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New Windows Virtualization Software Enters Beta Test

The first beta version of new virtualization software for Windows Server 2003 was made available from SWsoft last week. Windows shops can now download SWsoft's Virtuozzo for Windows Beta, a new software product that creates hundreds of virtual private servers on a single X86-based server equipped with up to 16 processors and 64 GB of memory. The new offering is the Windows version of a product that the Herndon, Virginia, software developer originally wrote for the Linux operating system. The company claims more than 500 companies use Virtuozzo for Linux to manage 200,000 virtual private servers. "Our approach brings to market a unique architecture that maximizes server resources because each VPS resides on a common shared OS with near-zero overhead," says Serguei Beloussov, SWsoft's chief executive. SWsoft says Release Candidate 1 for Virtuozzo for Windows will be available this month, with the final release due in early 2005.

VMware Teams with Opsware for Simplified Rollout of Virtual Infrastructure

Server provisioning expert Opsware and virtualization software developer VMware are working together to speed the roll-out of VMware's virtualization software, the companies announced last month. As virtualization software, like VMware's ESX Server and Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005, becomes more popular, users will need additional tools to help automate installation, the company explains. "With Opsware automation, companies reduce costs by rolling out virtual infrastructure faster," said Brian Byun, vice president of alliances at VMware. Opsware's software works with VMware's GSX Server and ESX Server products. ESX Server allows a server to be carved into multiple virtual machines and to have different operating systems loaded within those partitions, including Windows and Linux. VMware is a subsidiary of EMC.

HP Buoyed by Strong ProLiant Sales in Q4

An 18 percent increase in shipments of X86-based ProLiant servers contributed to a revenue gain for Hewlett-Packard in the fourth quarter ending October 31. Revenue from sales of X86-based ProLiant's increased a little slower, at 16 percent, as the powerful but low-cost X86-based servers continue to become commodity products. On the higher end of the server spectrum, sales of HP-UX systems were up 8 percent, sales of AlphaServers (which support Tru64 Unix and OpenVMS) were down 27 percent, and sales of NonStop fault-tolerant Unix servers were up 13 percent. Company officials said that HP's Integrity line of Intel Itanium-based servers, which run Windows, HP-UX, and Linux, now account for 16 percent of total sales in the Business Critical Systems part of the Enterprise Storage and Server unit. Overall, HP booked $21.4 billion in sales for the quarter, up 8 percent from $19.9 billion last year. Operating margins for the quarter were 6 percent, up a smidgen, and HP added $1.1 billion to the bottom line after taxes, or 37 cents a share, compared with $862 million of profit this time last year, or 28 cents a share.

IDC Says Services Spending to Grow Steadily

If you think that the IT services business has been dampened by continued sluggishness in the economies of the world, you'll be glad to learn that recent data from IDC may indicate otherwise. IDC expects companies and governments the world over to spend $553 billion on services that are external to their own organizations, according to a recent report. The researcher also expects that the IT services market will do reasonably well compared with the overall IT market in the next four years, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.9 percent. IDC says that utility computing and subscription-based pricing models, offshoring, and business process outsourcing are helping to redefine the IT services business, and says that it expects consolidation in the services business (particularly in Europe) and that global players will, despite any political pressures, continue to build their offshoring capabilities.

InSite's RFID-Enabled Shipping Software Integrated with MAPICS ERP

ERP software maker MAPICS recently announced a partnership with InSite Software that will see InSite's shipping software become integrated with MAPICS' Windows-based ERP software. Minneapolis-based InSite Software sells InSiteShip, which uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and is designed to reduce paperwork and to increase accuracy through the use of radio frequency picking, RFID "smart label" generation, and carton level detail captures for the generation of advanced shipping notices. InSiteShip is integrated with the version of Atlanta-based MAPICS's SyteLine ERP product that runs on the Progress database. A version that works with the Windows SQL Server database will be available in early 2005.

Windows Upgrade Causes 40,000 PCs to Crash At English Government Site

A routine Windows upgrade went horribly wrong last week at the U.K. government's Department of Work and Pensions, causing upward of 40,000 PCs to crash, according to news reports. The November 22 crash affected about one third of the department's 130,000 Windows PCs and took four days to fully recover from. As a result, workers at the department were forced to fax documents manually and to write benefits and pension claims by hand. The department's IT suppliers are Texas-based EDS and Microsoft. It was not immediately known what caused the crash.

Did Microsoft Promote Mozilla Firefox?

Microsoft's well-oiled PR machine probably could use a tune up. Reputable news organizations, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, say that Microsoft representatives provided them with a screenshot that shows the new MSN Search Engine loaded not into Microsoft's own Internet Explorer browser, but into the new Firefox Web browser from Mozilla instead. Anti-Microsoft bloggers were agog with the apparent gaffe, which many theorized might actually be a clever reverse-psychology technique on the part of Microsoft to draw more attention to its new Google killer. However, a Microsoft spokesman denied that the company or its partner in PR, Waggener Edstrom, distributed any screenshots that showed the Mozilla Firefox browser.

It wouldn't be the first time that Microsoft inadvertently promoted a competitor's products in its marketing materials. In June 2002, astute readers alerted Midrange Server (as IT Jungle was known back then) to an unfortunately crafted Microsoft Web page that promoted Windows XP as "best for business" and "more secure, easier to manage." However, a picture on that Web page (PDF format), which Microsoft quickly removed, actually showed an IBM AS/400 server, which, arguably, may be better for business, more secure, and easier to manage than a Windows machine (although at a premium of price). Incidentally, Microsoft ran much of its own business on couple of dozen AS/400 servers in the 1990s, before switching to its own Windows server operating systems, which may have been where the pictures came from.