In an eyebrow-raising forecast, Gartner researchers said they believe that as many as 50 percent of the IT operational jobs in the U.S. could disappear over the next two decades because of improvements in data center technologies.
While Sun Microsystems on Monday held its official launch of the Solaris 10 operating system, the future of the operating system, and perhaps Sun itself, was being decided many miles away, at organizations such as the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and FedEx.
IBM has laid out a new road map for its mainframe computing platform, which over the next year will include adoption of the Common Information Model (CIM) standard allowing different systems to exchange information.
IBM plans to expand the number of its on-demand data centers from one to 11 by the end of the year, part of a push to offer users virtual resources that can, in effect, be pooled and made available where needed. Part of the IBM business model includes pay-as-you-go pricing.
The Dow Chemical Co. unveiled plans to create a voice-over-IP network that would also provide data and video capabilities. In a chest-thumping announcement, Dow said its converged network would be a "breakthrough solution" that would be "setting the standard for other Fortune 100 companies."
Intel will release a server version of its 64-bit extensions technology for its x86 platform in 60 days, and as users refresh their servers over the next two years, they will get 64-bit computing capability -- whether they want it or not. But analysts claim it remains uncertain whether application developers will give users a reason to take advantage of this 64-bit computing capacity.
Many grid computing users are finding that the key challenge they're facing isn't implementing the technology. It's figuring out how to pay for it.
HP plans to increase enforcement of its intellectual property, a move aimed at vendors selling products based on HP technology - not at the users of those products.
Throughout the 5-year-old Microsoft antitrust case, one of the chief potential rivals to Windows' dominance cited in court arguments has been Linux. And that was true again this week, when opponents of the 2001 Bush administration settlement with Microsoft returned to appeal that ruling.
Microsoft is settling a $US23.3 million anti-trust lawsuit brought last year by defunct operating system maker Be Inc., which alleged that the software giant had illegally thwarted distribution of Be's operating system.
Advanced Micro Devices' 64-bit Opteron processor, a potential competitor to Intel's Itanium, isn't getting a particularly warm welcome at the big end of town.
HP has held up last year's merger with Compaq as the best example of why its newly-unveiled enterprise architecture strategy will work.
Sun Microsystems has announced it will begin offering a security software package to commercial customers that was originally developed for military and government intelligence use. It has also announced plans to improve security features in a yet-to-be-released next version of Solaris.
The North Carolina company that says it's fighting for the survival of low-cost, remanufactured printer cartridges has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Lexmark International, charging it with attempting to monopolise the printer market.
Steve Wozniak, Apple Computer's co-founder and one of the key people behind the PC revolution, believes the seemingly unrelenting upgrade cycle is levelling off -- creating economic problems for some technology makers, but giving financial relief to buyers.
