Special ID - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

  • Dual-use disaster recovery systems cut costs

    Disaster recovery systems are no longer something that only financial institutions are concerned with, says Jerry Vochteloo, principal technical architect at Symantec Asia-Pacific.

  • Is BI a realistic alternative to paper?

    In the evolving world of business intelligence, swift and targeted access to reports and analysis is the name of the game. But the frequent inability of employees to locate the results they need from high-end BI applications is prompting several enterprise search vendors to step in and address the challenge.

  • Australian Tax Office seeks relief in CRM

    The Australian Tax Office is approaching the end of the second phase of its A$450 million (NZ$538 million) change programme by extending its CRM system to more than 7,000 staff and consolidating 180 case management systems.

  • It’s a wrap: e-document covers make for easy reading

    When implementing a document management system there are a couple of things that organisations often miss, says Sarah Heal, director of Christchurch-based business and IT consultancy Information Leadership Consulting.

  • Transparency comes to document management

    IBM’s plan to acquire business process and enterprise content management specialist FileNet for US$1.6 billion (NZ$2.5 billion) represents its largest potential acquisition since it bought Rational Software for US$2.1 billion in 2003. It signals more consolidation in the content management market as the larger IT vendors look to bolster their capabilities.

  • Paper cuts – going all-digital still not popular

    Given its history, it is no surprise that paper still plays a major role in most corporations. But as businesses redouble their efforts to increase productivity by automating and rethinking paper-centric business processes, IT is finally gaining the upper hand.

  • Malware’s commercialisation drives security

    As long as there’s money to be made, computer security will be an issue, said panellists at Microsoft’s Tech Ed 2006 conference in Boston in June. Security remains a problem because of commercial incentives to build malicious software, but progress is being made and the fight will continue, Microsoft says. “The biggest trend I think we hear talked about is the move towards kinds of commercial malicious software,” such as spyware and software to harvest passwords, says Adam Overton, a group manager on the Microsoft Anti-Malware Team. The chance for monetary gain means there will be a lot more of this software, he said at the panel session.

  • Microsoft rebrands WinFX as .Net Framework 3.0

    Just prior to Microsoft Tech Ed 2006 in Boston, Microsoft announced it would change the name of WinFX to .Net Framework 3.0. It’s planned for inclusion in Windows Vista, due out in early 2007. The framework features the Windows Communication Foundation web services platform; Windows Presentation Foundation presentation layer technology; Windows Workflow and the newly renamed Windows CardSpace, for identity management. CardSpace had been codenamed InfoCard. Current .Net Framework 2.0 technologies, such as the CLR (Common Language Runtime), are also part of .Net Framework 3.0.

  • Malware found on about one in 47 PCs: Microsoft

    A major report on security trends released by Microsoft at Tech Ed conference in Boston is remarkable because it comes from such a large sample group: the more than 270 million users of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, which ships with Windows.

  • An expat Kiwi on the Redmond campus

    Although it has a population of anything up to 35,000 itinerant ‘Microsofties’ and other visitors, it can be a lonely life for an expatriate Kiwi on the Redmond campus. “It’s so rare to come across a New Zealander in the grocery store or on the bus, you inevitably end up standing with them for half an hour and having a chat about when you were last in New Zealand and who was on Shortland Street,” says Paul Andrew, technical product manager for Windows Workflow Foundation.

  • Curtain-raiser: step up and enjoy the show

    Sean McBreen is the director of Microsoft New Zealand’s developer and platform strategy group. He helped organise Tech Ed 2005 and has been involved in Tech Ed 2006 from the start. We asked him to take a peek behind the curtain and give us the low-down on what to look forward to this year.

  • Windows Live — what is it?

    Microsoft may have used its Tech Ed developer conference in Boston in June to generate new enthusiasm for the company’s Windows Live services programme, but it seems attendees had little idea of what Live is all about.

  • CA unveils bundle to automate ITIL process

    CA has launched a package of software, services and training programmes to help implement best practices for managing IT shops under the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework.

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