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COBOL Job ExchangeRecent News ArticlesITP Technology September 04, 2006Is there a career future in IT? Are traditional career paths for enterprise IT professionals still feasible in the face of outsourcing offshoring and downsizing? Forrester recently interviewed 55 IT and expert executives to learn their views. What did they discover? Enterprise IT execs are optimistic but not proactive in reinforcing the attractiveness of an IT career. But enterprise IT is as attractive as it has ever been taking on a less technical and more business-focused shape. The new IT career paths meander into and out of IT. Entrances and exits to and from business groups and ecosystem partners are not only possible but accepted and routine. ITP September 04, 2006Is there a career future in IT? Are traditional career paths for enterprise IT professionals still feasible in the face of outsourcing offshoring and downsizing? Forrester recently interviewed 55 IT and expert executives to learn their views. What did they discover? Enterprise IT execs are optimistic but not proactive in reinforcing the attractiveness of an IT career. But enterprise IT is as attractive as it has ever been taking on a less technical and more business-focused shape. The new IT career paths meander into and out of IT. Entrances and exits to and from business groups and ecosystem partners are not only possible but accepted and routine. InformationWeek September 30, 2004Hurdles Aside Open Source Wins Converts Open-source products are an ideal answer for companies seeking to increase IT efficiency without incurring substantial overhead costs . Open-source products are an ideal answer for companies seeking to increase IT efficiency without incurring substantial overhead costs. Low cost of ownership and no licensing fees are the main drivers behind growing acceptance and advocates contend that using open source provides more opportunities for innovation. That's according to an InformationWeek Research study that examines demand for open-source architecture. Eweek.com September 30, 2004Microsoft Makes More Open-Source Overtures Still feeling the pressure from Linux and other open-source software competitors Microsoft Corp. is reaching out further to the open-source community with offers of joint development and testing. But it's not yet clear if anyone is ready to listen. In addition to forming new initiatives to deal with Linux growth including an upfront and official dialogue with members of the open-source community Microsoft may also be considering releasing new sections of code as open source. InformationWeek September 30, 2004Riding Open Source To CIO Spot Sun's new top I.T. exec sees a future fit between Linux and Solaris; also why tech managers must wear three-cornered hats Four years ago when Bill Vass was one of 10 oversight CIOs at the Department of Defense reporting to the CIO-in-chief he was an early implementer of Linux and advocated that a single secure version be used throughout the agency's many branches. Now as new CIO of high-end server vendor Sun Microsystems Vass explains how his advocacy of open source and willingness to manage it might have led him to his latest CIO job. InformationWeek September 13, 2004Less I.T. Hiring Expected American employers will hire 270 000 fewer business-technology workers this year than in 2003 according to a poll of 500 hiring managers by the Information Technology Association of America providing fresh evidence that the IT-labor market continues to weaken. This is still not the job market America's IT workers have been hoping for ITAA president Harris Miller said last week in a statement. Increased competition appears to be the rule for 2004 here and abroad. InformationWeek September 13, 2004Linux Aims For The Desktop Security and pricing concerns are causing companies to consider alternatives to Windows but adoption of the open-source operating system has been slow Linux software has found lots of friends in IT departments and research labs that like its low price flexibility and crash-proof reputation. Now tech companies such as Novell Red Hat and Sun Microsystems are beginning to market those same virtues on the computer desktop where Microsoft's Windows has a virtual lock on sales. There's an open window of opportunity but few customers seem to have noticed the breeze. InformationWeek September 10, 2004EDS May Cut Up To 20 000 Jobs The IT services company may lay off as many as 20 000 from its global workforce of 125 000 in an effort to remain competitive with archrival IBM and low-cost offshore service providers. IT services provider EDS may cut up to 20 000 positions from its global workforce as the company looks to reduce costs EDS chairman and CEO Michael Jordan said at an investors conference Thursday in New York. Jordan has previously said that EDS needs to reduce operating costs by 20%--or $3 billion--over the next two years to remain competitive in its industry. The company has already cut about 5 000 positions in the past year from a workforce of 125 000. InformationWeek September 10, 2004Vendors Form Group To Pitch E-Prescriptions A group of health IT vendors have joined together to help pitch doctors payers and retail pharmacies on the benefits of E-prescribing. With the goal of accelerating the adoption of electronic prescriptions a group of health IT vendors have joined together to help pitch doctors payers and retail pharmacies on the benefits of E-prescribing. InformationWeek September 09, 2004Business Technology: From Offshore Outsourcing To Global Competitiveness Plenty of myths half-truths and misconceptions still swirl around the phenomenon of offshore outsourcing so Optimize magazine will explore this idea next month with a special issue featuring subject-matter experts discussing how the larger idea is one of global competitiveness Adtmag.com September 01, 2004Sun adds to open-source Java IDE roster Java as a programming language requires very good design skills. .NET programmers know this as well because C# and VB.NET are built on the same single-inheritance strictly class-oriented programming model as Java. It starts off simple but as the number of classes grows it can become quite complex with intricate dependencies. InformationWeek August 30, 2004U.S. Tech-Services Jobs Grow With Help From Afar As American job growth falters the IT-services industry shines as one of the few brights spots adding 4 200 jobs in July the Labor Department says. As American job growth falters the IT-services industry shines as one of the few brights spots adding 4 200 jobs in July the Labor Department says. That accounts for 13% of total nonfarm job growth that month. But the source of much of the hiring may surprise critics of offshore outsourcing. InformationWeek August 30, 2004Riding Open Source To CIO Spot Sun's new top I.T. exec sees a future fit between Linux and Solaris; also why tech managers must wear three-cornered hats Four years ago when Bill Vass was one of 10 oversight CIOs at the Department of Defense reporting to the CIO-in-chief he was an early implementer of Linux and advocated that a single secure version be used throughout the agency's many branches. Now as new CIO of high-end server vendor Sun Microsystems Vass explains how his advocacy of open source and willingness to manage it might have led him to his latest CIO job. InformationWeek August 03, 2004SAP To Add 1 900 Programmers In India The business-software vendor will invest another $24 million and add the programmers by the end of 2006. BANGALORE India (AP) -- SAP AG the world's largest business software company will invest $24 million and hire 1 900 software programmers in India by end 2006 CEO Henning Kagermann said Tuesday. InformationWeek August 03, 2004Dow Hires IBM To Take VoIP Project Over From EDS Dow Chemical hires IBM under a seven-year $1.1 billion contract to create a voice data and video network for its 50 000 employees. Now it's IBM's turn to try to build a voice-over-Internet communications system for Dow Chemical. The manufacturer of chemical and plastics products has given IBM a seven-year $1.1 billion contract to create a combined voice data and video network for its worldwide operations. InformationWeek August 02, 2004Tech-Job Upheaval While the total number of IT pros is down the future is looking better for the highly skilled. I.T. employment in the United States is in the midst of fundamental change. Joblessness has nearly doubled in the last three years while the number of Americans calling themselves IT professionals has decreased by nearly 160 000. InformationWeek August 02, 2004Business Technology: The Death Of American IT Has Been Greatly Exaggerated Polar-opposite rhetoric isn't limited these days to political races; it's rampant in the business-technology world in discussions of workers and jobs. Bob Evans notes you can find a study to support your argument and maybe even a bill wafting its way through the Senate. InformationWeek July 30, 2004Tata Consultancy Looks Formidable With $1 Billion In Cash Tata Consultancy is looking to raise more than $1 billion in an IPO