13-12-2004 • VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 47 • £2.60
WWW.ITWEEK.CO.UK
15 ENTERPRISE Pace speeds
up for Linux development
23 CLIENT Easier, cheaper
mobile apps for UK firms
29 NETWORK Monitor
checks IT environment
CONTENTS
ENTERPRISEWEEK
BlackBerry makes mobility easier 15
Better apps for customer service 15
Microsoft DSI to rival OpenView16
INTERNETWEEK
Latest trends in viruses and spam 19
Specs to expand web capabilities 20
CLIENTWEEK
Casio issues rugged Pocket PCs 23
AMD 64bit chips use less power 23
Free Fedora Linux gains security 24
NETWORKWEEK
HP datacentre kit runs 10Gbit/s 25
Teleworker kit puts video on IP 25
Ipswitch boosts network monitor 26
MANAGEMENTWEEK
IT pay increases to keep key staff 31
Retirement looms for legacy apps 31
Outsourcing chief offers top tips 32
Windows on
64bit chips
Microsoft last week launched release
candidates for workstation and server
versions of 64bit Windows, so firms
can test them on 64bit extended chips.
Companies looking to run Windows on 64bit-extended chips such as
AMD’s Opteron and Intel’s Xeon can
now begin evaluating Windows Server
2003 x64 Edition and Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition. Intel’s 64bit
Itanium is already supported by current versions of Windows.
A release candidate for Win Server
2003 Service Pack 1 is also available. It
adds security updates such as the Windows Firewall and support for the noexecute buffer overflow protection in
the latest chips. SP1 is also the underlying technology for the 64bit Windows
releases. Full versions of all these products are due in the first half of 2005.
NT, p4 SQL, p8 Microsoft DSI, p16
Security, p17 www.tinyurl.com/5zqtw
www.tinyurl.com/3hdfn
www.tinyurl.com/4orqt
Oracle pushes data controls
Martin Veitch
t the end of a year dominated by its
attempts to capture PeopleSoft,
Oracle last week shifted its focus
back to products. It detailed new forays into
content management and business intelligence, including tools to make it easier for IT
departments to customise deployments.
At its OpenWorld conference in San
Francisco, Oracle said its first enterprise
content management product would be
Files 10g, to be sold as a standalone product
as well as part of Collaboration Suite 10g.
Built on Oracle’s database and application server, Files 10g is designed to be a highly-scalable system for indexing and retrieving
content and ensuring compliance with corporate governance rules. The software uses a
policy-based document management system
that obliges users to assign characteristics to
documents and apply workflows. Collaboration Suite 10g also adds presence awareness and voice communications.
Business Intelligence 10g is effectively a
repackaging of tools from Application Server. Oracle has also included Spreadsheet
A
Whitehall guides IT bids
David Neal
T
he Office of Government Commerce
(OGC) has released standard contract
models for public sector technology procurement, to simplify the tendering process.
But experts warned that the set terms would
have to be tailored for some bids.
The new standards cut a myriad contracts down to two – one for services and
one for technology. The OGC said this
would prevent firms having to seek expensive legal counsel for every tendering form.
The contract terms were produced in
response to complaints that smaller prov-
techniques that accelerate queries and
indexing, and could remove the need
for pre-load sort operations, the
Year Planner 2005
company said. Improved load-balQ1
Q1 Files 10g
ancing in clusters could also improve
eloper
ev
JD
B1 10g
Collaboratio
n
g Release 2
server utilisation. Oracle Application
10
Suite 10g
Server 10g Release 2 will focus on
Mid-year
availability through fault recovery,
Mid
-ye
ar
Application
Database 10g
Regular data
notification and rollback features.
Server 10g
Release 2
hub releases
Release 2
Oracle was pressed to comment on
its attempts to acquire PeopleSoft.“We
intend to finish development for PeopleSoft 9,” said chief executive Larry Ellison.
Add-In, offering direct access to Oracle
“After, we are going to build a successor
Olap from within Excel. “For users who
product to both PeopleSoft and Oracle [Edepend on Excel we’ve moved all the heavy
Business Suite] so that when customers do
lifting onto the server side,” said Oracle
upgrade, they get a much better product.”
marketing vice-president Alan Hartwell.
In collaboration with Dell, EMC and
Oracle User Group chairman Ronan
Intel, Oracle also announced the MegaGrid
Miles said, “At one point with Application
venture to create a blueprint for grid-comServer you pressed the install button and got
puting designs based on x86 processors.
absolutely everything, whether you wanted it
Meanwhile, Sun chief Scott McNealy
or not. The ability to install at a functional
stirred up controversy in his OpenWorld
level is very good to have.”
keynote by criticising Oracle’s policy of
Oracle also plans a series of data hub
charging for software per processor core.
products to integrate financial services,
product and other information.
HP storage for data lifecycle control, p5
Database 10g Release 2 will offer sorting
Oracle unbundles BI tools from 10g, p31
ORACLE ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR 2005
iders face barriers when competing for government contracts, said the OGC.
David Bryant, managing director of IT
solutions at consulting firm Hytec, said the
standards could make tendering easier.
“From a supplier point
of view the terms can be
quite onerous,” he said.
“Anything that helps
to simplify the contract process should
be beneficial.”
Kalisperas: need
for some leeway
But experts said more flexibility is likely to be needed in some cases.
“Whether these standards can be applied to all ICT procurement is questionable,” said Chris Guest, head of technology
at Flintshire County Council. “Particularly
for outcome-based contracts, which tend to
be more around a partnership approach
that will continue to require contract-specific terms and conditions.”
Nick Kalisperas, director of the public
sector division at trade body Intellect,
agreed there should be room for customisation.“It may not always be appropriate to
take the contract as it stands, but it should
be used as a starting point,” he added.
www.ogc.gov.uk
Will IT bring a more civil service? p32
Orange adds
to 3G choice
Orange launched its first 3G voice
service last week, offering a choice
of six multimedia handsets able
to access internet content at
minimum speeds of 64kbit/s,
according to the operator.
Coverage is currently limited
Rate to major cities and travel
at least routes, but should expand
64kbit/s next year to support more
users.Tariffs start at £30 per
month for 50MB of data traffic.
Full story, p9 www.orange.co.uk
NEWS INSIDE: NT Support, p4 • PALM Linux phones, p4 • WLAN Security, p5 • IBM PC sale, p6 • MOBILES Safety, p8 • SQL Update, p8 • EMAIL Mozilla, p9