Sun Microsystems Announces Completion of MySQL Acquisition; Paves Way for Secure, Open Source Platform to Power the Network Economy

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced it has completed the acquisition of MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, for approximately $1 billion in total consideration. Sun also unveiled the immediate availability of MySQL's complete portfolio of products and enterprise services backed by its 17,000-strong global sales and services organization and its extensive international network of authorized distribution channels. Sun now provides a single, secure choice for customers and developers seeking to put MySQL into deployment on a global basis. Users can get started today with free downloads at www.sun.com/mysql/download.


"Since announcing our Sun-MySQL relationship, we've received an overwhelming response and embrace from customers and community members excited to see MySQL's tremendous innovation and community backed by Sun's financial muscle and global partners," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief executive officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "For the first time ever, businesses across the world can standardize on a commercially supported, open source platform that meets their needs for scale, quality and global service."

Around the Clock Enterprise Support and Services

Today Sun introduced immediate availability of 7X24 year round global, enterprise-class database subscriptions and services for the entire MySQL product line, enabling IT organizations worldwide to take advantage of the leading open database for the Network Economy. With broad multi-platform support - including Solaris, Linux and Windows - enterprise customers will face less risk and have greater flexibility and choice to achieve unlimited scale and enable MySQL deployments in mission critical applications. Customers can sign-up for MySQL Enterprise trial subscriptions at no cost at www.sun.com/mysql/trial. Sun is also offering MySQL Enterprise Unlimited, which helps customers deploy and manage an unlimited number of MySQL Enterprise Servers at a flat annual fee. To learn more, go to www.sun.com/mysql/unlimited. Current users of MySQL can also learn more about Sun's extensive services capabilities at http://www.sun.com/service.

Sun's new MySQL database is a key component in popular software stacks for building Web 2.0 applications. Its deployment with the Solaris OS, OpenSolaris project and highly complementary systems from Sun delivers powerful end-to-end platforms for customers of all scale, from individual developers to the largest global enterprises. And MySQL continues its commitments to its strategic partnerships with popular platform vendors such as Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat and Zend. The acquisition cements Sun's entrance into the $15 billion database market, affirms Sun's leadership in open source software and positions the company as the leading provider of enterprise platforms for the Network Economy.

"As a developer of open source web applications and services that relies heavily on both Sun and MySQL, we believe that the combined companies will better address our IT needs today, tomorrow and beyond," said Joshua Rand, CEO, Sapotek, Inc. "We're confident that the MySQL acquisition will reinforce Sun's commitment to providing hardware, software and services that will save us money in having one integrated, end-to-end platform. The combination of MySQL and Sun provides the community with unlimited possibilities, ensuring the highest level of quality assurance and advanced feature contributions to the world's leading open source initiatives."

More than 100 million copies of MySQL's high-performance, open source database software have been downloaded and distributed in its history and since the announcement of Sun's intent to acquire MySQL, daily downloads have increased from 50,000 to more than 60,000 per day. This broad penetration coupled with MySQL's strength in Web 2.0, Software as a Service (SaaS), enterprise IT, telecom and the embedded OEM market, make it a significant addition for Sun. For more information on Sun's acquisition of MySQL AB, go to http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/2008-0116/index.jsp.



Catch the Sun-MySQL World Tour and Community Town Hall

To toast the success of the acquisition and engage with customers, employees, community developers and partners, Sun and MySQL executives will kick-off a global tour in March, hitting major cities worldwide leading up to the popular MySQL Conference & Expo in April. Every Sun-MySQL community can participate online, including videos, photos and comments from each stop at www.sun.com/mysqltour. This site will invite the public to visit the tour in a nearby city to meet Sun-MySQL executives, local developers and other open source enthusiasts. Details for an online tour stop will also be available; a Community Town Hall event is slated for March 4, 2008, and will be hosted by Jonathan Schwartz, Rich Green, executive vice president of Sun Software, and Marten Mickos, senior vice president of Sun's newly formed Database Group within Sun's Software division, among others.

MySQL Conference & Expo - April 14-17

Co-presented by Sun and O'Reilly Media, the annual MySQL Conference & Expo will take place April 14-17, 2008, in Santa Clara, California. The event is expected to bring together over 1,600 open source and database users from some of the most exciting and fastest-growing companies in the world, as well as the large and active MySQL Community. The program for 2008 will include keynote presentations by Jonathan Schwartz, Marten Mickos, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, and Jacek Becla of the Stanford Linear Accelerator program. For more information, go to http://www.mysqlconf.com.

About Sun's MySQL Portfolio

MySQL is a business unit within Sun's Software organization and is the world's most popular open source database software. Many of the world's largest and fastest-growing organizations use MySQL to save time and money powering their high-volume Web sites, critical business systems and packaged software -- including industry leaders such as Yahoo!, Alcatel-Lucent, Google, Nokia, YouTube and Zappos.com. At http://www.sun.com/mysql, Sun provides corporate users with commercial subscriptions and services, and actively supports the large MySQL open source developer community.



About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

Dell, VMware Delivering Virtualization Everywhere

Dell and VMware are helping to simplify virtualization for customers with a strategy that will deliver Dell PowerEdge™ servers embedded with VMware ESX 3i hypervisor with a "single click." The initiative, announced at VMworld, is the first in a series of innovations that will expand adoption of virtualization as a standard ingredient in datacenter technology.

Dell will begin the process of offering VMware ESX 3i hypervisor in all virtualization-certified Dell PowerEdge servers starting in early April. Customers will be able to purchase VMware with a single click easing virtualization planning, deployments and management. More information is available at www.dell.com/vmwarenow.