as the 28 000-employee offshore outsourcer joins other fast-growing publicly traded Indian IT firms. Tata Consultancy Services' public stock sale that began Thursday will give it a major infusion of cash that could make the fast-growing Indian firm an even-tougher competitor. The 28 000-employee outsourcer which counts General Electric and General Motors among its customers launched a one-week public offering period on India's National Stock Exchange and Mumbai Stock Exchange floating up to 13% of the company's shares at a price range between $16.28 and $18.90. InformationWeek July 13, 2004Regan Pays Price For Loyalty Connecticut's CIO is one of seven state officials replaced by new Gov. Jodi Rell though he says he's been asked to stay on to help with the transition. InformationWeek July 05, 2004Disclosure: Security Pros Want Flaw Information Sooner More than 10 software vulnerabilities are discovered each day. These flaws in operating systems and business applications make it easier for hackers to use worms and viruses to attack business-technology systems. InformationWeek July 05, 2004Business Technology: Nagging Questions Cloud Oracle's Vision The Oracle antitrust trial offers some extraordinary peeks into the workings of major software players Bob Evans says. Will customers perceive the proposed value of PeopleSoft-enhanced Oracle apps or will they respond by chosing other options? The Times of India July 03, 2004Cobol is ticking but how long? BANGALORE: Is old tech warrior Cobol or common business oriented language dead or lost in the Web? The aging Cobol the yesteryear's dominant programming language may be a 'thing' of past for today's techies but it is still alive and serving its customers from the back-end of many corporate networks. Internetnews.com July 02, 2004Moving Apps Proves Stable Ground The market for software that pushes applications across networks grew 4.4 percent in 2003. According to IDC the growth is projected to continue every year through 2008 as IBM continues to lead the space with a healthy market share. The Hindu July 02, 2004Cognizant in pact with Microsoft Cognizant Technology Solutions said it had joined Microsoft Corp's mainframe migration alliance to help customers seamlessly migrate critical data and systems to Microsoft.Net-based systems. Bloor Research June 30, 2004The Dominance of Linux on the Server Linux is not yet the dominant server OS in terms of units deployed or units shipped. Microsoft still has the lion's share of the market by all reasonable estimations. It is true that Linux market share figures are likely to be inaccurate because there is no easy way to count new Linux servers. The major problem is that it is possible to estimate those servers that come with Linux loaded but not possible to count servers that were running something else (Windows or SCO UNIX or whatever) that were repurposed. Even if one could get reasonable estimates for such replacement activities in the large enterprises it would not reflect the level of such activity in the SMB market or in geographical areas where Linux is proving very popular (China India South America and elsewhere) where the level of such activity is likely to be higher. It-analysis.com June 30, 2004Integration and the far horizons of flexibility Virtually every financial services firm has invested in some form of middleware over the years with the hope and expectation that could extract a few more years of business life. The middleware investment was badly needed after the heavy investment in the late eighties and nineties on mainframe systems. These systems have now moved on into a legacy architecture that survives today. InformationWeek June 29, 2004Sun Unveils Tiger But It's Still A Youngster Sun execs debuted the upcoming version 5.0 of Java 2 Standard Edition known as Project Tiger at the company's annual JavaOne Conference--though general release isn't expected before fall. Sun Microsystems executives took the stage Monday to unveil a recent contribution to open-source code Project Looking Glass and the upcoming Java 2 Standard Edition version 5.0 known as Project Tiger. InformationWeek June 29, 2004Gates: Microsoft To Explore Cheap Software With Asian Governments Bill Gates said Tuesday that Microsoft will hold talks with Asian governments to offer tailored cheaper versions of its Windows operating system geared toward bringing computer skills to millions of poorer people. Adtmag.com June 28, 2004J2SE - now Java Platform Standard Edition 5.0. - updated at JavaOne Details that point to a more mature Java are in store this week as Sun Microsystems features a new version of the Java 2 Platform at JavaOne in San Francisco. Known at one time as Project Tiger and dubbed J2SE 1.5 while in beta the latest version of the basic Java platform takes a big leap up in version numbering as it is being called Java Platform Standard Edition 5.0. CRN.com June 28, 2004Microsoft Fujitsu Expand Alliance On 64-bit Windows Servers Services Microsoft announced a major expansion of its alliance with global partner Fujitsu Limited as it tries to drive more mainframe-class Windows-based Itanium servers into the mainstream. InformationWeek June 28, 2004Logistics Providers Ready RFID Services DHL Solutions expands RFID service to help customers across Europe with deployments European customers of DHL Solutions' logistics service now can call on the company to handle their radio-frequency identification tagging requirements. DHL this month expanded to companies across Europe its TagFIT RFID service which it had been offering only to Metro AG's top 100 suppliers to help them meet the retailer's RFID-compliance mandate. ComputerWeekly.com June 28, 2004Pito warns of barriers to national police database The Police IT Organisation (Pito) said this week that the Scottish Intelligence Database developed over four years at a cost of £11m could not easily interface with the legacy intelligence databases used by many UK forces. InformationWeek June 28, 2004Apple Readies Search Technology For Macs CEO Steve Jobs says the technology called Spotlight will be part of next year's Mac OS X upgrade and will let users easily search the contents of their computers. InformationWeek June 28, 2004Work/Life: At Reuters Mr. How-To Hits The Road From 'nyet' to .Net Bill Evjen travels the world to talk about software architectures. In the world of software architectures--where hundreds of protocols and languages and APIs need to work in harmony--it's hard enough for one company to get its computer systems tuned smoothly let alone humming with those of its customers or partners. That's a challenge Reuters America Inc. faces in getting its real-time information services into the eager hands of financial companies. It's Bill Evjen's job to make it happen. AMR Research June 25, 2004Web Services: A Risky Investment in 2005 Since their inception Web services have promised to transform business. But that's not happening anytime soon given the complexity in deploying and managing Web services the current state of standards adoption and unresolved intellectual property issues. InformationWeek June 24, 2004Trial Illuminates Ripple Effects Of Oracle's PeopleSoft Bid It's becoming increasingly clear that PeopleSoft Inc. isn't the only high-tech heavyweight worried about Oracle Corp.'s hostile takeover bid for the business software maker. ADTmag.com June 24, 2004XML routers turbocharge Web services Although development around XML and Web services continues to be primarily a software story hardware specifically the XML router has a key role to play according to Girish Juneja co-founder of Sarvega Inc. Chicago. ComputerWorld June 23, 2004Who will win the Web services war? Technology battles have long been a feature of the IT industry. Most IT managers will remember the LAN wars -- Ethernet .vs Token Ring -- and the bus wars -- Industry Standard Architecture .vs Micro-Channel Architecture. In both cases the eventual winner was the least proprietary solution. Line56 June 22, 2004Fast Integration for BPM Business process management (BPM) is becoming a priority at more enterprises and with that comes the requirement of integrating BPM tools to the legacy applications that execute processes. Ebiz.net June 22, 2004IONA: Our Wares Java-Enable Legacy Apps IONA Technologies (NASDAQ: IONA) the provider of integration solutions for mission-critical IT environments says its Artix and Orbix Connect products can easily expose legacy and other non-Java systems and applications for use in new J2EE programming initiatives. eWeek June 21, 2004Lawson Redraws ERP Blueprint Lawson Software Inc. is overhauling its ERP suite to be more open flexible and modular in an effort to make it easier for customers to add functionality to their Lawson systems. Adtmag.com June 21, 2004Eclipse rocks open source world Eclipse board names Mike Milinkovich executive director Mike Milinkovich is the first executive director of the newly independent Eclipse Foundation. Starting his new job at the beginning of June Milinkovich's first task will be the launch of Eclipse 3.0 which is set for June 21. Adtmag.com June 18, 2004Visual Studio