deliver the “next generation” of BI (business intelligence) tools that customers will require as markets become increasingly global and […]

The U.S. International Trade Commission has voted to institute an investigation into hard disk drives manufactured by Seagate, HP, Dell, Toshiba and Western Digital. The investigation is based on a complaint charging that the hard drives are made using patented products, and requests that the ITC issue a permanent cease-and-desist order against the companies. If […]

Business intelligence software vendor Cognos is making goo-goo eyes at Business Objects customers unsettled by news that their vendor has been acquired by SAP. Business Objects, based in Paris and San Jose, Calif., is being bought by business applications vendor SAP, of Walldorf, Germany, for about $6.78 billion. The deal has stirred speculation that Cognos, […]

A vendor managing job applicant data for clothing retailer Gap lost personal information, including Social Security numbers for some 800,000 U.S. and Canadian job seekers, the company admitted in a press release. The breach affects people who applied for jobs at the retail chain either by phone or online between July 2006 and June 2007, […]

VMware knows it may not be able to hold onto 80 percent of the hypervisor market forever. But its strategy is to move well beyond server virtualization and into value-added services that use virtualization to help customers manage their infrastructure more effectively. While the emphasis in recent years has been on the benefits of virtualization […]