“Virtualization radically simplifies IT – and we’re the only vendor delivering it to customers in a single click,” said Brad Anderson, Senior Vice President, Dell Business Product Group. “We’re unleashing the potential of virtualization - from servers through storage - and we’re making it simple for customers.”

“Dell and VMware are delivering on a shared vision for virtualization,” said Diane Greene, president and CEO of VMware. “Dell is virtualization-enabling their servers with the VMware ESX 3i hypervisor, giving the PowerEdge line standalone server consolidation capability. Customers can upgrade from the VMware ESX 3i hypervisor to VMware’s datacenter virtualization and management suite, VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3). VI3 provides automatic load balancing, business continuity, power management and the ability to move a virtual machine across physical machines with no service interruption.”

Accelerating the Value of Virtualization
By making virtualization a mainstream, pervasive datacenter architecture, customers can help reduce capital and operating costs, improve security, ensure business continuity and deploy green IT environments.

Dell PowerEdge servers provide an ideal platform for customers to deploy these environments. The Dell PowerEdge 2950-III and Dell’s new PowerEdge M-Series blade solution own the no. 1 scores for servers for virtualization performance in their respective classes 1. The M-Series also provides lead-free configurations that help customers further minimize their environmental impact.

When combined with the recently announced Dell EqualLogic PS5000 Series storage arrays and Dell Virtualization Readiness Assessment Services, these solutions give customers a complete, simplified and greener end-to-end virtualization-ready data center.

The VMware ESX 3i hypervisor is based on core VMware virtualization technology in use by more than 100,000 customers. It is the industry’s smallest hypervisor (32MB), enabling high levels of security and reliability, and it is the only OS-independent virtualization platform. VMware ESX 3i hypervisor delivers single-server consolidation with fast and easy deployment—the first virtual machine can operate within minutes of booting a server with pre-configured and optimized hardware configurations.

Customers can upgrade from VMware ESX 3i hypervisor to VMware’s datacenter virtualization and management suite, VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3). VI3 provides automatic load balancing, business continuity, power management and the ability to move a virtual machine across physical machines with no service interruption. VI3 is also compatible with VMware’s desktop virtualization and management solutions.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell is a leading global systems and services company and No. 34 on the Fortune 500. For more information, visit www.dell.com

About VMware

VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 100,000 customers and more than 10,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. VMware is based in Palo Alto, California and on the web at www.vmware.com.

Cisco Introduces World's Most Advanced Networking Semiconductor: Cisco QuantumFlow Processor

Cisco® today introduced the Cisco QuantumFlow Processor, the most advanced piece of networking silicon in the world and the industry's first fully integrated and programmable networking chipset. More than half a decade in the making, the Cisco QuantumFlow Processor consists of 40 cores on a single chip and can perform up to 160 simultaneous processes, making it uniquely geared for today's network environments and several generations beyond what is currently available in network processors.

The Cisco QuantumFlow Processor was designed by a team of more than 100 Cisco engineers and has led to more than 40 patent submissions. Many of the same engineers who developed the Cisco Silicon Packet Processor (SPP) for the Cisco Carrier Routing System (CRS-1), which debuted in 2004, also worked on the Cisco QuantumFlow Processor. Continued advancements in technology, design and expertise enabled the team to increase the transistor density on the chip from a then networking-industry-leading 185 million on the Cisco SPP to more than 800 million on the Cisco QuantumFlow processor. Such density puts it in the tier of some of the most advanced processors developed by leading semiconductor companies.

About Cisco Systems
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com.

Leading Companies Deliver RIAs on Adobe AIR

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that global brands are embracing the Adobe technology platform for rich Internet applications (RIAs) to create new types of engaging experiences for their customers, partners and employees. Adobe RIA technologies, including Adobe® AIR™ and Adobe® Flex® 3 software, released today (see separate release), provide companies with a comprehensive solution for the creation and deployment of RIAs for the browser and the desktop.

“RIAs have moved beyond the stage of early adoption. They are being deployed by organizations worldwide that have recognized and embraced this revolution in Web software,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe. “The incredible momentum that we are already seeing with Adobe AIR demonstrates the real need for businesses to engage with customers in more effective ways, extending innovative RIAs as first class citizens on the desktop.”

AOL; eBay; The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc.; The New York Times Company; Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group’s Nick.com; Sharp Corporation and others today launched pioneering applications deployed on Adobe AIR. For more information and to download applications on Adobe AIR, visit www.adobe.com/go/airshowcase.

NASDAQ Market Replay leverages Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR to deliver a RIA on the desktop that enables financial professionals to replay market activity in detail at any point in time, helping investors understand how their orders interacted with the market. The complexities of equity trading are enormous — with millions of orders continuously traveling different paths to central markets. NASDAQ Market Replay lets brokers show their customers exactly what was going on in the market at the time a trade happened, and Adobe AIR allows for instant response to an extremely large data set, something not possible in a browser.

“Creating an application on Adobe AIR lets us deliver valuable data analysis at a lower cost,” said Randall Hopkins, Vice President, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. “We are entering a world where people will be able to replay important market events — and better understand movement at any given moment in time. This not only helps financial advisors, but gives customers better insight into the market as a whole.”

The New York Times Company today launched ShifD, a new RIA that allows users to shift content between computers and mobile devices. ShifD works on — and between — the Web, mobile devices and through a downloadable AIR application, giving people an easier way to consume media on the go. Developers used Ajax technologies to build both the browser-based version of ShifD and the desktop version deployed on Adobe AIR. The New York Times Company is also developing a sophisticated blog reader on Adobe AIR.

