Cobol skills drought persists amid mainframe migrations
Enterprises struggling to fill demands for Cobol skills should consider an application modernisation program which could also pave the way for migration off the mainframe to an open system.
Stories by Rodney Gedda
ACMA builds Xen-based private cloud
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has built a private cloud in three months, choosing Citrix’s XenServer virtualisation hypervisor over the incumbent VMware ESX.
Wellington-based developer aims for smarter Linux file structure
The Unix file system hierarchy has been used for decades and remains the model for most of today’s modern Linux systems, but one distribution, GoboLinux, is making software management easier with an innovative directory structure.
Open source under threat from 'grey' IP laws
Incomplete laws and intense lobbying from the software industry are contrary to the values of free software and continue to pose a threat to its existence says an independent technology consultant and writer from New Zealand.
Amberdms gives green light to open source accounting
New Zealand software company Amberdms has released a web-based open source accounting and billing application aimed at simplifying business and customer management.
Sydney Uni reaps the benefits of virtualisation
Following a long IT career in the financial services sector, two and half years ago Bruce Meikle joined the University of Sydney as CIO.
Simplot plants new ERP, analytics software
Food production company Simplot Australia will implement a new enterprise business intelligence package from September 2009 in conjunction with a new ERP system.
Research project limits computer power consumption
Researchers at the University of Sydney have developed a new scheduling algorithm designed to reduce data centre energy consumption without disrupting operations.
Plastic circuits touted as cheaper, greener option
Two Australian engineers are set to shake up the computer and electronics industries, having developed technology to make circuits out of plastic.
Optus reveals iPhone 3G S pricing plan
Australian telco Optus has announced its plan pricing for the new iPhone 3G S, which includes a free handset with some 24-month contracts. Free tethering, however, comes with a catch.
Aussie devs make Wave with Google Web Toolkit
Google's latest offering, the Web-based real-time collaboration suite dubbed Wave, began life in Sydney, Australia, as a start-up project built with Google's open source Web Toolkit project.
Aussie Police look for more information exchange with NZ
Australian police information system CrimTrac is engaged with New Zealand police departments to explore opportunities for greater information exchange on "persons of interest" to support rapid identification.
Licensing issues still dog virtualisation deployment
According to its proponents, virtualisation has taken the world by storm, but for end-users requiring application support, migrating services from physical to virtual machines is not so easy.
Sun supercomputer for Aust met office
Amid rumours of Sun Microsystems being acquired by IBM, Sun has announced an A$30 million (NZ$37 million) deal with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to build one of the largest high-performance computing environments in the southern hemisphere.
Banned poker sites make joker of ACMA's Internet blacklist
Less than a week after the federal government's URL blacklist was leaked and caused a furore over the status of online betting company Betfair, Australia's poker industry is now in the firing line over the number of legitimate poker sites that could be banned by the filter.