Microsoft 'Get the Facts' Comparison Neglects Cost of Mainframe . . . Study Shows Two Out of Three IT
Managers Worried About SP2 . . . Microsoft Publishes Application Compatibility Guide for SP2 . . .
EndpointSecurity.org to Host Forum for Security Discussions . . . Halliburton Subsidiary to Occupy XeonPowered IBM Supercomputer Center . . . HP Reseller Gobbles Up IBM Reseller . . . IBM Announces
Venetica Acquisition to Boost DB2 Information Integrator . . .
<b><a name="#1">Microsoft 'Get the Facts' Comparison Neglects Cost of Mainframe</b>
<a target="new" href="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</a> is catching heat over one of its
advertisements in a British magazine that depicts in a negative light the rival open operating system, Linux.
In the offending ad, entitled "Weighing the cost of Linux vs. Windows? Let's Review the Facts," Microsoft
claimed that running a Linux-based Web server costs 10 times more than running a Web server on
Windows Server 2003. When the Advertising Standards Authority, an industry watchdog in the U.K.,
started receiving complaints over the ad, which it had already approved, it ordered Microsoft to change it,
on the grounds that it was misleading. Apparently, the hardware platform on which Linux was running in
the comparison was an <a target="new" href="http://www.ibm.com">IBM</a> zSeries z900. Mainframes,
it turns out, do cost a bit more than dual 900 MHz <a target="new" href="http://www.intel.com">Intel</a>
Xeon-based servers, which is the type of computer that ran Windows Server 2003 in the test. To be fair,
however, mainframes do carry other advantages--such as scalability and reliability--that the Wintel
platform can't yet touch. Microsoft is no longer running the ad.
<b><a name="#2">Study Shows Two Out of Three IT Managers Worried About SP2</b>
A new survey of IT managers in charge of Windows XP Service Pack 2 deployments indicates that SP2
may cause more problems that it solves--in the short term, at least. According to the survey, commissioned
by help desk software developer <a target="new" href="http://www.supportsoft.com">SupportSoft</a>,
two-thirds of IT managers believe that SP2 deployments will incur more calls at the help desk than other
major releases, and that 63 percent of the IT managers believe SP2 will be the most difficult upgrade ever
taken. While SP2 may be the source of some headaches (or worse--the survey found that three percent of
respondents said their blood pressures rise just by thinking about SP2), SupportSoft still recommends that
SP2 be deployed to increase security, which isn't surprising considering it develops software to ease the
roll-out and user maintenance of problematic applications. The survey was conducted by an independent
research firm and involved 117 IT managers at companies with 500 or more employees, which correlated to
a margin of error of about 4 percent (so much for the blood pressure statistic).
<b><a name="#3">Microsoft Publishes Application Compatibility Guide for SP2</b>
As the rollout of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) continued last week, <a target="new"
href="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</a> published an "application compatibility" kit to help thirdparty developers prepare their wares for SP2. The kit, which can be downloaded from <a target="new"
href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9300BECF-2DEE-4772-ADD9AD0EAF89C4A7&displaylang=en">Microsoft's site</a>, helps developers understand the new security
technologies found in SP2. The document also gives pointers to help them spot the symptoms of
incompatibility, provides tips on possible mitigation techniques, and helps them out with developing good
testing process for SP2. Microsoft has published a list of more than 50 applications that don't work well
with SP2, including a number of FTP and Telnet clients used by large corporate customers (see <a
target="new" href="http://www.midrangeserver.com/two/two081804-story02.html">"Programs 'Seem' to
Break Under Windows XP SP2, Microsoft Says"</a>). <a target="new"
href="http://www.ibm.com">IBM</a>'s Client Access software, which is used to access midrange iSeries
servers from PC clients, is also reportedly having problems working with the new firewall enabled by
default with SP2.