“ShifD solves the problem of shifting data between all of a user’s Web-enabled devices,” said Michael Zimbalist, vice president, research & development operations, The New York Times Company. “We see a future for device-independent media, with convergence around the user experience and not around any particular delivery platform, which is why Adobe AIR is an excellent choice for ShifD.”

Other companies using Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR to create and deploy RIAs on the desktop include: Atlantic Records; BBC; Business Objects, an SAP company; Deutsche Bank; FedEx Corp.; Loyalty Management Group (Nectar); Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group's Neopets and Wilson Sporting Goods. These applications will span social communities, banking and retail experiences, powerful enterprise functionality, and interactive games.

Deutsche Bank is utilizing Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR to create a persistent, customer-facing RIA that alerts customers immediately of instruction status and account activity inclusive of balances. Deutsche Bank’s db-direct internet service provides an intuitive and effective online solution for corporate clients and financial institutions to handle their cash management needs. By deploying on Adobe AIR, Deutsche Bank will be able to deliver instant desktop alerts directly to the customer without the need for the client to remain logged into the internet service.

“When it comes to the financial services industry, ease of use, client service and communication are paramount,” said Mike LaCava, Director and Global Head of Internet Channels in Global Transaction Banking at Deutsche Bank. “Our challenge was to combine the right level of personal attention for our clients with an interactive solution that is both dynamic and customizable in the way it provides information back to the customer. With Adobe AIR, we can leverage the power of the desktop and the Web to immediately deliver customized desktop notifications that will keep our clients well-informed and empowered while they carry out their daily activities.”

To read what other companies are saying about the Adobe technology platform for RIAs,
visit www.adobe.com/go/riacustomers

Adobe Technology Platform for RIAs Propels Innovation on the Web, Adobe AIR and Adobe Flex 3 Now Available

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of Adobe® AIR™ and Adobe® Flex® 3 software, furthering the Adobe technology platform for rich Internet applications (RIAs). Developers and designers use Adobe RIA technologies to rapidly create and deploy rich, branded content and applications. The release of Adobe AIR signals the next wave of Adobe RIA innovation by bridging the real-time, dynamic capabilities of the Web with the computing power and data capabilities of the desktop. Businesses that leverage the Web as a platform are now using the latest Adobe RIA technologies to build and deploy more engaging applications with the widest reach across browsers, desktops and operating systems.

“For 25 years, Adobe has delivered technology innovation for our customers, beginning with desktop publishing and extending to multimedia and the Web,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe. “Now, we continue to advance the future of digital experiences by enabling our customers to create highly interactive, expressive applications. This is an exciting time for Adobe, for innovation in software, and for designers and developers who are driving the Web forward.”

Industry Leaders Embrace Adobe RIA Technologies
Leading companies across industries such as entertainment, finance, media, retail and social networking are embracing Adobe RIA technologies. Deutsche Bank, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc., and The New York Times Company, among others, use the Adobe technology platform for RIAs to help ensure customer interactions are engaging and effective. (See separate press release issued today.)

“Adobe has been focused on improving the Web experience and delivering the underlying technologies to produce more interactive and expressive Web sites and applications, and the Adobe technology platform for RIAs hits right at a key need companies have today,” said Al Hilwa, Program Director at IDC. “The ROI of RIAs is real. A more engaging product visualization experience in eCommerce applications for example, helps customers understand what they are buying, which leads to less online abandonment and increased average order size through cross-sell and up-sell visualization.”

Adobe is also delivering new applications built with Adobe Flex and deployed on Adobe AIR, such as Adobe Media Player, now in beta release, which is a fusion of TV and the Internet that allows users to watch their favorite shows anytime and anywhere, as well as Buzzword, an elegant online word processor that has built-in collaboration capabilities.

Adobe Technology Platform for RIAs
Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex and Adobe Flash® Player software are the foundation of the Adobe technology platform for RIAs. Adobe RIA technologies include tools, frameworks, servers, services, and runtimes that work together seamlessly, enabling the creation of engaging experiences with the greatest reach. There are a variety of learning resources at the Adobe Developer Connection (developer.adobe.com ) to help developers immediately start building RIAs for the browser and the desktop.

Adobe AIR enables developers to create RIAs on the desktop using the skills and Web technologies — such as HTML, Ajax, PDF, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex — they already employ. Applications deployed on Adobe AIR have the advantages of browser-based RIAs, such as speed of development, ease of use, and access from virtually anywhere. Yet they also have the benefits of desktop applications, such as the ability to read/write local files, work with other applications on a user’s computer and maintain local data storage on the desktop.

Flex is a free, open source framework for building highly interactive, expressive RIAs. Adobe Flex Builder™ 3, an Eclipse™ based development tool, accelerates Flex application development and includes new capabilities for deploying RIAs on Adobe AIR. Adobe Flex Builder 3 integrates with Adobe Creative Suite® 3 software making it easy for designers and developers to work together more efficiently. Powerful new testing tools, including memory and performance profilers and integrated support for automated functional testing, speed up development and lead to higher performing RIAs.

Adobe Flash Player, which reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled PCs and hundreds of millions of mobile and set-top devices, delivers unparalleled creative options, highly engaging user experiences, stunning audio/video playback, and virtually universal reach.

