20-09-2004 • VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 35 • £2.60
WWW.ITWEEK.CO.UK
17 ENTERPRISE IBM launches
cheaper Linux server range
25 INTERNET Insider reveals
secrets of eBay technology
29 CLIENT Efficeon to
boost ultraportables
CONTENTS
ENTERPRISEWEEK
Intel multiplies server memory 17
Shield guards Lotus from spam 17
IBM opens up BladeCenter spec 21
INTERNETWEEK
Dangerous images elude filters 23
Will traffic growth stop the net? 24
CLIENTWEEK
Protection for mobile phone apps 29
Top tips for deploying XP SP2 30
Intel offers taste of future chips 31
NETWORKWEEK
Cisco’s IP routers for branches 33
Nortel upgrades mobile office 33
Firms increase their IT spending 35
MANAGEMENTWEEK
Outsourcing services go on tap 39
Free tools police P2P and IM use 39
Symantec CTO’s security advice 40
Low-price
video phone
Video phones moved closer to
the mainstream last week
when Amstrad released
its E3 model at under
£100. In addition to
email, internet access
and SMS, the E3 offers The E3 at
a colour screen and
under £100
built-in camera to let
users hold video calls with other E3
users and send picture messages.
Phones gain coded security, p29
Sun mulls open Solaris
Martin Veitch
S
un last week met open-source leaders
to discuss possible licences for the
planned open-source release of its Solaris
operating system, but reports suggesting
that the platform could appear by the end of
this year seem wide of the mark.
First mooted at the start of June, OpenSolaris would be by far the most important
commercial software to go open. But Sun
has a long way to go to settle the terms that
would let Solaris compete effectively with
Linux for developer and buyer support.
Supporters see OpenSolaris as a way to
increase the size of the Unix operating system’s developer community and potentially to improve integration between Linux
and Solaris. Many commercial developers
have open-sourced products recently, although many of these products, such as Computer
Associates’ Ingres database, were previously declining in popularity.
However, Sun said that
it had no firm plans yet for
Kumar: OpenSolaris
will arrive too late
Secure access goes virtual
Roger Howorth
S
ecurity-conscious IT managers stand
to gain a promising new option today,
as a novel tool from software virtualisation pioneer VMware enters beta testing.
VMware ACE (Assured Computing Environment) is designed to provide a virtual
machine (VM) desktop that can link to corporate networks and applications with precisely-tailored permissions.
It could offer an attractive means to
govern access rights for mobile staff, teleworkers and contractors.
Administrators can configure VMs to
stop users installing their own software, or
copying corporate data onto hard disks or
removable media. Expiration options allow
the VM’s functions to be disabled after a
particular date. ACE VMs can be distributed with all the runtime software needed
to host the VM, so that the recipient need
only load a DVD into their system, from
which the VM automatically runs.
“We think this is the first exciting thing
to happen to the enterprise desktop for a
long time,” said Michael Mullany, VMware
and package a virtual machine for distribution. The package includes the VM, plus the
VMware software needed to run it.” ALG
plans to use ACE for customer training, and
expects to make substantial cost savings.
“I can decommission server equipment
from the training room to produce cost savings,” Parsons said.“I expect similar savings
in other areas such as our foreign training
sites,” he added.
Many IT chiefs have been considering
virtualisation for provisioning corporate
desktops, but previous VM products have
not been designed to prevent users from
tampering with configurations of VMs,
such as those for network connections or
firewall settings.
The news comes at a time when virtualisation technologies are being widely evaluated. Earlier this month, Intel
president Paul Otellini said that the
chip giant would soon launch new
chips to enable desktop systems to
run multiple operating systems conPolicies prevent
currently using VMs.
the misuse of
Novell Linux desktops, p11
corporate data
www.itweek.co.uk/specials/1157402
marketing vice-president.“Spyware, adware
and viruses mean that few firms allow remote workers to connect their home PCs or
laptops to the corporate LAN. Using ACE,
these users can run their enterprise applications inside a VM on their own computers.”
Some testers said that ACE can also be
used to provision corporate desktops over
the LAN, or to manage distributed services
such as e-learning.
“It’s an absolute doddle to use,” said
Dave Parsons of ALG Software, a business
performance software developer that has
been testing ACE.“It does not create the ISO
image [for CD-ROM or DVD media], but it
splits the VM data into appropriate files. We
use the ACE management tools, which are
similar to VMware Workstation, to create
SERVING VIRTUAL DESKTOPS
Sysadmin controls
policy and can
provision users
Remote user
logs on via
ACE VM
licensing. Some watchers said Sun’s OpenSolaris plans are already too late to reverse
the trend towards Linux.
“I don’t think that [Sun’s move is] going
to make a massive difference,” commented
Rakesh Kumar of analyst company Meta
Group. “The momentum is already there
for Linux on Intel and, at the other end of
the spectrum, Linux for the mainframe. If
Sun had done this two years ago it would
have been interesting but it won’t change
industry dynamics now.”
Some pundits also questioned the wisdom of Sun’s timing, noting that the ongoing legal dispute between SCO and IBM is
clouding the picture over who owns Unix
intellectual property rights.
Linux specs, p11 Linux servers, p17
Insiders see
fix previews
Microsoft has been quietly allowing
some firms to preview its monthly
security patch bundles three business
days before they are issued.
Under the scheme, firms sign a
non-disclosure agreement to receive
details about the number of bulletins,
severity ratings and affected products.
Microsoft said the scheme helps
firms to plan, and argued that the
information would not harm security.
It added that firms have been able
to sign up since April, expanding a similar deal for Premier customers that
began in 2003. However, many security
watchers said they were unfamiliar
with the scheme. Microsoft declined to
say how many firms have joined.
Graham Titterington of analyst
Ovum said,“If the [preview] alert is
too vague then it is of no real use, but
if it is too explicit it will be exploited.
However, firms will be pleased to
enter the loop earlier.”
Attacks, p5 Leader, p12 SP2, p30
NEWS INSIDE: TELECOMS 3G, p4 • LAPTOPS Vaio, p4 • WINDOWS Risks, p5 • RFID Wireless tags, p6 • DEVELOPERS Dot-Net tools, p8 • LINUX Specs, p11