Daily Tech Briefing: April 29, 2014

Microsoft has been urging users to be cautious of a new unpatched security vulnerability that impacts multiple versions of the Internet Explorer Web browser. The flaw is known as CVE-2014-1776, and Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 are all at risk from the remote code execution vulnerability.

According to the software company, research firm FireEye made Microsoft aware of targeted attacks that are currently attempting to take advantage of the vulnerability.

Hewlett-Packard officials are introducing enhancements to the company’s HP-UX operating system and new Itanium-based NonStop servers aimed at midrange enterprises. This is all part of the company’s Project Odyssey effort, which is an effort to give enterprises a choice of Itanium- or x86-based systems for high-end workloads.

HP also unveiled enhancements to its Integrity-based CloudSystem Matrix with HP-UX. This is a converged offering designed for private clouds and infrastructure-as-a-service environments that run mission-critical workloads.

Google wants to remind business leaders how important the design of a mobile site is, and how it impacts whether customers will make a purchase on a company’s site.

Jenny Gove, a user experience researcher at Google, explained that if companies want consumers to actually make purchases on their mobile sites, they have to make sure that the mobile sites are capable of making shopping and transactions simple.

A recent study by AnswerLab, in partnership with Google, has allowed the company to compile a list of 25 principles of mobile site design to help companies develop the best possible mobile site.

Finally, at a recent Internet of things-themed customer event, Microsoft released its Analytics Platform System, which is a SQL Server-based offering that leverages Hadoop. The company is claiming that APS changes the economics of gleaning business-boosting insights from massive stores of data.

This product comes amid the backdrop of SQL Server 2014’s launch, which the company believes will be a foundational software element of the Internet of things.