While the combination of Microsoft Corp.'s BizTalk Server and XML Web services is showing promise as an enterprise application integration tool, it's still too early to tell whether Redmond will stake a claim to turf along side traditional EAI heavyweights. According to a June 2002 report by IT analyst firm Gartner Inc., Microsoft is a leader in the application integration broker space, rated above such notable players as BEA, SeeBeyond, Sterling Commerce, Tibco, Vitria and webMethods. In fact - in terms of market revenue, market share, and market reach - Gartner rates Microsoft behind only IBM.
Intel plans to announce a new network processor on Tuesday that will handle security functions, a move it expects will reduce the cost and improve the performance of networking equipment. The company will also delay a similar product that does not offer security features. The IXP 2850, due in the second quarter of next year, will route information packets inside switches and telecommunications servers, but it will also perform intelligent functions such as encryption or decryption, said Matt Campbell, a product marketing manager in Intel's communications division. Currently, these security functions require a co-processor.
Sun Microsystems could cut as many as 8,000 jobs, according to Merrill Lynch. Such cuts would represent about 20 percent of the server giant's current work force of 39,400, Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich said in a research note Tuesday. Speculation about potential layoffs at Sun has swirled in recent days and is hitting a fever pitch ahead of the company's earnings report Thursday. Sun wasn't immediately available for comment.
Sun is expected to report a fiscal first quarter loss of 4 cents a share on revenue of $2.86 billion, according to First Call. Analysts have cut Sun's earnings targets, but some question whether the company can hurdle even a lowered bar.
Microsoft's Bluetooth-Compatible Keyboard and mouse will be available across the U.S. by November, the company announced Tuesday. Microsoft's Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth includes a keyboard, mouse and transceiver. A more advanced and ergonomic mouse, the Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth, will be available separately. The transceiver connects to the PC via a USB (universal serial bus) connection, and can link it to other Bluetooth devices such as PDAs (personal digital assistants) and printers.
Microsoft recently gave the first public preview of its upcoming Outlook 11 e-mail client software, and several technology managers said they liked what they saw. The features that Microsoft showed off would answer some of the most pressing needs of Outlook users, according to attendees at Microsoft's MEC 2002 conference in Anaheim, California. Outlook 11 is to include a redesigned user interface and new capabilities for threading, sorting, and caching messages when it ships next year, likely in the same time frame as Office 11.
Jensen Harris, lead program manager for the Titanium upgrade, said many of the changes coming in Outlook 11 were designed to simplify the software for users. For example, Microsoft is trying to give the new Outlook user interface a more efficient layout with added space for displaying messages, Harris said.
A leaked copy of MSN 8 made the rounds on Internet sites Monday, giving subscribers an early look at the updated service on the eve of AOL 8.0's official launch. Set to debut on October 24, MSN 8 features an enhanced version of MSN Explorer with improved junk mail filters and new parental controls.
"We worked with Microsoft Research to develop a sophisticated new technology that looks at not only the subject and the sender of an e-mail, but also at the actual body of the e-mail," said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft corporate vice president for MSN Personal Services and Business.
If you have 802.11b wireless equipment, you're undoubtedly frustrated by the plodding pace. The standard may be rated at 11Mbps, but in the real world it's a 3Mbps connection. Still, you're probably not willing to junk your investment in wireless LAN for the faster, but incompatible, 802.11a. But Texas Instruments has created a new version of 802.11. It's called 802.11b+ and it delivers a rated maximum throughput of 22Mbps.
First, the bad news. 802.11b+ is not now, nor ever likely to be, an official IEEE standard like 802.11a. It's TI's own add-on to existing 802.11 technology. But, hey, if you can double your wireless speed, increase your roaming range from the wireless access point, and you don't have to replace your old 802.11b equipment, wouldn't you be tempted?
Microsoft's rejection of Sun Microsystems' Java is nearly complete. Save for the occasional nod towards Java's popularity in enterprise development, Java does not enter into any of the development plans at Microsoft.
This is the outcome of a three-and-a-half year legal battle over Microsoft's implementation of Java technology. Sun would have us believe that the successful suit saved the world from Microsoft's corruption of Java's "Write Once, Run Anywhere" (WORA) promise. In truth, all Sun has accomplished is to create a void for a VM-style technology on Windows, creating a market opportunity for the ultimate "polluted" Java (.NET). It would have been better for Sun to have allowed Microsoft to chart its own course with Java and relied on developers to make their own decisions than to chase off the investment and marketing muscle Microsoft could have put into Java.
Two unlikely destinations far from Microsoft's Seattle-area headquarters are becoming increasingly important to its future: Fargo, N.D., and Vedbaek, Denmark. Those are the respective locations of Great Plains Software and Navision, which Microsoft acquired in one of its most important initiatives in years. The two companies, which make accounting and other software, form the core of Microsoft's long-planned move into enterprise applications--complex programs designed to help companies do such things as close books, process orders, manage inventory, and track customers, suppliers and employees.
Microsoft is on top again, at least when it comes to market value. The software giant's market capitalization, a measure of the total value of a company as judged by the stock market, has reached $265.1 billion based on Monday's closing stock price of $49.29, making it the world's most valuable company. Microsoft passed General Electric to get the top spot, but was helped out by a steep decline in GE's stock price over the last few months. GE had a market cap of $242.3 billion at Monday's closing bell. Microsoft, which reports fiscal first-quarter earnings on Thursday, is the only tech company to make it into the top 10. Retailer Wal-Mart is third, with a market cap of $239.5 billion, followed by Exxon Mobil at $236 billion, and Pfizer at $191.4 billion.