openness and arrogance Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 isn't in beta yet but that hasn't kept them from making lots of code available to outside testers already. The Community Technical Preview builds have provided early (and somewhat buggy) exposure to changes coming as Visual Studio .NET nears its next incarnation. But coupled with other Microsoft community efforts they've also made it easier for outside developers to find out what's coming - and to disagree with it. A few examples that have come out in recent weeks: Government Computer News June 17, 2004DISA looks to integrate legacy apps The Defense Information Systems Agency this week released a request for information on technologies that could transform dozens of legacy applications operating in the agency’s procurement and logistics directorate into a single integrated architecture. ComputerWeekly June 15, 2004Standard Life cuts intranet search time by 50% Standard Life has completed the first stage in an overhaul of its intranet site to help its 11 000 staff across the UK access business information and share it more effectively. The financial group has installed software from Verity to speed up searches of the intranet from content including Lotus Notes HTML and other documents. ADTmag.com June 15, 2004Ada joins Java as Aonix joins Eclipse While many Java toolmakers are members of Eclipse which bills itself as 'a community committed to the implementation of a universal platform for tools integration ' the newest member is also bringing Ada. SD Times June 15, 2004Developers Finding Gold at End of the Application Web services have expanded the sales channels for companies that consider Internet retailing a strategy for success—so long as they’re willing to adopt a philosophy of openness. Companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. aim to help their customers increase sales through the Amazon and eBay Web sites by providing access to their APIs using standards such as XML-over-HTTP and SOAP. InformationWeek June 14, 2004Study: Impact Of Offshore Outsourcing Is 'Exaggerated' The furor over offshore outsourcing is overblown and key IT jobs are staying in the United States according to a Meta Group report on IT staffing and pay issued last week. Outsourcing is a little bit of a myth Meta Group senior program director Maria Schafer says. In point of fact outsourcing had been happening for some time. While the best and most valuable IT positions generally are staying put a slowly improving economy hasn't yet been strong enough to overcome relatively stagnant hiring. It's going to be another six months before we see any real [hiring] vigor she says. The Meta study shows that employers pay IT staffers as much as 20% more than nontechnical personnel. Forty-five percent of the 600 corporate respondents say they pay premium salaries for critical skills particularly in the wireless security and data-management fields. Experience continues to sell. Internet-related specialists are in short supply particularly those with expertise in application development Java-application management and networking. However demand for E-commerce skills dropped slightly in this year's survey--15% versus 22% last year. InformationWeek June 14, 2004R&D Envy Amid today's cost-cutting obsession is there any room to experiment with new technologies? There is at these companies. Each year HIP Health Plan Of New York finds one or two of what chief technology officer Pedro Villalba calls golden nuggets in the company's IT sandbox. The first golden nugget extracted this year from the sandbox--as the company's research lab is known--is a tablet PC with customized software that's used by nurses to gather information about hospital patients so the health-insurance company's case managers can recommend the most cost-effective treatments InformationWeek June 14, 2004Fairfax County Schools Turn To Linux For Business Intelligence Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools wants to give its teachers access to business-intelligence tools they can use to analyze their students' attendance data grades and test scores. The school district's plan for doing this involves moving its Oracle database and Business Objects Crystal Enterprise business-intelligence software from Windows to Linux. With the launch last week of Business Objects' Crystal Enterprise 10 for Linux Fairfax is a step closer to that goal. Express Computer June 14, 2004GECE aims at Rs 10 cr turnover Global Energy Consulting Engineers (GECE) a Hyderabad -based IT solutions and consultancy services provider in the energy sector is expanding its operations. It hopes to attain a turnover of Rs 10 crore in the current financial year. As part of its expansion plan the company is adding 100 people this year to the present 50. It has invested about Rs 2 crore to date and it will make need-based investments as it goes ahead. TMCnet.com June 10, 2004Red Oak Software Offers Free Version of Web Integrator; Full-Featured Enterprise-Class Solution Now Red Oak Software Inc. (www.redoaksw.com) announces that the development version of its Web Integrator(TM) product is now available at no charge. Web Integrator facilitates the easy and efficient programmatic integration of any internal Intranet or external Internet application transaction with any other application in the enterprise. eWeek June 08, 2004MicroFocus Unveils Legacy-to-Web Software Micro Focus International Ltd. wants to make it easier for businesses to use their legacy mainframe systems in a Web-enabled world. The company with U.S. headquarters in Rockville Md. on Tuesday released its Mainframe Express Enterprise Edition a collection of software designed to enable businesses to take the applications residing on legacy systems and extend them to the world of service-oriented architecture and Web services as well as Microsoft Corp.'s .NET and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s J2EE environments. Network World June 08, 2004How often do we actually move data? Information lifecycle management manages the interrelationship of data storage assets and IT processes. One of the most important justifications for ILM is that data is associated with storage devices and IT processes in accordance with its value to the enterprise. In other words: less important data is assigned to less valuable storage and less intensive processes while data that is more valuable gets better treatment. A linkage is made between business process and the value of data at each stage within the data's life. InformationWeek June 08, 2004Adobe Unveils Document Process-Management Apps The new applications and software are designed to help manage document policies and security. Adobe Systems Inc. is making good on its strategy to develop a comprehensive set of enterprise document-management applications built on a common platform. The company on Tuesday unveiled new document process-management applications and software for managing document policies and security. Network World June 07, 2004Blockade adds mainframe connectivity to Microsoft identity server There's a new leader in the race for the longest product name of the year: Toronto's Blockade Systems which late last month at Microsoft's Tech Ed conference released ManageID Enterprise Suite for Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. We'll call it MES4MIIS (which is now in the running for longest abbreviation of a product name). InformationWeek June 07, 2004SmartAdvice: Wrap Your Mainframe In Middleware To Modernize Legacy Apps Use a portal and Enterprise Integration Architecture so legacy apps can be treated like objects The Advisory Council says. Also let the technology mature more before buying into VoIP over wireless LAN; and work out a strategic communications plan before an emergency. Network World June 07, 2004PayPal opens Web services It seems that the business expansion strategy for successful portal-type sites is to open up to developers. We've seen this move from Amazon eBay and now from PayPal one of the e-commerce 800-pound gorillas. Adtmag.com June 06, 2004At JavaOne: Project Kitty Hawk kicks off Sun SOA strategy Sun Microsystems unveiled details of its plans to support Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) in its Java Enterprise System server software suite and Java Studio programming tools at last week's JavaOne conference. Enhancements to these products under Project Kitty Hawk will make it easier for developers to write a new breed of enterprise software around Java-based Web services company officials said. Adtmag.com June 02, 2004Model Driven Architecture (MDA) moves onward ADT sat down for a Q&A interview with Mike Rosen at Cutter Consortium's recent Cutter Summit. Few people know more about Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) than analyst Rosen. As well few have considered more deeply the evolving role of MDA in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) strategies. Line56 June 02, 2004Fast Financials; Agri Beef goes online with PeopleSoft in six weeks; replacing legacy systems pursu For many companies an e-business strategy begins with good