<b><a name="#4">EndpointSecurity.org to Host Forum for Security Discussions</b>
<a target="new" href="http://www.EndpointSecurity.org">EndpointSecurity.org</a>, a new portal
intended to serve as a hub for security-related information, was launched in late August by a group of
computer security analysts, journalists, and users. Systems administrators and other computer professionals
whose jobs are affected by security are encouraged to swap security related information on the group's new
online forum and mailing list, which are available free to members who sign up. Eleven moderators, all of
whom are security professionals or journalists who cover security-related issues, are listed on the
organization's Web site, including the security architects for BMW Financial Services and <a target="new"
href="http://www.atstake.com">@stake</a>, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, security consulting firm. The
term "endpoint security" originally referred to the problems with making road warriors' laptops and
desktops secure, but EndpointSecurity.org is open to discussions about security on LANs as well as WANs.
<b><a name="#5">Halliburton Subsidiary to Occupy Xeon-Powered IBM Supercomputer
Center</b>
A Halliburton subsidiary specializing in oil discovery will be the main client at a new <a target="new"
href="http://www.intel.com">Intel</a>-powered supercomputer center <a target="new"
href="http://www.ibm.com">IBM</a> is opening in Houston, Texas. Landmark Graphics, a wholly owned
business unit of Halliburton, will be the anchor client for the Houston Deep Computing Capacity on
Demand center, which will be the third DCCOD center, following the opening of centers in Poughkeepsie,
New York, and Montpellier, France. Landmark plans to sell clients access to seismic processing services
and software running on 512 IBM xSeries Xeon-based servers. Halliburton was founded in 1919 and is one
of the largest energy and petroleum services companies in the world.
<b><a name="#6">HP Reseller Gobbles Up IBM Reseller</b>
The consolidation of the value-added reseller (VAR) channel continued last week, when one of <a
target="new" href="http://www.hp.com">Hewlett-Packard</a>'s top Unix server resellers acquired one of
<a target="new" href="http://www.ibm.com">IBM</a>'s top-ten business partners. <a target="new"
href="http://www.us.logicalis.com/">Logicalis</a> spent $90 million to purchase Solution Technology,
an Indianapolis provider of iSeries, xSeries, and pSeries servers and services. Logicalis, which has its U.S.
headquarters in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, pledges to provide the same representation of IBM and HP
products after the Solution Technology acquisition, and plans to operate Solution Technology as a
subsidiary for the rest of 2004. In 2005, Solution Technology will be integrated with Logicalis, but two
divisions will be established for HP and IBM sales and technical support.
This difficulty of melding these opposing forces will be quelled somewhat by the fact that both Logicalis
and Solution Technology buy from Arrow Electronics, the $8.7 billion Colorado computer distributor, and
Logicalis will be able to maintain relationships with Arrow's IBM-focused division, called Support Net,
and its HP-focused SBM division.
"Our acquisition of STI quickly takes us to a whole new level in our IBM sales and service capabilities,
while our pending acquisition of an HP solution provider underscores our ongoing commitment and
dedication to HP as well," said Mike Cox, Logicalis' CEO. Logicalis expects minimal staff reductions as a
result of the acquisition, somewhere on the order of eight to 10 people over the next two to three months,
and plans to keep Solution Technology's solution partners, which include two OS/400 software developers,
<a target="new" href="http://www.datamirror.com/">DataMirror</a> and <a target="new"
href="http://www.logility.com/">Logility</a>, with the organization. Solution Technology's consulting
subsidiary, Mindgent, is not part of the acquisition and will remain as an independent company. Logicalis,
which has its corporate headquarters in England, despite the fact that $300 million of its total revenue of
$400 million came from the North America last year, is a division of Datatec, a $2 billion, publicly traded
company from South Africa.
<b><a name="#7">IBM Announces Venetica Acquisition to Boost DB2 Information Integrator</b>
<a target="new" href="http://www.ibm.com/">IBM</a> plans to acquire data integration software
provider Venetica, it announced last week. The Charlotte, North Carolina, company develops a product
called VeniceBridge, which allows content management and workflow systems to access documents,
images, reports, and other unstructured data spread across any number of different data repositories. The
problem of multiple data repositories might be bigger than you thought. Venetica cites a Forrester Research
report that says 75 percent of companies use data repositories from two or more vendors, and that 25
percent of companies use more than 15 different repositories. Venetica says that IBM will integrate
VeniceBridge with its DB2 Information Integrator product, which runs on AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Linux,
and Windows servers and can access data stores on the iSeries. The acquisition is expected to close in the
fourth quarter. Financial details were not disclosed.