Major portions of Adobe AIR, such as the WebKit HTML engine, Tamarin ActionScript™ Virtual Machine, and SQLite local database functionality, are open source. Adobe is committed to contributing to the open source community on multiple fronts, including the release of the free open source Flex framework and open source BlazeDS for high-speed data connectivity, as well as active membership in the SQLite Consortium. Visit opensource.adobe.com for more information.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe AIR and the Adobe AIR SDK are available immediately as free downloads in English and offered for both Windows® and Macintosh operating systems. Upcoming versions are expected to be available for Linux and other languages. For more information, please visit www.adobe.com/go/air

The Adobe Flex 3 product line is available now in English and Japanese, and offered for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. The open source Flex 3 SDK is available free of charge and a beta version of Adobe Flex Builder 3 for Linux is freely available on Adobe Labs (labs.adobe.com). Adobe Flex Builder 3 is available as a standalone product or Eclipse plug-in, with the Standard edition priced at US$249 and the Professional edition at US$699. For more information about system requirements and supported platforms, please visit www.adobe.com/go/flex *

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com/



* Price does not include applicable sales tax, or shipping and handling fees. Reseller prices may vary. © 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, ActionScript, Adobe AIR, Creative Suite, Flex, and Flex Builder are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Georgia State Adds New IBM Supercomputer to Keep Pace With Demand

Georgia State University and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that the university has purchased an IBM System Cluster 1350 supercomputer through a regional partnership program between IBM and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA). This purchase is the latest addition to the school's expanding inventory of supercomputing resources.

Georgia State is building a diverse and powerful supercomputing center to support a growing body of academic and scientific research. In September 2006 three researchers began working with a new IBM System p5 575 with Power5+ processors running AIX 5.3 -- acquired as part of the IBM-SURA regional partnership. Those three users became a dozen in January 2007 and now include more than 40 faculty from many disciplines as well as from other SURA sites such as Virginia Commonwealth University, Louisiana State University and University of Delaware.

"We're experiencing increasing demand for supercomputer resources," said Art Vandenberg, director of the university's supercomputing center. "Our strategy is to build a center that supports a wide variety of disciplines. So, we're adding the Cluster 1350 to support research that requires commodity level, Linux computing."

The new IBM System Cluster 1350 will help meet this increasing demand. As researchers gain access to more capacity and capability, they naturally are expanding their goals, driving demand. Researchers in chemistry, biology, molecular dynamics, computer science, climate modeling and political science will be among the new machine's first users. The Cluster 1350 will be added to Georgia State's high-end IBM System p5 575 supercomputer to offer scientists a range of in-house computing capabilities.

The 320 Intel® Xeon® Quad-Core processors that make up Georgia State's new Cluster 1350 will also be shared by SURA -- a group of 60 schools that shares supercomputing resources via a grid setup known as SURAgrid. The university's Cluster 1350 configuration runs at approximately three teraflops, or three billion calculations per second.

"Georgia State University has been a long term contributor to the SURAgrid initiative and we are extremely pleased that SURA has been able to assist Georgia State and other SURAgrid participants by providing access to specially discounted hardware and services through our partnership with IBM," said Gary Crane, SURA Director of IT Initiatives.

Parasites & Politics
A partial list of the university's research projects that will benefit from the new IBM supercomputer includes:

Dr. Tarynn Witten, Virginia Commonwealth University, plans to create more complex and biologically realistic models to investigate Chagas' Disease. The long-term goal of this project is to apply novel mathematical and computational modeling technologies to develop new paradigms for understanding the infectious disease process. (http://www.vcu.edu/csbc/vpp)
Maryam Rahimian, PhD student in chemistry at Georgia State University, also plans to study parasitic diseases such as sleeping sickness, malaria and leishmania. The goal is to find new drugs with high efficiency and low cost. The IBM HPC Systems enable Rahimian to run more complex models which can provide valuable information on the influence of solvent and molecular motion in DNA complexes.
Eric Hurst, PhD student in political science, intends to apply the university's additional compute power to one of the first political science studies to run on a supercomputer. Hurst intends to study the complete voting history of independent regulatory commissions, such as the SEC, to help determine how ideology and bureaucracy affect the nation's policies and politics.
The IBM System Cluster 1350 will be configured with additional IBM solutions including: BladeCenter® H technology, HS21 XM Blade servers utilizing two Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, 10G Ethernet backbone, IBM's xCAT and Loadleveler cluster management tools. It will also have access to existing Tivoli Storage Manager and 18 Terabytes of storage that Georgia State has acquired during the past year. This will allow researchers to easily share results from the IBM System p5 with the new IBM System Cluster 1350 -- and vice versa.

Georgia State University
Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia State University is one of the leading research institutions in an urban setting. The university offers 52 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in 250 fields of study through six college-level units. Preparing students for lifelong learning in a global society, Georgia State's degree programs are relevant to the practical needs of both the student and the community. A member of the University System of Georgia, Georgia State is the USG's most diverse institution, with more than 50,000 students enrolled annually from every county in Georgia, every state in the nation and 159 countries. For more information, visit www.gsu.edu.

The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) is a consortium of over 60 leading research institutions in the southern United States and the District of Columbia established in 1980 as a non-stock, nonprofit corporation. SURA serves as an entity through which colleges, universities, and other organizations may cooperate with one another, and with government and industry in acquiring, developing, and using laboratories and other research facilities and in furthering knowledge and the application of that knowledge in the physical, biological, and other natural sciences and engineering. For more information, visit www.sura.org.

About SURAgrid
SURAgrid is a consortium of organizations collaborating and combining high performance computing and advanced networking resources to improve the research and learning infrastructure of the SURA region. The vision for SURAgrid is to orchestrate access to a rich set of cyberinfrastructure capabilities to meet diverse needs of university researchers and educators. Capabilities being cultivated include locally contributed high performance computing resources, project-specific tools and environments, shared access to highly specialized high performance computing and cyberinfrastructure resources, and gateways to national and international cyberinfrastructure. For more information on SURAgrid see: www.sura.org/suragrid

IBM System Cluster 1350
The IBM System Cluster 1350 is designed for a broad range of supercomputer application environments, including industrial design and manufacturing, financial services, life sciences, government and education. The IBM System Cluster 1350 leverages IBM's extensive supercomputing experience to help minimize complexity and risk. Using advanced Intel® Xeon®, AMD Opteron™, Cell Broadband Engine and IBM PowerPC® processor-based server nodes, proven cluster management software and optional high-speed interconnects, the Cluster 1350 offers the best of IBM and third-party technology. For more information visit http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/clusters/hardware/1350.html

New 'Adria' Supercomputer Among 250 Most Powerful in the World

Advancing development of hydropower as a green alternative to traditional energy sources, world-renowned hydro-energy research organisation Turboinštitut has turned to IBM (NYSE: IBM) to deliver the most powerful supercomputer in South East Europe.

