News Briefs and Product Shorts

• PentaSafe Security Technologies has delivered a new central console that allows systems administrators to manage security settings, update security patches, and carry out other security-related tasks on a variety of platforms and applications in their data center. The new console, VigilEnt Security Operations Center, or VSOC, is delivered in VigilEnt Security Manager 4.0, which PentaSafe announced last month. VigilEnt Security Manager is a Windows-based application. It serves as the hub and the brains for a variety of add-on modules that deploy to specific servers, applications, and database management systems, such as the VigilEnt Security Agent for iSeries. VigilEnt Security Agent for iSeries includes PentaSafe's original OS/400 products: PS Audit, PS Secure, and PS Detect, as well as PS Password. PentaSafe says VSOC will save administrators time with a number of automated features, such as server auto-discovery, centralized patch management, and new security check up reports, which provide detailed lists of vulnerabilities and responses that administrators can take to remedy the situation for all major computing platforms. PentaSafe, which is on track to merge with Windows systems management software vendor NetIQ at the end of this month, also announced it has developed a security agent that monitors Microsoft's SQL Server database management system.

• The University of Washington has awarded a contract for public safety applications to HTE, a Lake Mary, Florida, developer of OS/400 and Windows applications for police departments, utilities, and other government-run organizations. The university plans to purchase three core HTE products, including CAD400, CRIMES, and E911, as well as Mobile Data Browser, which allows police officers to communicate wirelessly through laptops and to access local, state, and federal law-enforcement databases. Vicky Peltzer, the university's police chief, said the school had been looking for an integrated computer-aided dispatch system for three years before settling on HTE's offerings. "Putting our force on the cutting edge has been my priority since I arrived here, and HTE will help us get there very quickly," she said. Because the University of Washington does quite a bit of research for the federal government, it needed a system that wouldn't compromise students' privacy, Peltzer said. "We need a system secure from hackers, and HTE was way above all of its competitors on this measure," she said.
  
  
• Zephyr has announced that BEA Systems' WebLogic application server can now be used to deploy its PASSPORT line of Web-to-host software for OS/400, mainframe, and Unix servers. Previously, PASSPORT was most often deployed from a Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000 server running Internet Information Server. Alternatively, it could be deployed from a S/390 mainframe running Unix System Services and IBM's WebSphere Application Server. After receiving requests to deploy PASSPORT Web-to-Host from other Web server platforms, Zephyr has tested and certified the use of PASSPORT from BEA's WebLogic Application Server. For more on that, check out Zephyr's site, at www.zephyrcorp.com.
  
  
• The Majestic Star Casino, which operates four casinos, has selected Infinium Software to provide core back-end accounting functionality. The Majestic Star runs three Fitzgerald casinos in Tunica, Mississippi, Black Hawk, Colorado, and Las Vegas, as well as one Majestic Star Casino in Gary, Indiana. The company has selected Infinium's Human Resources, Payroll, Financial Management, and Corporate Performance Management applications--all of which run only on an OS/400 server. Infinium, based in Hyannis, Massachusetts, has carved a niche for itself in the hospitality and gaming industry. It is on track to be acquired by SSA Global Technologies early next year.
  
  
• IPNet Solutions last week introduced BizManager400 2.3, an OS/400 application that allows OS/400 shops to connect with their trading partners over the Internet to send and receive EDI transactions. IPNet Solutions, based in Newport Beach, California, previously provided BizManager products for AIX, HP-UX, and Windows 2000 environments. In September, IPNet Solutions formed a partnership with Inovis, which earlier this year purchased Peregrine Systems' EDI products, which used to be owned by Harbinger. BizManager/400 is a direct result of that partnership. In edition to exchanging EDI files, BizManager/400 allows business to exchange XML, HL7 (Health Level Seven), and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) documents, as well as binary and flat files, with their trading partners. For more information, go to www.ipnetsolutions.com.
  
  
• Enterprise application integration software vendor CommerceQuest has announced that DENTSPLY International, a $1.1 billion provider of equipment and supplies used by dentists, is licensing Business Process Integrator, CommerceQuest's enterprise application integration tool, to help unify its disparate ERP systems. DENTSPLY has grown significantly through acquisitions in the last two years, which has resulted in the accumulation of several different ERP platforms. The company's management decided it was advantageous to view its enterprise from the standpoint of its strategic BPCS ERP system, so CommerceQuest's Business Process Integrator, which runs natively on OS/400, was called on to link those disparate systems to BPCS. DENTSPLY said the project should reduce maintenance costs while improving data quality.
  

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