But Wait, There's More

• Oracle is trying to stop the $1.7 billion acquisition of J.D. Edwards by PeopleSoft and has launched a $5.1 billion, all-cash, hostile takeover of PeopleSoft. This is barely a 5 percent premium over PeopleSoft's current market value and would deplete just about all of Oracle's money in the bank. Oracle CEO and chairman Larry Ellison, who would like to be the number-one application vendor in the world, would likely go higher to get PeopleSoft, but exactly how high is unclear. Oracle says that it would not continue to sell PeopleSoft's line of products, but put them in maintenance mode while merging some modules into the Oracle Applications 11i suite and then asking customers to "upgrade" to that Oracle suite at their convenience. This, says Ellison, is a better option for PeopleSoft customers and shareholders than the merger with JDE. This could be a real deal, and then again it could be a publicity stunt like Ellison's on-again, off-again flirtations with network computers.
  
  

• Microsoft has announced a patch for its Windows operating systems and Internet Explorer browsers that fills a security hole that can enable an outside hacker to take over a machine with IE 5.1, 5.5, or 6.0 installed, including the server editions of Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. You can find out more about the patch on Microsoft's Web site. The security issue affects all Windows machines with the IE browser installed, even if users do not use or activate IE.
  
  
• Microsoft last week debuted the first release candidate (RC1) of the future Exchange Server 2003 e-mail and groupware product for Windows servers, being developed under the code-name of "Titanium." Exchange Server 2003 will run only on the new Windows Server 2003, which was launched at the end of April, and is expected to be more scalable, reliable, and secure than the current Exchange Server 2003 program. Exchange Server 2003 is expected to be delivered as a final product in mid-2003, which is about few weeks away. You can download a 120 review copy of Exchange Server 2003 RC1 from Microsoft's Web site. Meanwhile, Microsoft last week announced that it was pushing out the next generation of its SQL Server database, code-named "Yukon." Microsoft had planned to get Yukon, which has a new XML-like data storage format as its native format, out the door in the first half of 2004. Now it will come out in the second half of 2004. Microsoft plans to have an expanded beta program for Yukon, which will begin this summer.
  
  
• Hewlett-Packard last week introduced a new entry-level network-attached storage (NAS) array aimed at small and midsized businesses and the departments within larger enterprises. The StorageWorks NAS 1000s is based on the cut-down version of the Windows platform that Microsoft has created as an embedded controller operating system for storage products. The base NAS 1000s comes with 320 GB of disk capacity and costs $2,999, or less than a penny per megabyte. (That's the manufacturer's suggested retail price.) A 640 GB model sells for $4,999, and a 1 TB model sells for an incredibly low $6,999. Just about any server platform you can think of can attach to these NAS 1000s arrays, as long as they support Ethernet links and common file formats.
  
  
• The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a nonprofit organization that is based in New York and runs animal shelters and placement services to find homes for cats, dogs, and other animals, has found a new home for a penguin--the Linux mascot, that is--in its own data center. ASPCA has just replaced aging Compaq servers running Windows 2000 and Domino R5 with IBM xSeries servers running the open-source Linux operating system and IBM's Domino R6 messaging and groupware applications. Some 740,000 members and donors from all over the globe give money to the ASPCA to keep the animal shelters and hospitals open. E-mail is a vital means of fundraising these days, and by moving to Linux, Domino R6, and WebSphere Edge Server on the server and Lotus iNotes 6 on the client side, ASPCA has been able to save money on e-mailing and also can give veterinarians, field workers, and other mobile employees access to the central e-mail servers and ASPCA's other applications.
  
  
• Rather than simply blame the bad economy, terrorism, or global instability for the slow down in technology spending, technology leaders should look inside themselves and realize it has more to do with a dramatic and systemic change occurring in an industry that has seen the "just say yes" days of the 1980s and 1990s replaced by the equally hysterical "just say no" attitude prevalent in IT spending today, says Bob Tipton in his new book, Unraveling IT: 25 Years of Lessons in Effective IT Leadership. "IT leaders of today must really justify our existence," he writes. "This is a new dynamic for us, and it is confusing to many IT professionals." Instead of rehashing the best practices of project management or zero-cost budgeting, Tipton aims to provide little "gold nuggets" of insight to help IT professionals--anybody from the night shift operator to the chief information officer--become more effective IT leaders. Tipton has been a chief technology officer, and a CEO, and is currently an independent IT analyst. This book, Tipton's second, is available from his company's Web site, www.rstipton.com, for $19.95.
  
  

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