Named 'Adria' and based at the newly-established Ljubljana Supercomputing Center in Slovenia, the Linux-based system will be used by Turboinštitut to carry out complex water turbine design simulations in fractions of existing timescales. Performing calculations 50 times faster than current systems, Adria will reduce time-to-result from weeks to hours.

"By applying our supercomputer expertise and industry leadership, IBM will be fundamental to advances in Turboinštitut's hydro energy development programmes," said Biljana Weber, Country General Manager, IBM Slovenia. "IBM is increasingly mobilising its research, technology and insight to help clients worldwide address complex energy and environmental challenges."

The system will be instrumental in accelerating Turboinštitut's hydro-power research and development programme, encouraging energy companies worldwide to introduce the energy source as an environmentally friendly alternative.

"We selected IBM because of their expertise and flexibility. They quickly provided reference architecture and actively worked with our experts on specific areas of supercomputing architecture. IBM put in place a local team who will bring Adria to life and also ensured the financing of the investment," explained Dr. Vladimir Kercan, Executive Director, Turboinštitut.

The 2.048-core system uses 256 IBM BladeCenter servers, each carrying two quad-core processors with 4100 GB of RAM, and is expected to become one of the world's fastest Linux clusters (based on Top500.org). 'Adria' utilises the latest IBM solutions that reduce its own energy consumption.

The installation will be performed by IBM Slovenia and business partner SIMT.

For more information about IBM Slovenia, visit http://ibm.com/si

Sun Introduces The Industry's First Carrier-Grade, 64-Thread Rackmount Server

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today introduced the Sun Netra T5220 server, the industry's first carrier-grade, 64-thread rackmount server. The Sun Netra T5220 server is the industry's only Network Equipment Building Standard (NEBS) Level 3 Certified Rack Server based on the UltraSPARC T2 processor. Powered by the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS), the most secure carrier-grade OS for the telecommunications industry, it delivers multithreaded world-record performance in a space-efficient, 20-inch-deep package.


Also at Mobile World Congress:

In its booth at the show (#2C12, Hall 2), Sun is demonstrating future Netra rackmount and blade servers that will be powered by Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, delivering on its commitment to offer an entire line of carrier-grade telco servers based on energy-efficient Intel Xeon processor technology.

Sun announced that Bridgewater Systems and OpenClovis have joined the Sun Unified Network Platform (SUN-P) partner eco-system. SUN-P is an OEM solution set that enables radical consolidation of the network, significantly lowering the cost of wireless deployments such as WiMAX or Long Term Evolution (LTE). To see an interactive ROI tool showing the benefits of SUN-P in the development for WiMAX and LTE networks,please visit: http://sun.com/wimax.
"The Sun Netra T5220 server is yet another example of Sun's innovative systems design. Take a look at the market today, and no one else is offering 64 virtual servers in a single 2U box," said Mark Butler, Netra systems product line director, Sun Microsystems. "We're also extremely excited about the Intel Xeon-based Netra servers we are demonstrating at the show. When these servers are available next quarter, Sun will have the broadest line-up of telco servers in the industry, giving customers a choice of every major processor architecture and operating system in both ATCA blade and carrier-grade rackmount versions."

As the first carrier-grade, 64-thread rackmount server in the market, the Sun Netra T5220 server is an ideal platform for virtualization and consolidation, offering 64 virtual systems in a 2U, 20-inch-deep form factor. Other features include:

Integrated no-cost virtualization technologies with a choice of Solaris Containers and Sun Logical Domains (LDoms)
Integrated on-chip cryptographic acceleration and 10 Gigabit Ethernet computing
Expandability and I/O performance from six PCI slots and four Ethernet interfaces
Enhanced system uptime with high on-chip RAS, redundant power supplies, hot-pluggable disk drives and support for hardware RAID
Customers, ISVs and Partners Demonstrate Support for the Sun Netra T5220 Server and SUN-P Partner Ecosystem

"Alcatel-Lucent has been validating the Sun Netra T5220 server in our laboratory for several weeks now," said Alain Barlier, OAM Senior Architect, Alcatel-Lucent. "While we are still in the platform verification phase, the Netra T5220 server based on the advanced technology of the UltraSPARC T2 CMT processor and PCI Express I/O has exceeded our performance expectations."

AppGate Network Security and Zeus Technology have both signed on to develop applications for the Sun Netra T5220 server. For more information on customer and ISV support of the Sun Netra T5220 server, please visit: http://www.sun.com/netra/t5220/perspectives.xml

Bridgewater Systems has recently joined the SUN-P partner ecosystem. For more information about SUN-P partners, please visit: http://www.sun.com/servers/netra/wimax/offerings.jsp

"As part of the Sun Unified Network Platform partner ecosystem, Bridgewater Systems offers proven carrier-grade policy management solutions for mixed-network deployments," said Tyler Nelson, Vice President, Business Development and Marketing, Bridgewater Systems. "Because these solutions provide simultaneous support across all networks - WiMAX, LTE, 3G and wireline - using a common policy management infrastructure and subscriber repository, Service Providers can accelerate time to market for new services. The combination of Bridgewater Systems software with SUN-P, based on Sun's latest UltraSPARC T2-based carrier-grade Netra ATCA and rackmount servers, offers a powerful and scalable platform for WiMAX/LTE networks."