financial applications. For $500 million Agri Beef though existing financials tools just weren't very strong notes Casey McMullen Agri Beef's director of IS. SearchWebServices.com June 02, 2004SOA breaking down reusable-code barriers Experts say the current surge of interest in service-oriented architecture (SOA) represents a major breakthrough in the longtime quest among IT managers to reduce the amount code developers need to write while increasing the sum of existing code that can be reworked for new applications. SDTimes June 01, 2004IBM Tightens COBOL Java Ties; Company updates language tool WebSphere Easing communication between COBOL and Java IBM Corp. was expected last month to announce updated versions of the programming language Enterprise COBOL and its mainframe Java development environment WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer. ComputerWeekly.com June 01, 2004Finance firms pay more as IT projects boom Salaries for IT and permanent staff have risen by as much as 15% over the past two quarters as companies upgrade legacy systems to meet the demands of regulations such as Basel 2 and new communications standards. ADTmag.com June 01, 2004Web services and the mainframe The idea of using platform-independent Web services technology to provide access to back-end mainframe applications is picking up speed. Software vendors with experience in the Web services market are working to provide links to the mainframe either in their products or through tie-ins with vendors that have mainframe experience; meanwhile hardware/software vendors such as IBM and Unisys are promoting Web services on the mainframe. ADTmag.com June 01, 2004Integration tools snapshot Recent data access offerings focus on improved adaptors high availability XML functionality and more. The middleware and data integration area has found new interest in recent weeks and months as a host of vendors have focused efforts here. ADTmag.com June 01, 2004BEA The Middleware Co. create SOA blueprints BEA Systems and The Middleware Company (TMC) have jointly published a set of 'blueprints' for developing and implementing applications that use Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) the two companies disclosed last week. Admag.com June 01, 2004Take your pick: Business processes or Bangalore June 1 2004 Categories: JE TR Business processes matter. And two of today’s biggest trends offshoring and Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) will soon make them matter even more to software professionals. My guess is that over the next few years many people working in IT will face a simple choice. One option is to get involved with business processes in a much more explicit way. The other? Pack your bags and move to Bangalore India because that is where your job is going to go. InformationWeek May 28, 2004BEA To Emphasize Software As Architected Services BEA Systems this week launched what it's calling its Liquid Computing product strategy which is aimed at getting business processes to flow through a company without regard for boundaries previously set by the IT infrastructure InfoWorld May 26, 2004BEA bullish on Taurus transaction software BEA Systems with the planned Taurus version of its Tuxedo transaction processing platform is eyeing enhanced Web services support improved integration with the WebLogic Server application server and boosted security. eMediaWire May 26, 2004Sabratec Announces the First Integration of Microsoft IBF with Legacy Systems through ApplinX Sabratec Ltd. the leading provider of rapid legacy integration solutions announced today general availability of ApplinX adapter for Microsoft Information Bridge Framework (IBF). The combined solution enables information workers to discover engage and act on enterprise legacy information from the context of their Office documents and email significantly improving productivity and reducing training costs. InformationWeek May 25, 2004Report Says IT Hiring Should Remain Positive Due To Business Growth A study by Robert Half Technology says only 3% of CIOs surveyed expect to pare staff in the third quarter while 8% expect to add workers and most will remain unchanged. The number of CIOs looking to increase their IT staff is forecast to dip in the third quarter but hiring should remain positive because of expected business growth a recruiting company said Tuesday. Bank Systems & Technology Online May 25, 2004XML Plays Big Integration Role for CompuCredit Until earlier this year CompuCredit (Atlanta $519 million in assets) faced a big challenge managing the information it held on 3.5 million customers which was scattered across more than 100 systems and databases. When holders of the company's Aspire Visa and other credit cards called customer service the calls were too lengthy and sometimes unproductive. The system required customer-service representatives to toggle back and forth between applications which hindered key goals such as convincing a customer to commit to a new payment while on the phone. InformationWeek May 25, 2004IBM Makes Storage Sing The Same Tune Company introduces virtualization software to let customers line up all the capacity on a storage-area network behind one application or process. Storage technology has evolved in recent years from individual storage systems trapped behind individual servers to networks that connect storage resources. But storage networks were limited by their inability to get multiple storage systems to work together to support an individual application. InformationWeek May 24, 2004Defection: Microsoft Proponent Moves To Linux 'Suppose I upgrade to Windows 2003 and Windows XP. What would I be able to do then that I can't do with my current boxes? Nothing. I don't need all of the collaborative features ' Hentzen says. Since its inception more than a decade ago Linux has held a special appeal for small businesses because of its low startup cost kernel stability and communal approach to problem solving. It was so attractive that Whil Hentzen an eight-time recipient of Microsoft's Most Valuable Programmer Award has for the past two years been converting most of his company's Windows systems to open source ComputerWorld May 24, 2004Bombardier teaches legacy apps to speak SAP Before Bombardier Aerospace even decided to implement SAP software in August the Montreal-based aircraft manufacturing company knew it would need an integration platform to make the deployment seamless across its mission-critical applications. InformationWeek May 24, 2004Linux Going Mainstream When United Parcel Service Inc. first tried Linux three years ago the delivery company ran the open-source operating system for four months on a virtual machine within its mainframe. The test pitted CPU- and input/output-intensive applications on Linux against similar ones on a Unix server. Linux came up short on performance and added a layer of complexity that was discouraging. UPS decided the operating system wasn't ready for the demands of its data-center environment and IBM which had prodded UPS into doing the test agreed LinuxInsider.com May 24, 2004Big Blue's Mainframe Gathers No Rust Mainframe customers are taking a fresh look at the Big Iron that celebrated its 40th birthday last month. IBM is spurring things along with new pricing schemes; more powerful processors; support for non-proprietary technologies such as TCP/IP Linux and Java; and on-demand offerings that put the mainframe in the reach of even the smallest customers. InformationWeek May 24, 2004Ballmer: ITýýýs Potenial Untapped New MS Tools On Tap Steve Ballmer opened Microsoft's annual TechEd conference in San Diego on Monday promoting the need for business and technology people to think aggressively about the untapped potential of information technology. Microsoft's CEO then drilled into the nitty gritty of getting it done announcing Web services advances and new tools designed to help different kinds of IT professionals collaborate during the lifecycle of Visual Studio applications InformationWeek May 24, 2004Defection: Microsoft Proponent Moves To Linux 'Suppose I upgrade to Windows 2003 and Windows XP. What would I be able to do then that I can't do with my current boxes? Nothing. I don't need all of the collaborative features ' Hentzen says. Since its inception more than a decade ago Linux has held a special appeal for small businesses because of its low startup cost kernel stability and communal approach to problem solving. It was so attractive that Whil Hentzen an eight-time recipient of Microsoft's Most Valuable Programmer Award has for the past two years been converting most of his company's Windows systems to open source. ADTmag.com May 21, 2004The BEA Buzz: Beehive Open Source Initiative BEA Systems is donating the application framework in its WebLogic Workshop Java development environment to the open source community the company disclosed last week. All future development of the newly re-branded Project Beehive will be done in the open-source community by BEA engineers and community participants said BEA’s CTO Scott Dietzen and the company plans to make the framework freely available under