Application Development Trends' News


SPSS Revamps Its Flagship Stat Software

SPSS, a predictive analytics software provider, has unveiled what it says is a significantly enhanced version of SPSS 14.0, its flagship statistical software package.

SOA Software XML VPN Validated for IBM Tivoli

SOA Software said yesterday that IBM has validated SOA Software's XML VPN product as WS-Trust "Ready for IBM Tivoli Software." SOA Software XML VPN employs WS-Trust to integrate with IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager, allowing the enterprise to exchange secure B2B transactions sharing trusted, end-user identities, SOA says.

Airgas Receives Tracking Help from AppLabs

Airgas recently underwent a rapid expansion, but its workflow was done the old-fashioned way—manually. Manual processing is always painstaking, but entering data for 80,000 SKUs for specialty gases is especially tedious.

OASIS Working on SOA Blueprints

An OASIS committee has announced a project to create technical blueprints for businesses vying for a reliable way to develop applications for a service-oriented architecture.

Evans Data Reports on SMB Development Projects

The top three development projects planned for the next year for small and medium businesses are: B2B e-commerce, Customer Relationship Management and Work Flow Management, according to Evans Data's new Summer 2005 Small and Medium Business Development Survey.

JetBlue Adds SOA Management

JetBlue Airways plans to secure and monitor what the airline anticipates will be a growing number of Web services with the help of SOA Software’s Service Manager.

If You Build BI, You Must Maintain BI

Custom-built BI applications need tune-ups. And if the rate at which new features are added to shrink-wrapped BI releases from major vendors is any indication, BI consumers, in particular, aren’t shy about asking for more. As a result, there’s a good chance custom-built BI apps will require more attention than other kinds of homegrown software.

Business Objects adds Linux to its BI Portfolio

Business Objects announced yesterday that BusinessObjects XI, which includes Crystal Reports Server XI, now supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server platforms. To simplify deployment, BusinessObjects XI on Linux features guided installation and Web-based management, BO says.

Red Hat Sets the Base for the Fedora Foundation

At a LinuxWorld press conference yesterday, Red Hat provided an update on the Fedora Foundation, RH’s effort to share control of Fedora’s future development with the open-source community. RH is creating the Fedora Foundation with the intent of moving Fedora project development work and copyright ownership of contributed code to the foundation, says Mark Webbink, deputy general counsel at Red Hat.

IBM’s Grid Computing On-Ramp

IBM has unveiled a new packaged set of software, hardware and services designed to provide an entry-level system for companies getting into grid computing.

The Next Front in the Build-vs.-Buy BI Debate

Owing to a variety of factors, enterprises will increasingly give up their homegrown ETL solutions in favor of more sophisticated commercial ETL packages.

HP’s Fink Challenges IBM and Sun on Open-Source Licensing

Hewlett-Packard’s VP and general manager of the NonStop Enterprise Division, Martin Fink, challenged IBM and Sun Microsystems to drop their open-source licensing schemes and adopt the GNU General Public License during his keynote speech at the LinuxWorld 2005 conference in San Francisco.

IBM Releases an Upgrade for WebSphere

IBM today unveiled WebSphere Extended Deployment Version 6.0, which the company says delivers greater business value through effective use of an existing IT infrastructure, support for mixed workload and server types, support for new advanced data caching, and improvements in manageability and monitoring.

Apache Derby is Off and Running

The Apache Derby development community has released Apache Derby 10.1.1.0. Derby graduated from the incubator in July and is now a subproject of the Apache DB project.

Open Source is Serious Business for Exadel Customers

Here's a statistic worthy of a doubletake: According to Exadel, every Fortune 1000 firm has downloaded its tools—at least to kick the tires.

Justsystem Relies on Java to Make XML Easier to Use

Justsystem, one of Japan’s largest software companies, is making its first foray into the U.S. market with an integrated XML development, runtime and authoring environment and two toolkits.

iBreakthrough Subscribes to Online Learning

As a corporate trainer, Kevin Greene spent a lot of time on the road—traveling 15,000 miles per month all over North America. So, when he decided to jazz up the company’s classes for about 10,000 customers, he sought a way that didn’t require more traveling.

LinuxWorld Conference Draws Penguin Lovers to SF

The LinuxWorld Conference and Expo is underway in San Francisco (running Aug. 8 to Aug. 11). With 11,000 registered attendees, traffic is down slightly from last year (11,400), but exhibitors are up from about 180 to 200, according to event organizers IDG World Expo.

Macromedia Ups the Ante for Web Tools

Macromedia follows up on its April acquisition by Adobe with several new products: Dreamweaver 8, Studio 8, Flash Professional 8, Fireworks 8 and Flash Player 8.

Mercury Interactive Updates BPT Software

It is axiomatic to say that testing and QA are the ugly stepchildren of the software development process. Everyone knows code quality is important, but so are features and deadlines. And when it's crunch time, testing and QA get short shrift.