Availability and Pricing

The Sun Netra T5220 server powered by UltraSPARC T2 processors is available now with entry-level pricing starting at $14,995. For more information on the Sun Netra T5220 server, please visit: http://www.sun.com/netra/t5220

The Sun Netra T5220 server is part of a complete carrier-grade solution from Sun. For more information on NEBS-certified storage, including the Sun StorageTek 2510 array, Sun StorageTek 2530 array, Sun StorageTek 2540 array and Sun StorageTek 6140 array, please visit: http://www.sun.com/storage. For more information on Sun's virtualization offerings, please visit: http://www.sun.com/datacenter/consolidation/index.jsp. For more information on Sun's services, please visit: http://www.sun.com/services

Apple Releases Aperture 2

Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 2, the next major release of its groundbreaking photo editing and management software with over 100 new features that make it faster, easier to use and more powerful. With a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine, Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPhone™, iPod® touch and Apple TV®. At a new low price of $199, anyone can easily organize, edit and publish photos like a pro.

“Many of the most respected photographers on assignment all over the world trust Aperture to organize, edit and deliver their images,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. “With its simpler interface and lower price, anyone can take full advantage of Aperture’s power.”

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the quality of the image,” said Sports Illustrated contributing photographer David Bergman. “Even before I begin making adjustments, Aperture’s new RAW processing gives me better images with more visible detail and better color rendering than any other program I’ve tested.”

“I used to have so much stress about post-production on a shoot, having to juggle multiple applications to make sure they all worked,” said Bob Davis, PDN Top Knots Wedding Photographer 2007. “With Aperture that’s no longer a factor. I can do everything all in one application.”

Featuring a new, easier user interface designed to be more intuitive and accessible, Aperture 2 now lets users navigate between Viewer and Browser modes with a single key command. Screen real estate is maximized for images with an all-in-one heads up display that allows users to toggle between library, metadata and adjustment controls in a single tabbed inspector. The All Projects view, modeled after iPhoto’s Events view, provides a poster photo for every project and the ability to quickly skim through the photos inside, and the integrated iPhoto® Browser offers direct access to all the events and images in the iPhoto library.

Performance has been enhanced in Aperture 2 so it’s faster to import, browse and search large volumes of images. Embedded previews let photographers caption, keyword and rate images as they are being imported, and with the ability to export images in the background, photographers can continue working while images are processed to JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD file formats. Quick Preview allows users to browse RAW images in rapid succession without having to wait for files to load, and the Aperture library database has been re-architected to provide fast project switching and near instantaneous search results, even when working with extremely large libraries of 500,000 images or more.

Aperture 2 delivers powerful new imaging tools for getting the most out of each photograph. Apple’s next-generation RAW image processing is at the core of Aperture 2 offering uncompromising image quality and precision controls that let users fine-tune the image profile for each of their cameras. New tools for improving and enhancing images include Recovery for pulling back “blown” highlights, Vibrancy for selectively boosting saturation without adversely affecting skin tones, Definition, which offers local contrast for adding clarity to images, Vignette & Devignette filters for providing professional visual effects and a true soft-edged Repair and Retouch brush for quickly and easily removing blemishes, cleaning up sensor dust and cloning away problem areas.

Aperture 2 works seamlessly with Mac OS® X, iLife®, iWork™, .Mac and Apple print products, so any image in the Aperture library can be accessed directly from within other applications, such as iMovie®, Keynote® and Pages®, and even from within Leopard™ Mail. Now with .Mac Web Gallery support, Aperture users can publish their photos once to view them on the web, iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV. Books in Aperture 2 feature new theme designs, layout tools, customized dust jackets (including full-bleed) and foil stamped covers.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture 2 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Owners of previous versions of Aperture can upgrade to Aperture 2 for just $99 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Aperture 2 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.

* The .Mac service is available to persons aged 13 and older. Annual membership fee and Internet access required. Terms and conditions apply.

IBM X-Force Security Report: Web Browsers Under Siege From Organized Crime

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today released the findings of the 2007 X-Force Security report, detailing a disturbing rise in the sophistication of attacks by criminals on Web browsers worldwide. According to IBM, by attacking the browsers of computer users, cybercriminals are now stealing the identities and controlling the computers of consumers at a rate never before seen on the Internet.

The study finds that a complex and sophisticated criminal economy has developed to capitalize on Web vulnerabilities. Underground brokers are delivering tools to aid in obfuscation, or camouflaging attacks on browsers, so cybercriminals can avoid detection by security software. In 2006, only a small percentage of attackers employed camouflaging techniques, but this number soared to 80 percent during the first half of 2007, and reached nearly 100 percent by the end of the year. The X-Force believes the criminal element will contribute to a proliferation of attacks in 2008.

Using these techniques, cybercriminals can infiltrate a user's system and steal their IDs and passwords or obtain personal information like National Identification numbers, Social Security numbers and credit card information. When attackers invade an enterprise machine, they could steal sensitive company information or use the compromised machine to gain access to other corporate assets behind the firewall.

"Never before have such aggressive measures been sustained by Internet attackers towards infection, propagation and security evasion. While computer security professionals can claim some victories, attackers are adapting their approaches and continuing to have an impact on users' experiences," said Kris Lamb, operations manager, X-Force Research and Development for IBM Internet Security Systems. "The Storm Worm provides a microcosm of the kinds of threats users faced in 2007. All in all, the exploits used to spread Storm Worm are a blend of the various threats tracked by X-Force, including spam, phishing and drive-by-downloads by way of Web browser exploitation."