a BSD-style license. SeachWebServices.com May 20, 2004Gartner: SOBAs will revolutionize application integration So you think service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a buzzword today? Brace yourselves for the next generation of application integration acronyms: SOBA. Coined by Gartner Inc. research director Charles Abrams SOBAs or service-oriented business applications are the fruit of service-oriented architectures. They will enable enterprises to dynamically compose and decompose applications according to business needs. Eventually they will link business apps such as ERP CRM and supply chain management in real time. ComputerWeekly.com May 20, 2004Integration of legacy systems is vital to effective customer service The survey of 100 IT directors in UK businesses commissioned by legacy IT integration specialist WRQ found that legacy IT systems are critical to providing customer service - 86% regarded legacy systems as essential to customer service delivery. Vnunet.com May 19, 2004SAP invests to deliver three-year roadmap SAP has announced a roadmap for the development of its applications over the next three years. But the business software giant still faces the challenge of migrating its vast base of legacy customers onto its latest technology to take full advantage of the planned advancements. ADTmag.com May 19, 2004You can never be too rich says Groove Networks IBM's announcement last week of plans to deliver software designed to create a centrally managed server hub for delivering enterprise apps to PCs seems to have fired up the old thick- vs. thin-client debate at least among analysts and the tech media. Industry mavens noted that Big Blue's new thin-client Lotus Workplace offering could loosen mighty Microsoft's tight grip on the desktop. WebServices Journal May 19, 2004BEA Seeks Ubiquity Through Open Source Community Say Its Top Execs Just two full working days after its stock crashed by 23 percent - its biggest drop in more than five years - BEA came out of the corner today fighting with the announcement (already revealed by inside sources earlier today) that it was donating - to what CTO Scott Dietzen referred to as Open Source Land - the first open source application framework targeted at Java-based Web applications: Project Beehive. InformationWeek May 19, 2004BEA Turns To Open Source To Boost Sales It plans to work with the open-source community to develop a better framework for building software. BEA Systems Inc. looking to boost sales by reaching more developers said Wednesday that it plans to work with the open-source community to develop a simpler framework for building software. ComputerWeekly.com May 18, 2004BAT to cut costs on EAI projects BAT which has a £9.2bn annual turnover and spends hundreds of millions of pounds on IT each year hopes to save up to 75% of the costs of integration projects which use middleware from major software suppliers. TechWeb.com May 18, 2004Neon Readies Mainframe Integration Tool Neon Systems on Tuesday unveiled a software tool for integrating mainframe applications with software built around a service-oriented architecture. Database Trends and Applications May 18, 2004Micro Focus and Unilog Move Mainframe Applications to Windows Micro Focus International Ltd. a provider of COBOL application development and deployment software has entered into a partnership with Unilog the IT systems integrator to port mainframe applications to the Microsoft Windows platform. Micro Focus will combine its knowledge of COBOL applications with Unilog's business sector and applications expertise to enable existing COBOL applications based on proprietary mainframe platforms to run at higher performance levels on low cost technology rich platforms such as Windows and Intel. InformationWeek May 17, 2004'You've Got To Integrate'; Naval Facilities Engineering Command looks to make Windows and legacy app The Navy command that oversees the building and maintenance of naval bases around the world will christen a project this week to integrate legacy Web and Windows applications without the time and expense of conventional integration methods. The goal is to use Web services to combine these applications into a larger composite program to eliminate redundant data entry that has caused delays errors and general unhappiness among the command's 900 contract managers. If successful the approach could be duplicated throughout the Navy and the Department of Defense. Silicon.com May 17, 2004The Bloor Perspective: Trojan horses legacy systems and IBM's new clients Trojan horses threaten to defraud home PCs users when accessing online bank accounts and e-tail sites or simply to steal their identities. The actual level of such activity is unknown and probably very high if the level of identity theft is anything to go by. Trojans as you probably already know are spyware - they open back doors into PC and can send what they discover direct to a hacker. ADTmag.com May 17, 2004Telelogic tool promises to extend requirements If you want your software development projects to succeed manage the requirements effectively say analysts at Meta Group. Meta surveys have found that approximately 60% to 70% of IT projects fail because of poor requirements gathering analysis and management (Research on Requirements Realization and Relevance 2003). The Standish Group came to a similar conclusion in a survey in which 50% of the reasons given for project success were related to well-managed requirements. InformationWeek May 17, 2004IBM Puts New Spin On Client Computing IBM last week introduced technology that's designed to ease the manageability of business applications and increase the productivity of mobile workers. The company says its Workplace Client Technology--a set of downloadable middleware components that work with server-based applications--marries the power of local processing with the efficiencies of thin-client computing. InformationWeek May 17, 2004Service Gets A Boost Bobcat Inc. Executives hope that determining the best method to fix an ailing kid-steer loader or hydraulic excavator will soon get easier and faster. The maker of heavy machinery is giving service technicians at dealerships free access to a product encyclopedia consisting of service parts and diagnostic information via the Web and DVD. InformationWeek May 17, 2004Business Drives Developer Trends The push toward simplified development and the desire to get software developers working more closely with employees from business units are behind several important trends in software programming. MIS May 15, 2004Working with Web Services It is about two years since web services were being aggressively touted as the next big thing. Vendor hype suggested they would transform IT business and the world .Because of the hype the reality of web services was sometimes forgotten. They are simply a series of protocols for the transmission of information from one piece of software to another. So in this respect it is an application integration technology similar to many that have gone before. ComputerWorld May 12, 2004IBM looks to modernize Cobol IBM is looking to modernize Cobol applications by bridging its mainframe-oriented Cobol and WebSphere products to Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) and service-oriented architectures. ADTmag.com May 11, 2004IBM Unveils New Managed Clients Firing the latest shot in the battle to control client side deployment costs IBM is extending its middleware to run client side applications. IBM is releasing new versions of Lotus Workplace that will provide collaboration and lightweight productivity tools while using server-based portal and software distribution technology to manage client deployment. The embedded Micro Edition is currently available for download now while the PC-oriented Rich Client Edition will be available in Q3. ComputerWeekly.com May 11, 2004Technology advances but IT's aim must still be to provide visibility to the business Over the past decade the IT industry has experienced some extraordinary ups and downs. From the breakthroughs revolutions and to use the dotcom catchphrase paradigm shifts there have been major advances as well as some hard lessons. TWeb.com May 11, 2004Unisys innovates with new ClearPath mainframe Unisys's new ClearPath Plus Libra 500 offers a number of innovations including a pay-for-use business model based on new metering technology and access to open source J2EE. ComputerWeekly.com May 11, 2004Information central Council contact centers were integrating legacy technology to enable better customer relationship management for many years before the e-government agenda came along. Lindsay Clark talks to those councils with a head start. ComputerWorld May 10, 2004Opening up the mainframe Predictions in the 90s that we'd soon see the last of the mainframes were quite clearly way off and far from their demise today's estimates indicate that - 40 years on - mainframes host most business transactions and enterprise data writes Eric Knorr. ComputerWorld.com May 10, 2004Compliance Bonanzas When was the last time you read about a $40 000 retention bonus for someone with