IBM to acquire FileNet for $1.6 billion ... Oracle calls Kingdee acquisition report 'speculation'

Today's IT News Audio Update
Dept. of Homeland Security warns users of Windows vulnerability ... Nokia sues to license Qualcomm technology ... Taiwanese motherboard makers join forces


HIGHLIGHTS

News: IBM to acquire FileNet for $1.6 billion
News: Oracle calls Kingdee acquisition report 'speculation'
News: Sun launches midrange storage arrays
News: Google Checkout delays trigger complaints
Storage Tip: Continuous Data Protection to the Rescue
ITwhirled: Geek comic of the week: Dot.Com


NEWS UPDATES

IBM to acquire FileNet for $1.6 billion
IBM Corp. continued its run of SOA-related acquisitions Thursday, agreeing to buy business process and enterprise content management specialist FileNet Corp. for about $1.6 billion in cash.

Oracle calls Kingdee acquisition report 'speculation'
Oracle Corp. Thursday dismissed as speculation a report that it plans to acquire Kingdee International Software Group Co. Ltd., a Chinese ERP (enterprise resource planning) software maker.

Sun launches midrange storage arrays
Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a new family of external storage arrays Thursday to compete with Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. for midrange business customers.

Google Checkout delays trigger complaints
Merchants and shoppers are complaining that Google Inc.'s Checkout often takes too long to complete sales transactions and sometimes cancels orders unjustifiably and without warning.

CEO: AOL breach would not happen at Google
The release of a database of online search histories that has gotten AOL LLC into so much hot water could never happen at Google Inc., CEO Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday.

Agitar software testing product will write code
Agitar Software Inc. plans to ship a software testing product next year that will test a developer’s code and, if necessary, automatically generate alternate bug-free and more efficient code, according to an executive of the company.

Eicon to buy Intel's media and signaling business
Eicon Networks Corp. plans to buy Intel Corp.'s media and signalling business. The sale comes as Intel moves to shed products outside its core computer processor business.

iPod rival Creative sings off key in Q4
Creative Technology Ltd., the leading challenger to the iPod in digital music players, reported its second consecutive quarterly loss as it battles strong competition from rivals and mobile phones with built-in music players.

Chambers: Massive router catching on
Cisco Systems Inc. says it has turned the corner in getting service providers to adopt its biggest router. Revenue from the CRS-1 (Carrier Routing System-1), the company's massive system for the core of carrier networks, was about $80 million in Cisco's fiscal fourth quarter, President and CEO John Chambers said during a quarterly results conference call Tuesday. That figure was double the revenue from a year earlier.


STORAGE TIP

Continuous Data Protection to the Rescue
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

CDP solves a long-standard problem of how to provide logical data protection for applications that require low RTO/low RPO. However, enterprises may want to consider extending CDP to not-as-time-availability-sensitive applications as well if the variable cost for expanding coverage is not that expensive. The incremental improvement in end user and IT productivity through higher availability may well justify the additional cost. In general, low RTO/low RPO technology is likely to become very popular as a complement to existing data protection technologies.

Read the full article here


ITWHIRLED

Geek comic of the week: Dot.Com

Here's an interesting bit of tech history ephemera: Contract Professional, a magazine for independent computer consultants, was riding high during the dot-com boom and commissioned a comic called 'Dot.Com. ' It followed the adventures of a computer contract professional (natch) named Dorothy Com, whose nickname was (wait for it) Dot. Dot and her cat URL have various wacky late-1990s tech adventures with recalcitrant computers, sexually harassing bosses, and the Amish.