The Storm Worm, the most pervasive Internet attack last year, continues to infect computers around the world through a culmination of the threats the X-Force tracks, including malicious software (malware), spam and phishing. Last year, delivery of malware was at an all time high, as X-Force reported a 30 percent rise in the number of malcode samples identified. The Storm Worm comprised around 13 percent of the entire malcode set collected in 2007.

In other findings, for the first time ever, the size of spam emails decreased sharply to pre-2005 levels. X-Force believes the decrease is linked to the drop off of image-based spam. This decrease can be counted as a win for the security industry -- as anti-spam technologies became more efficient at detecting image-based spam, spammers were forced to turn to new techniques.

The X-Force has been cataloguing, analyzing and researching vulnerability disclosures since 1997. With more than 33,000 security vulnerabilities catalogued, it has the largest vulnerability database in the world. This unique database helps X-Force researchers to understand the dynamics that make up vulnerability discovery and disclosure.

The new X-Force report from IBM also reveals that:

The number of critical computer security vulnerabilities disclosed increased by 28 percent, a substantial upswing from years past.
The overall number of vulnerabilities reported for the year went down for the first time in 10 years.
Out of all the vulnerabilities disclosed last year, only 50 percent can be corrected through vendor patches.
Nearly 90 percent of 2007 disclosed vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable.

IBM is the world's leading provider of risk and security solutions. Clients around the world partner with IBM to help reduce the complexities of security and strategically manage risk. IBM's experience and range of risk and security solutions are unsurpassed -- from dedicated research, software, hardware, services and global business partner value -- helping clients secure business operations and implement company-wide, integrated risk management programs.

For more security trends and predictions from IBM, including graphical representations of security statistics, please access the full "2007 X-Force Trends Statistics" at: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/offerfamily/iss/a1029112

Google,IBM,Microsoft,Verisign and Yahoo Join OpenID

The OpenID Foundation today announced that Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), Verisign (Nasdaq:VRSN) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) have joined as its first corporate board members.

With these companies’ deep expertise in Internet and security technology, the OpenID Foundation strengthens the industrywide effort to empower users with portable Web identities, or OpenIDs. This effort helps ensure the evolution of an open and interoperable Internet that helps people take control of how their personal information is used online and helps online businesses attract and retain more users by simplifying and securing the management of digital identities.

The OpenID Foundation was formed in June 2007 to support and promote the technology developed by the OpenID community. Members include individuals, students, nonprofits, startups and industry giants that have come together to develop and promote open identity management on the Web.

OpenID is free technology that simplifies the online user experience by eliminating the need for multiple user names across Internet sites, enabling individuals to take more control and ownership of their digital identities. This user-centric digital identity technology helps users reduce the pain of managing dozens, even hundreds, of user names and passwords, and gives users more control over what personal information they share with Web sites when they sign in using an OpenID.

Today more than 10,000 Web sites support OpenID log-ins, and an estimated 350 million OpenID-enabled URLs exist.

“With this support from these new company board members, the OpenID Foundation will be able to continue to promote and protect the technology and its community moving forward,” said Bill Washburn, executive director, OpenID Foundation. “The community has expanded quickly since the inception of the foundation, and these companies will help bring OpenID into the mainstream markets.”

The industry collaboration supporting OpenID extends not only to the technology itself, but also to the establishment of the OpenID Foundation as an open forum to promote, protect and enable the OpenID technologies and community. The OpenID community has matured rapidly from its inception as a loose coalition of volunteers to the establishment of the OpenID Foundation with a strong mission and intellectual property structure that enables all to participate in developing and implementing OpenID technology. This progress has been made with donations of legal resources by Microsoft and various contributions from Google, IBM, VeriSign and Yahoo!.

“Google shares the OpenID Foundation’s vision of a Web that’s easy to use and built on open standards available to everyone,” said Brad Fitzpatrick, a software engineer at Google. “OpenID was always intended to be a decentralized sign-on system, so it’s fantastic to join a foundation committed to keeping it free and unencumbered by proprietary extensions.”

“Privacy concerns have been escalating rapidly because of repeated incidents involving unexpected personal information loss and user identity theft,” said Anthony Nadalin, IBM Distinguished Engineer and chief security architect, IBM Tivoli software. “As a leader in identity, access and federated identity management and open standards-based software, this is an important step in IBM’s collaboration with other industry leaders to continuously enhance open source projects for user-centric identity management. This effort is intended to provide users with more control and help them to better manage and protect their digital identities.”

“The OpenID community is a key constituency in solving the digital identity problems Internet users face, and will benefit from being represented by the OpenID Foundation,” said Kim Cameron, chief identity architect, Microsoft. “Since Bill Gates and Craig Mundie announced our collaboration with the OpenID community last February at RSA, Microsoft has played a leading role in establishing the foundation’s open policy framework that allows everyone to participate in the development and use of OpenID specifications. Now we look forward to working with the community to refine and drive adoption of the specifications.”

“OpenID enables consumers to take control of their online identity, which in turn will drive trust, privacy and security on the Internet,” said Nico Popp, vice president of Innovation at VeriSign Inc. “Networked identity and authentication services are core elements of VeriSign’s current and future service offerings. Because of this, we applaud the creation of the OpenID foundation and we look forward to contributing to its mission.”