a hot skill in IT? I'll bet it was sometime around the turn of the century when Y2k fears had CEOs wringing their hands and CFOs signing checks for whatever IT asked for. SearchWebServices.com May 10, 2004SOA myths debunked Enterprise developers decision makers and industry analysts said that there is confusion when it comes to relating Web services and service-oriented architectures (SOAs). Incentive Management May 06, 2004Agilent Technologies Deploys PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Sales PeopleSoft Inc. (Nasdaq:PSFT) today announced that Agilent Technologies has deployed PeopleSoft(R) Enterprise Sales Incentive Management (SIM) to its global salesforce of more than 2 000 employees. A component of PeopleSoft's industry-leading Human Capital Management (HCM) suite SIM provides organizations with real-time access to critical sales management and compensation information allowing them to better plan design and communicate sales incentive programs. SHARES Five Minute Briefing; Database Trends and A May 04, 2004TeraCloud Introduces SpaceFinder Workbench v4.3 with New Java-based TCP/IP GUI TeraCloud Corp. a provider of storage resource management solutions for mainframe and distributed environments has introduced SpaceFinder Workbench v.4.3 which includes a new Java-based TCP/IP compliant graphic user interface for storage data that extends graphic views of pool utilization down to detailed volume and dataset information. The added functionality is intended to help customers monitor and manage their mainframe storage inventory more efficiently to reduce costs and improve productivity across the data center. Computerweekly.com May 04, 2004IBM launches Power5-based iSeries server The eServer i5 formerly known as the iSeries comes bundled with the company's Virtualisation Engine a collection of embedded software technologies and services intended to help corporate users fine tune their infrastructure and wring more value out of their existing IT assets. ADTmag.com May 01, 2004Covering your assets For anyone following SCO's Linux litigation headlines that SCO's lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler was originally targeted at Bank of America may have provided a bit of comic relief. How do we know about this possible lawsuit? According to press accounts someone at SCO forgot to turn off the Microsoft Word change-tracking feature. SD Times May 01, 2004Micro Focus: Getting CICS From Windows “This is a low-risk route to lower hardware and software costs for mainframe users ” said Ian Archbell vice president of product management at Micro Focus. “For applications running at under 500 MIPS [million instructions per second] the solution is more than adequate ” he claimed asserting further that the solution should be an ample migration path for mainframes now running at less than 1 000 MIPS. “We get the same performance as a mainframe because our native code generators are optimized for the platform.” Archbell provided only anecdotal evidence to back up his claims adding that in-house benchmark performance tests are still under way. SDTimes May 01, 2004Micro Focus: Getting CICS From Windows Micro Focus International Ltd. has announced Linux and Unix editions of Mainframe Transaction Option an add-on to its Enterprise Server COBOL runtime environment that it claims provides a stable x86-based platform to which CICS/COBOL transactional applications can migrate. The company in April released an edition for Windows servers. ADTmag.com April 30, 2004Wanted: A brain the size of a planet I recently took the beta versions of Microsoft's upcoming Application Security exams on the MCAD.NET/MCSD.NET track (70-330 for VB .NET and 70-340 for C#). They were to be frank brutal. I've been taking MS certification exams for more than a decade now (isn't it time to retire yet?) and usually I leave the test center knowing that I passed. This time around I was wrung out and I'm still not sure what the score report will say when it comes back in a month or two. ADTmag.com April 28, 2004Wily 5 application manager supports JBoss By the time Lewis Cirne founded Wily Technology in 1998 it was already clear that there were too many Java application servers on the market. What was less clear was that these servers were beginning to spread in corporations and none of them came with much onboard manageability. Converge Network Digest April 27, 2004Circuit to Packet Migration: A Transformational Change in Telecom The migration of the telecommunications network from circuit to packet technologies will be transformational not evolutionary. As such it could be disruptive if not managed carefully. For the past 100 years development of the telephone network has focused on the reliable delivery of simple voice calls. But that single-focused world is now disappearing as service providers begin to cope with the complexities of voice over IP and IP-based services. Computerweekly.com April 27, 2004Halfords upgrades HR and finance to MySAP The company which has 400 stores across the UK has been revamping its internal systems since August 2002 when it was bought for £400m by private equity firm CVC. The flotation of Halfords is set for the summer following the appointment of brokers to oversee the process. http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp? InformationWeek April 27, 2004Study: Small And Midsize Companies Will Lead IT Spending A new Forrester Research report says smaller businesses will increase their IT spending by 6.6% this year as opposed to 1.7% for larger companies. Vnunet.com April 27, 2004Integration firms sharpen their tools Integration software giants IBM and Tibco are taking disparate paths to the next generation of tools for connecting and managing business processes. InformationWeek April 26, 2004Zone Labs Updates Security Enforcer For Guest Access The update includes checks for spyware worms Trojan horses key loggers and other malicious code lurking on guest systems. Zone Labs on Monday rolled out an update to its Integrity Clientless Security solution that blocks non-IT controlled PCs--such as those owned by partners and used by mobile workers--from accessing a company network without having proper security provisions in place Network World April 26, 2004Server clusters offer speed savings When retail services firm Datavantage acquired the code last year to roll out its gift-card offering that would provide retailers a transaction platform to store and manage retail credits it knew its back-end system couldn't stand any downtime. It also knew it didn't want to shell out loads of money to keep the system running on the expensive Unix infrastructure on which it was built. InformationWeek April 26, 2004In Short: Monitoring Java Apps On IBM WebSphere Wily Technology Inc. has introduced seven extensions for IBM WebSphere to its flagship Introscope 5.0 software which monitors the performance of a running Java application. The extensions called PowerPacks can reveal whether an adapter from the IBM WebSphere Business Integration set of middleware is acting as a bottleneck. InformationWeek April 26, 2004Sybase Gets Into Real Time Sybase Inc. has assembled a package of database software for collecting and disseminating real-time data. Sybase Real-Time Data Services captures data events or changes in a data set such as a bank customer making a large deposit and immediately propagates that information to a messaging system such as IBM's WebSphere MQ. The package available in May and priced starting at $29 995 per CPU includes a new release of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise database Sybase Replication Server Sybase RepConnector and a Java Message Service message bus. Infoworld.com April 24, 2004InfoWorld TechWatch: Microsoft holds out olive branch on Java Microsoft may not exactly embrace Java but the company is at least making strides toward accommodation. In attending recent Microsoft developer conferences including the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in September and VSLive last week I searched in vain on the agendas for something anything to do with acknowledging Java as a force in development other than sessions on how to migrate Java programs over to .Net Line56.com April 21, 2004Escaping the Mainframe; Tulane University to evade quarter million in annual maintenance fees by mig Tulane University like many other institutes of higher education across the country has had to more with less for some years now. That's why the $250 000 in maintenance fees that the university pays for its Ideal/Datacom mainframe from vendor Computer Associates (CA) troubled the university's new CIO Dr. John Lawson when he came aboard a few years ago. ADTmag.com April 21, 2004BEA IBM offer business process add-on for Java They compete heatedly in application servers but BEA Systems and IBM Corp. agree on at least one thing. They want to link Java with the Business Process Execution Language (BPEPL) for Web Services. The resulting combination which they call BPELJ would enable the two programming languages to work together. BPEL was originally authored by BEA IBM and Microsoft as a mechanism