Larry Barrett

VMware has announced something of a teaser product designed to let companies dabble with virtualization technology on the cheap. On Tuesday, the company said VMware Server 2 is now available for free download from its Web site. According to Ben Matheson, director of VMware’s small- and mid-sized business (SMB) group, more than 3 million companies […]

SAN FRANCISCO — In a bid to undermine Wall Street darling VMware and its industry-leading virtualization software, Oracle on Monday said it would be releasing its own free virtualization product later this week. The announcement, made by Oracle President Charles Phillips during a keynote address here at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference, marks the database giant’s first […]

HP has announced the release of Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager software to speed up the tedious tasks of adding, moving or replacing blade servers in the datacenter. As IT managers increasingly turn to virtualization software to improve operational efficiency and reduce energy consumption, they’re looking for software applications that simplify the management and automation of […]

Reporter’s Notebook: IBM has been running us media types ragged of late with release after release announcing big plans for unified communications, mashup application platforms and its third-quarter earnings report. That’s all well and good, but none of this “news” addresses a much bigger issue. IBM, like so many of its competitors already have, needs […]

SAN JOSE, Calif.—It should come as no surprise that Cisco Systems and Adobe Systems, two companies that enjoyed spectacular growth establishing them as tech blue-chips during the nascent Internet, are also among the first companies to embrace the software-as-a-service model (SaaS) as the vehicle of choice for the Internet’s next evolutionary phase. On Thursday, both […]

Autonomic computing doesn’t have the same buzz these days as virtualization or, say, service-oriented-architecture (SOA) , but that’s not stopping IBM from moving forward with its latest line of software and services designed for companies to create self-managing computing networks. IBM, which launched its autonomic computing initiative in 2001 and remains—with few exceptions—the lone champion […]

These are heady times at Salesforce.com. From the outside looking in, it appears the software-as-a-service (SaaS)  pioneer can do no wrong and shareholders—particularly those on the company payroll—are cleaning up. The stock’s up more than 47 percent for the year. Sales, profits and its total subscriber base are all at record levels. And during its […]

Symantec on Monday announced the acquisition of Vontu, a developer of data loss prevention software, for $350 million. The all-cash deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter Symantec said the purchase will complement its existing portfolio of endpoint and network security, storage and compliance software and adds a critical component to its Security […]

While Research in Motion’s BlackBerry is great for individual productivity in the enterprise, it can be a pain in the neck for IT staffers forced to deal with the security and interoperability issues these “CrackBerries” bring to the enterprise network. Some IT departments have responded by banning any and all smartphones and PDAs from connecting […]

CA appears to be on its way to becoming a bona fide turnaround story. The management software and services company on Thursday posted a second-quarter profit of $137 million, or 26 cents a share, on sales of $1.06 billion, thanks primarily to stronger-than-expected renewals of existing software licensing contracts. Excluding charges related to employee stock […]

It will officially go down as acquisition No. 125 in Cisco Systems’ storied, 23-year history, but Thursday’s proposed purchase of security software vendor Securent tells the enterprise software world a lot more about where the company is headed than where it’s been. Cisco remains the world’s largest and most important network-equipment vendor. But its recent […]

eBay’s latest marketing campaign proclaims it’s “better when you win it” and encourages bidders to “shop victoriously,” but when it comes to buying and selling software on the online auction site, it’s the vendors that are doing all the losing. A full 35 percent of all software installed on personal computers last year was pirated, […]