NEWS&ANALYSIS
the
buzz
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
As a relationship goes, we have done a
180-degree turn. Nine months ago, we
were slashing each other’s tires; now we
are helping one another fix our flats.
Greg Papadopoulos, chief technology officer of Sun
Microsystems, on its relationship with Microsoft
the Asia-Pacific region early next
year, company officials said.
—Chris Gonsalves
INTERNET
Microsoft readies
blogging spaces
MICROSOFT’S MSN DIVISION WAS SET
Dell’s new European command center joins facilities in China and Texas.
last week to unwrap its MSN
Spaces blogging service.
MSN is expected to tout MSN
Spaces as a competitor to blog
creation and hosting tools such as
Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal and
TypePad. Microsoft will position
MSN Spaces as a way to let users
more easily share photo albums
and music lists, insiders said.
Some users have been speculating that MSN will let users post
blogs via MSN Messenger 7, the
latest version of Microsoft’s consumer instant messaging client,
which is in beta and due to ship
early next year.
In August, MSN launched a
beta version of its blogging tool
for the Japanese market only. At
that time, MSN officials declined
to discuss when and if they
planned to broaden the beta to
other countries. —Mary Jo Foley,
Microsoft Watch
WIRELESS NETWORKING
SERVICES
Pennsylvania governor
signs Wi-Fi bill
Dell opens Ireland
support center
THE GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA
DELL LAST WEEK OPENED ITS THIRD
last week signed into law a
controversial bill that includes,
among myriad items, a provision
giving incumbent carriers the
ability to prevent cities from creating and charging for municipal
Wi-Fi networks.
Verizon, which offers DSL services in Philadelphia, pushed for
passage of the bill.
“Gov. [Edward] Rendell’s signature of House Bill 30 into law
is the right call for Pennsylvanians,” said James O’Rourke,
president and CEO of Verizon
Pennsylvania.
The bill has received much
attention because Philadelphia
announced plans in September to
offer municipal wireless services.
Despite the bill, Verizon said that
it will support Philadelphia’s plans
but has yet to say whether it will
support the public Wi-Fi plans of
other Pennsylvania cities.
—Carmen Nobel
Enterprise Command Center,
unveiled a security services suite
bringing the vendor’s around-thespanning the enterprise, SMB and
clock support for server
consumer PC markets. HP
and storage customers
said the integrated solutions
BY THE NUMBERS
to Europe, the Middle
provide comprehensive proEast and Africa.
tection against malware
The center, in
such as viruses, worms,
Economic damage estimates in millions of U.S.
Limerick, Ireland, joins
spam and spyware.
dollars for virus, worm, phishing and other attacks
similar ECCs in the
The HP Security Incident
United States and
Management Program comYEAR
LOWER
UPPER
China. Dell officials said
bines threat detection and
the centers improve the
assessment technologies
2004
427,719.4
522,768.2
response times of the
with management pro2003
215,694.1
263,626.1
company’s services unit
cesses that help organiza2002
106,837.9
130,579.6
by providing real-time
tions head off viruses,
2001
33,092.8
40,446.7
tracking of repair calls,
worms and DoS attacks.
technicians and parts.
HP is offering these inte2000
23,518.0
28,744.2
In the United States, the
grated
services because
1999
18,766.9
22,937.3
ECC has helped Dell
“the
threats
are becoming
1998
3,833.8
4,685.8
resolve user problems
more complex, more malig1997
1,655.9
2,023.9
25 percent faster than
nant, more persistent and ...
1996
800.4
978.3
before, officials said.
more pervasive,” said Tony
1995
0.2
0.3
Dell plans to open a
Redmond, chief technology
similar facility in Japan
officer with HP Services,
831,919.4
1,016,790.4
later this fiscal year. A
based in Dublin, Ireland.
Source: mi2g
fifth ECC is slated for
—John Pallatto, eweek.com
20 e W E E K n D E C E M B E R 6 , 2 0 0 4
SECURITY
HP rolls out
services suite
HEWLETT-PACKARD LAST WEEK
Cost of security
w w w. e w e e k . c o m