for orchestrating business processes in Web services environments. The three companies submitted BPEL to the OASIS standards organization which currently has it under review. Computerworld April 19, 2004It's Time to Actively Manage Your SOA If you were the CIO or chief architect at a company and I told you that you are already running multiple Web services how would you react? Pleasantly surprised? Shocked? Would you be upset? SD Times April 15, 2004Java Wireless Middleware Once a novelty wireless technologies in the form of smartphones and PDAs have become commonplace. Short Message Services and camera phone services are advertised on TV every night. They’re not just Generation Y tech toys though. Businesses also are adopting wireless technologies to enable today’s mobile work force—and underneath all this lies wireless middleware. Computerworld.com April 14, 2004Computerworld Zones Web services simplify enterprise application integration and create new revenue opportunities by enabling organizations to offer data and services to both customers and partners. Computer Associates presents this selected content from the web services zone. White Paper: Management and Security in the world of Web ... ComputerWorld April 14, 2004Opening up the mainframe Back in 1991 Stewart Alsop then editor in chief of InfoWorld (US) predicted the plug would be pulled on the last mainframe in five years. Oops. Eight years after their forecasted demise mainframes today host by most estimates the majority of business transactions and enterprise data. IBM which now enjoys a virtual monopoly on big iron sold US$6.8 billion's worth in 2003 a year that saw sales of IBM zSeries mainframes (whose top-end models go by the nickname T-Rex ) jump 33 per cent. ADTmag.com April 14, 2004The call of MySQL Attention has focused of late on how open-source Linux is displacing Solaris Windows NT and other OSs. Effects are being felt in the database world as well as MySQL especially seems to be displacing other DBs and gaining open-source traction. ADTmag.com April 12, 2004Review: Cape Clear SOA Editor Remember Web services? They got all the buzz a couple of years ago and then the enthusiasm died down a bit. But the end result was to have plenty of competent developers working on Web services and gradually a body of knowledge has built up around them. One tenet that many of the top Web services developers agree on is WSDL first : build the contract before you build the code. That can cause a small problem though if you don't have an editor that lets you easily create WSDL files. InformationWeek April 12, 2004Where The Money Is The Web was supposed to kill bank branches. Instead banks are spending billions on them as a cornerstone of customer service. CRN April 08, 2004Microsoft-Micro Focus Alliance Intended To Drive Mainframe-To-Windows Migrations Microsoft and Micro Focus International have teamed up to enable mainframe customers to seamlessly migrate their data to Windows platforms. In a prepared statement the companies said the alliance provides the technology foundation for moving mainframe workloads to more modern Intel and Windows-based servers using .Net. New York Times April 08, 2004Microsoft and mainframe software company Micro Focus International have strengthened an alliance aim At a customer event Thursday in New York the two companies are expected to announce an extension to their existing partnership and to tout the benefits of moving mainframe applications onto Intel servers that run Windows. In particular the partnership is designed to provide an alternative to customers who run Customer Information Control System (CICS) a widely used mainframe transaction system. CNET News.com April 08, 2004Microsoft Micro Focus target mainframes Microsoft and mainframe software company Micro Focus have strengthened an alliance aimed at luring away IBM mainframe customers. At a customer event Thursday in New York the two companies are expected to announce an extension to their existing partnership and to tout the benefits of moving mainframe applications onto Intel servers running Windows. In particular the partnership is designed to provide an alternative to the customers running Customer Information Control System (CICS) a widely used mainframe transaction system. ComputerWorld April 08, 2004Microsoft Micro Focus form alliance to target mainframes Microsoft Corp. and Micro Focus International Ltd. today announced an alliance to promote the migration of mainframe applications onto Intel Corp. servers running Windows using Microsoft's .Net technology. Although CIOs and architects recognize the inherent value of legacy applications they continue to grapple with how to migrate mainframe applications on Windows and .Net to extend use and support development in Web services or XML according to Micro Focus. ComputerWorld April 07, 2004IBM unveils z890 mainframe server : It marks the 40th anniversary of its first mainframe computer IBM today is marking the 40th anniversary of its first mainframe by introducing the zSeries 890 mainframe server for midsize enterprise customers. We're introducing a brand-new IBM eServer zSeries 890 and it's the latest and greatest in mainframe technology for smaller mainframe customers said Colette Martin IBM's director of zSeries product marketing. Last year we introduced the z990 which was aimed at our largest customers. The z890 now brings all that same technology to medium-size enterprises that really need all that mainframe security availability and resiliency. InformationWeek April 06, 2004Oracle And Dell Take Aim At Midsize Businesses After a couple of years working together to sell their combination of database software and commodity servers to large data centers Dell and Oracle are turning their attention to small and midsize companies. Oracle has granted Dell the exclusive right between now and year's end to deliver preinstalled versions of Oracle Standard Edition One on Dell's PowerEdge 2600 or 2650 servers running either Red Hat Linux or Windows. These pre-install licensing agreements are available in five 10 25 and unlimited user variations starting at $4 108. ComputerWorld April 05, 2004Health System Uses BMC Tools to Cut Mainframe Upgrade Costs After using performance management software to improve batch-processing times for accounting and other functions the WakeMed Health Network last week said it will be able to upgrade to a new mainframe this month for $850 000 less than it originally expected. ADTmag.com April 01, 2004Collection takes Web services route Meta data management is something of a new concept among financial service providers but it proved to be key to the success of a major IT innovation at CompuCredit. Last March the Atlanta-based specialty financial services and credit card company asked its IT organization to develop a way for its collection agents and customer service reps to use Web services to access and process data in real time. This January the group went into production with a solution: an information portal called the XML Business Gateway. ADTMag.com April 01, 2004Collection takes Web services route Meta data management is something of a new concept among financial service providers but it proved to be key to the success of a major IT innovation at CompuCredit. Last March the Atlanta-based specialty financial services and credit card company asked its IT organization to develop a way for its collection agents and customer service reps to use Web services to access and process data in real time. This January the group went into production with a solution: an information portal called the XML Business Gateway. ADTmag.com April 01, 2004Too much too soon? How fast can Microsoft change technologies? More importantly how fast can developers learn and exploit the new technologies that Microsoft produces? Take building GUIs for instance. Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) and Visual Basic 6 were the Windows standards for this in the pre-.NET era. When the .NET Framework shipped in early 2002 Microsoft told us to start building new app GUIs using Windows Forms instead. Windows Forms is an improvement on these earlier technologies and it also provides a common approach for any .NET Framework-based language so the change counts as progress. ADTMag.com April 01, 2004LexisNexis finds one world one platform LexisNexis Miamisburg Ohio provides legal news public records tax and business information to legal government corporate and academic markets in online print and CD-ROM formats. The legal publishing arm of Reed Elsevier plc the firm has a strong presence in North America Latin America the United Kingdom and continental Europe. ADTMag.com April 01, 2004Noel-Levitz eases college recruitment process -- garners savings Competition among colleges and universities for the best and the brightest has never been stronger and institutions are always looking for an edge. It is the job of Noel-Levitz a unit of education funding provider SLM Corp. (better known as Sallie Mae) to provide that edge. The Littleton Colo.