Articles by Staff Writer

As the standard for e-business Web sites moves ever higher and online shoppers become increasingly demanding, Web site performance can make the difference between a sale and a lost customer San Diego, California-based Webmetrics is one of the leading companies in the burgeoning Web performance testing space. CEO Tim Drees founded the privately held...

After years of legal wrangling, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft jointly announced that they have brokered a 10-year "technology collaboration" agreement, plus several related agreements -- including a settlement of all pending legal issues between them "This agreement will be of significant benefit to both Sun and Microsoft customers," Sun CEO Scott...

SBC Communications, one of the telecom industry's landline leaders, announced Tuesday its plans to roll out "FreedomLink" WiFi hotspot service at UPS Store locations throughout the United States. The announcement is the latest stage in the company's overall FreedomLink strategy, which promises to bring mobile connectivity to a mass audience The mov...

Pasadena, California-based Guidance Software is perhaps the leading IT forensics software vendor, with the exception of the U.S. government. Its EnCase series of applications allows law enforcement and IT administrators to gather and analyze forensic data using a graphical user interface (GUI) -- a far cry from previous DOS-based methods According ...

When most people think about IT forensics, if they think about it at all, they likely imagine a scenario out of the hit TV series CSI "When the show first started out, they would show someone at the keyboard and one of the leaders would ask, 'Oh, can we look at all his e-mails?' Then the guy would hit two keystrokes, and he would say, 'Oh yes, I se...

On Thursday, Apple Computer disappointed European consumers jonesing to get hold of the new iPod Mini. After originally setting an April launch date for the candy-colored portable jukebox, Apple said the iPod Mini will not become available until July "The iPod Mini is a huge hit with customers in the U.S., and we're sure it will be the same worldwi...

Novell has made several announcements concerning Linux at its annual BrainShare developers conference and is expected to announce a partnership with HP to bring Linux to its corporate laptop and desktop computers Novell spokesperson Bruce Lowry declined to discuss the HP announcement with the E-Commerce Times before the joint press conference, sche...

Microsoft's attack against Linux desktop software provider Lindows.com has taken yet another turn, with Lindows legal counsel filing a motion Monday in U.S. Federal Court seeking to stop the flood of global trademark lawsuits Microsoft has launched in a host of foreign countries over the last several months Daniel R. Harris, an attorney with Cliffo...

Cisco Systems introduced new products Tuesday that advance the company's so-called "Self-Defending Network" strategy. In accordance with that strategy, these new hardware and software offerings are designed to improve enterprises' ability to protect and defend their networks at all points According to the company, its portfolio of new products work...

The plague of malware appears to be escalating worldwide. As a worm variant called Netsky.D bombards e-mail inboxes around the globe, an even newer version, Netsky.E, already is being analyzed, according to Joe Hartmann, director of North America antivirus research at Trend Micro "There has been a flood of viruses over the last two to three weeks a...

Bozeman, Montana-based RightNow Technologies is a major player in the on-demand CRM space. In an interview with CRM Buyer, RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte explained that unlike hosted CRM leader Salesforce.com, which has its roots in sales force automation, RightNow focuses primarily on providing a complete offering for contact centers -- agent-facing applications as well as customer-facing ones...

In the past, enterprises too often adopted an application strategy that consisted of blindly throwing money at software vendors to solve problems. Not surprisingly, this was an unwise use of capital Now, with budgets tight and ROI paramount, companies must define their business processes internally before talking to vendors, according to Scott Tiaz...

The latest iteration of the MyDoom worm, "MyDoom.F," has Internet security experts worried because, in addition to triggering denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, it also can delete files from infected computers. MyDoom.F was first identified last Friday and has picked up steam in just the last few days, Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley told the E-Commerce Times...

There has been so much buzz in recent years about various enterprise applications that it is no wonder many executives feel underinformed and overwhelmed. Want to provide your global sales force with a central location in which to monitor and update sales pipelines? Customer relationship management (CRM) software could make the difference. Frustra...

Apple and Pepsi's iTunes giveaway, which promises a free music download coupon under 1 in 3 Pepsi bottlecaps, made a big splash with an ad aired during January's Super Bowl. Now, is the promotion on the rocks following disclosure of a tactic to identify winning bottles without purchasing them first? Not likely, according to analysts and Mac experts...

A new worm known as Netsky.B emerged Wednesday. It is the second worm in the Netsky family; an earlier version, Netsky.A, was first identified Tuesday. According to Trend Micro's Web site, Netsky.B has an overall risk rating of medium, despite having a high potential for distribution and damage However, Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst at an...

The Intel Developer Forum (IDF) commenced Tuesday with a statement that Intel will outfit its 32-bit Xeon server and workstation processors with 64-bit extensions. According to the company, this technology will become available in the second quarter of 2004 "Offering a broad lineup of solutions means that, when combined with the Itanium processor f...

Jim Steele, president of worldwide operations at on-demand CRM services provider salesforce.com, joined the company in October 2002 after a two-year stint as executive vice president of worldwide sales at Ariba. Prior to that, Steele spent 22 years at IBM, where he held numerous positions, including vice president of North America's western region and vice president of systems sales and general manager of telecommunications in the Asia-Pacific region...

Judging by its strategy, firewall vendor NetScreen is committed to a holistic view of enterprise security, leading the charge to integrate and deepen the firewall beyond its original parameters. The company's recently released Deep Inspection Firewall, for example, is designed to prevent application-level attacks, respond proactively to other security concerns, and integrate well with other enterprise security applications. Moreover, NetScreen's recent acquisition of Neoteris, a leader in SSL VPN (virtual private network) solutions, adds another weapon to its broad security arsenal...

In response to Microsoft's latest vulnerability announcement, a group of security analysts at Gartner has released a research note that advises enterprises against using Windows Server 2003 in mission-critical applications exposed to the Internet before the second quarter of 2004 "We may have to revise this cautious position if Microsoft fails to c...