Application Development Trends' News


Apple beats Microsoft to the punch; Woz comes to Macworld

In what was widely seen as an attempt to upstage an expected Microsoft software unveiling, Apple Computer last week launched the commercial version of its much anticipated multi-device synchronization software, iSync, ahead of its scheduled introduction days later at the Macworld trade show.

Microsoft touts Web service for business travelers

To show that not all Web services deployments are back-office integration efforts, Microsoft is touting a .NET application bringing together FAA and related information to provide business travelers with real-time flight data.

Elusive Web services killer app seen as emerging this year

You don't need a crystal ball to find what the killer application for Web services will be in 2003, maintains John McGuire, co-founder and senior vice president of engineering at Cape Clear Software, a Dublin, Ireland-based Web services tool maker, because it's under every IT manager's nose: The simplification of application integration inside the firewall.

Japanese giants join to boost Linux

Linux is coming to a camcorder near you -- and a TV, VCR and a ''smart'' microwave oven -- that is, if a new agreement between Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. to adapt the open-source operating system for consumer electronics bears fruit.

The monitoring of Web services

Monitoring the performance of distributed systems remains one of the great challenges for IT managers today -- one that has only intensified with the advent of Web services.

Aberdeen: Watch for small IT spending boost in '03

According to a new report by analysts at the Boston-based Aberdeen Group, worldwide spending on IT products and services will increase 4.0% in 2003, with U.S. spending projected to increase 3.6%.

Monitoring tools emerge for .NET

Maintaining that ''the lack of adequate monitoring and management tools has delayed the promise of Web services,'' Confluent Software Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., has announced plans to release ''Interceptor'' technology for Microsoft .NET.

IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP form OASIS lingual translation team

IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP have joined forces to create a new Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee to work on XML standards aimed at speeding up lingual translation of Web content in global business applications.

Sybase acquires AvantGo

Enterprise software maker Sybase moved to strengthen its position at the front of the line in the burgeoning mobile/wireless middleware market last week by signing a definitive agreement to acquire AvantGo. The all-cash deal, reportedly valued at approximately $38 million, is expected to close by the end of Q1/2003.

Open-Source Mono effort gains support

Three software companies -- OpenLink Software, Winfessor and Tipic -- recently weighed in with their support for Mono, an open-source implementation of the .NET Development Framework.

Sun to ship BEA WebLogic with Solaris

Sun Microsystems said last week that it will begin shipping an evaluation version of BEA WebLogic Server 7.0 with its Solaris 9 Operating Environment System Administrator's Kit, beginning January 3, as an alternative to its own Sun Open Net Environment (SunONE) application server.

Judge set to force Microsoft to carry Java

A federal judge said he is prepared to grant Sun Microsystems’ request for an injunction requiring Microsoft Corp. to distribute Sun’s Java plug-in as part of its Windows XP operating system and Internet Explorer Web browser. -Dec.23

Veritas gets Precise for $537M

Veritas Software Corp., Mountain View, Calif., is buying Precise Software Solutions, Westwood, Mass., in a planned stock and cash transaction valued at $537 million.

ZapThink: Big changes ahead in XML data storage

The beginning of 2003 marks ''the end of the Native XML Data [NXD] store market as we know it,'' proclaims Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst at ZapThink, LLC, a Waltham, Mass.-based analyst firm specializing in XML.

Eclipse aims to extend testing

The Eclipse standards consortium has launched an effort to allow the integration of testing and other automated software quality tools from multiple vendors.

Novell offers free UDDI server

Seeking to push the least-used component of Web services from its current status as stagnating standard to a future of active deployment, Provo, Utah-based Novell Inc. this week began distributing a free UDDI server download.

Volvo makes a customer list and checks it more than twice

An eight-month project called for Volvo IT consultants to take 300,000 entries in multiple customer databases and create a single database for CRM and business intelligence applications.

Pursuing the elusive real-time enterprise

According to Thomas Siebel, chairman and CEO at Siebel Systems, the notion that companies must integrate their IT infrastructures so thoroughly that management has instant, accurate, up-to-the-second information at its fingertips anytime, anywhere, is really a model of corporate survival.

Bluetooth SIG tries harder to boost wireless

In an effort to give the market for its namesake wireless technology a shot in the arm, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group unveiled a new initiative last week aimed at ensuring interoperability among Bluetooth-enabled devices.