-based consultant has long aided university clients in student recruitment and retention financial aid market research publication and Web site development. ADTmag.com April 01, 2004WebFACTS lets Ohio county focus on the kids A key to success for any child welfare agency is ensuring that caseworkers can spend their time working with clients in the field rather than sitting at desks doing paperwork. A few years ago the Montgomery County Children Services (MCCS) agency in Ohio sought to do that by building a Web-based system that lets caseworkers and counselors access data and document actions while working on child abuse and neglect cases in the field. ADTmag.com April 01, 2004Noel-Levitz eases college recruitment process -- garners savings Competition among colleges and universities for the best and the brightest has never been stronger and institutions are always looking for an edge. It is the job of Noel-Levitz a unit of education funding provider SLM Corp. (better known as Sallie Mae) to provide that edge. The Littleton Colo.-based consultant has long aided university clients in student recruitment and retention financial aid market research publication and Web site development. Financial Times – IT Review March 31, 2004Doing it by the book delivers dividend For Bertelsmann the media group sales through its book clubs are significant amounting to €2.7bn globally in 2002. With this level of sales the clubs need robust IT systems so in 1984 those in Austria Switzerland and Italy formed the ICS CompetenceCenter and based it in Vienna. Later clubs in Hungary the Czech Republic Poland and French Canada also joined. InformationWeek March 29, 2004Share Fixes NASA Asks Open-source agreement if approved would require developers to reveal code modifications. In a bid to make greater use of the open-source community the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration has submitted an open-source licensing agreement to the Open Source Initiative. If approved the NASA Open Source Agreement will require developers using NASA code to share modifications with NASA and the open-source community. InfoWorld March 26, 2004Opening of the Mainframe Back in 1991 InfoWorld's then Editor in Chief Stewart Alsop predicted the plug would be pulled on the last mainframe in five years. Oops. Eight years after their forecasted demise mainframes today host by most estimates the majority of business transactions and enterprise data. IBM which now enjoys a virtual monopoly on big iron sold $6.8 billion's worth in 2003 a year that saw sales of IBM zSeries mainframes (whose top-end models go by the nickname T-Rex ) jump 33 percent. ComputerWorld March 25, 2004Windows Linux Highlights From Around the Web I'm still working up the nerve to download XP Service Pack 2 Release Candidate 1 on my system at home. I'm not exactly running a multimillion-dollar business there but I've got what *I* consider to be some mission-critical apps at home -- that is I'd be ripping my hair out if they're not working. Some of my software isn't exactly brand spanking new and I still worry about that Windows XP SP2 could break existing applications problem. Enterprise Systems (www.esj.com) March 25, 2004Q&A -- Looking Back Looking Ahead at the Mainframe Come April it will be time to sing a round or two of Happy Birthday to the mainframe which marks its introduction 40 years ago. That’s right the Big Four-O. With this in mind we thought it would be an opportune occasion to speak with David Mastrobattista zSeries marketing manager with IBM about the mainframe at midlife. eWeek February 25, 2004Coming Soon to Centrino Notebooks—Linux Lindows.com has announced a new version of its Linux operating system with support for portable computers based on the Intel Centrino platform. Although few observers see an immediate threat to Microsoft's operating system franchise according to Lindows.com officials making Linux available on cost-effective notebooks has been a big request from PC manufacturers. The first Centrino systems with LindowsOS Laptop Edition will begin shipping in the late-March to early-April time frame. Computerworld August 28, 2003Job Skills: Preparing Generation Z Ask CIOs to give the nation’s colleges and universities a report card on how they’re preparing the next generation of IT professionals and they’d respond with a pretty dismal grade. “If I had to grade graduate programs on what they’re delivering I’d give them a B-minus and a C-plus for undergraduate programs ” says George Voutes enterprise technology programs manager at Deutsche Asset Management Technology a New York-based division of Deutsche Bank AG. “We have to get away from strict programming and systems development ” says Voutes. “Those are skills to get into the field but we have to train our technology people to think more like business people and arm them with strong communications skills.” Computerworld August 28, 2003Sidebar: Examples of university initiatives Here are examples of steps that schools have taken to help meet the IT skills requirements of the private sector: MIT Cambridge Mass. Before each semester 30 companies that sponsor MIT’s Center for eBusiness including Intel Cisco Systems Inc. and MasterCard submit technology/business projects for student teams to work on. IT execs are also brought on campus to give presentations on IT/business problems they’ve resolved and discuss their approaches with students. ComputerWeekly.com August 22, 2003Fewer students opt for IT courses A significant fall in the number of applications for university IT courses has left hundreds of computer-related courses up for grabs in the clearing system. Applications for computer science courses this year were down 12% from the previous year although the number of IT-based courses rose from 1 385 to 1 570. At the time of writing around 80% of university IT courses had vacancies. University IT courses break down into four subject areas: computer science information systems software engineering and artificial intelligence. Applications for all of these courses are thought to be down on last year. Signs that students are shunning technology courses comes as the IT industry struggles under its worst downturn for 10 years. Over the past few years companies have shed thousands of IT staff and consultants and trimmed back investment in new projects. CW360.com August 19, 2003Demand for Cobol skills on the rise At a recent gathering of IT leaders one IT director from a well-known insurance firm confessed he was facing a team skills crisis. Although he needed people who knew legacy systems he found that his team of web developers and Java programmers were reluctant to learn older programming languages such as Cobol and RPG. Despite predictions that it is only a matter of time before mainframe operating systems are eradicated from organisations many companies especially in the financial sector are still benefiting from existing legacy assets. THE NEW YORK TIMES March 18, 2003THE UNRETIRED William S. Payson 79 of SeniorTechs.com an employment database for older information technology workers said that the relentless quest for youth has always permeated the culture of technology and that the dot-com boom made matters worse. These days the 'senior' tech workers that Mr. Payson's Web site serves are 35 and older. 'It's amazing to think that in the technology industry today 35 is over the hill ' Mr. Payson said… Payson argues that older workers need to take an entrepreneurial approach to seeking employment. He points to the demands for contract work in older computer languages which mostly older technology workers are skilled to program. IT WEEK March 03, 2003Comment: Why COBOL is still going strong The big question has long been: how long can COBOL survive? Because it is so portable it can be easily moved from old platforms onto the latest hardware. There is still a healthy market for tools to manage existing applications and integrate them into Web services and whatever comes along afterwards. But you have to ask how easy is it to find COBOL skills in an era when COBOL is about as 'uncool' as a graduate can get… …COBOL skills are in demand so COBOL programmers find work more easily than their fashion-following colleagues and COBOL jobs are better paid… THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR, March 9, 2003Employers ignore the gray hair: "Older workers should stress they're 'fully qualified' rather than 'overqualified' in job interviews. "A tough job market can be especially tough for older job seekers. A recent HotJobs.com poll found that 87 percent of respondents thought an interviewer had held their age against them during a job interview. "SeniorTechs.com felt there was a need for senior techs. Experienced older techies were missing out on opportunities because they didn't know the job market was better than they imagined. For example, they didn't realize there was a growing market for COBOL programmers." GIGA GROUP, November 18, 2002Ken Vollmer, Research Director - Integration Strategies, at BrainStorm Group Conference "The most highly paid programmers in the next ten years are going to be COBOL programmers who know the Internet." |
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