“Yahoo! believes that a truly open Web is the key to the next generation of Internet experiences; OpenID furthers this cause by delivering a free, standards-based solution that the entire industry can embrace,” said Ash Patel, executive vice president of platforms and infrastructure at Yahoo!. “Over the last year we have worked closely with the OpenID Foundation to develop the organization’s intellectual property framework, finalize the OpenID 2.0 specification and adopt OpenID for all 248 million active registered Yahoo! users worldwide. We look forward to collaborating with the OpenID Foundation, its board and community to further simplify the consumer experience of the Web and empower users to take control of their online identity with OpenID.”

OpenID Technology

With the increased use of the Internet to conduct business and the rise of new types of online interactions, such as social networking and user-generated content, innovative kinds of digital identifier technologies are necessary to sustain the “open Web.” OpenID enables individuals to convert one of their already existing digital identifiers — such as their personal blog’s URL — into an OpenID account, which then can be used as a login at any Web site supporting OpenID.

Wide adoption of OpenID reduces the frustration of repeatedly having to register username/password accounts and then later recalling login information for an ever-increasing array of Web sites. For online businesses, these efforts can lower password and account management costs, help reduce the overall risks of security breaches by limiting the amount of customer personal information businesses need to store and protect, and increase both new and return user traffic by lowering the barriers to Web site entry and reentry.

To learn more about the OpenID Foundation, please visit http://openid.net/foundation.

To learn more about the OpenID, please visit http://openid.net.

Reuters Selects Sun Java Real-Time System Software

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), today announced that a division of Reuters, PLC has selected the Sun Java Real-Time System to develop and deploy market-facing services.


The Sun Java Real-Time System (Java RTS) is a software product that provides a high-level development platform for creating applications which require absolute execution predictability. Compliant with The Real-Time Specification for Java it uses the power and scalability of the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) and the flexibility of the Java platform to provide the environment necessary for the growing demand of predictable computing applications in industries such as financial services, aerospace, industrial automation and scientific research.

"Reuters Group has a wide range of systems that use Java technology as part of the solution to deliver core services to our customers. We wanted a Java technology-based solution that could address our demanding, and growing, requirements for predictability and low-latency, as well as enable us to leverage our existing code base and Java technology expertise. We look forward to working with Sun as we deploy the Sun Java Real-Time System as part of our market-facing projects," said Andrew Cunningham, Global Head of Transactions Platform Group, Sales & Trading Division at Reuters.

"We're very pleased to have Reuters as an early adopter of the Sun Java Real-Time System," said Jeet Kaul, vice president, Client Software Group at Sun, "Reuters has long been recognized as a market leader in the financial markets information and technology space, and it's no surprise that they recognize the power and value that the Sun Java Real-Time System can bring to their business. We look forward to a strong and ongoing relationship with Reuters around Java technology-based predictable infrastructure."

Sun Java Real-Time System

Sun Java Real-Time System is one of the first enterprise-class solutions to formally address the issues of latency and unpredictable temporal performance of Java applications. It enables hard, soft, and non-real-time functions to be combined in one system while keeping critical latencies as low as 20 microseconds. Using Sun Java RTS, developers can easily differentiate processes based on their importance and can take advantage of new, innovative memory models. These features allow them to precisely determine when time-critical functions should be executed and keep them insulated from garbage collection pauses. Additionally, developers can continue to take advantage of familiar development tools, such as the NetBeans Integrated Development Environment or Solaris Dynamic Tracing (DTrace), and get up to speed quickly with support from Sun and others in the Real-Time Java community.

When executing on the Solaris 10 Operating System, Sun Java RTS runs on over 900 standard x86 and SPARC technology platforms and can also leverage the real-time capabilities of Solaris 10. Solaris 10 enables Java RTS applications to take full advantage of multi-core and multi-processor environments, as well as providing world-class security, performance, and reliability. The upcoming release of Java RTS will also be available on real-time Linux distributions from Red Hat and Novell.

More information on Sun Java RTS is available at: http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/realtime/.

Apple Adds New iPhone & iPod touch Models

Apple® today added new models of the iPhone™ and iPod® touch which have double the memory, doubling the amount of music, photos and videos that customers can carry with them wherever they go. The revolutionary iPhone now comes in a new 16GB model for $499, joining the 8GB model for $399. iPod touch now comes in a 32GB model for $499, joining the 16GB model for $399 and the 8GB model for $299.

“For some users, there’s never enough memory,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod and iPhone Product Marketing. “Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world.”

Both iPhone and iPod touch feature Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface and pioneering software that allows users to find and enjoy all their music, videos, photos and more with just a touch of their finger. All iPhone and iPod touch models include the latest software enhancements announced last month including the ability to automatically find your location using the new Maps application*; create Web Clips for your favorite websites; customize your home screen and watch movies from the new iTunes® Movie Rentals. Both iPhone and iPod touch feature the world’s most advanced mobile web browser in the world with Safari™ and great mobile applications including Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes.

Pricing & Availability The new 16GB iPhone is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and AT&T retail and online stores. The 32GB iPod touch is available worldwide immediately for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only. iPhone and iPod touch require a Mac® with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS® X 10.4.10 or later and iTunes 7.6; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) or later and iTunes 7.6.

*Availability and precision of Maps positioning features will vary depending on actual location.

Windows Server 2008 Released To Manufacturing

Approaching the company’s largest enterprise launch in its history, Microsoft reached another important milestone today with the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Server 2008. The response from IT professionals and developers has been strong as the company moves toward the worldwide launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 on February 27.

One indication of the momentum that is building around the latest server operating system is the number of beta and evaluation versions that customers and partners have obtained: more than two million.

IT professionals face increasing pressure from rapidly changing technology, increasing costs and security concerns, and expanding business needs. Windows Server 2008 helps alleviate these pressures by automating daily management tasks, tightening security, improving efficiency and increasing availability. It also offers virtualization solutions that will enable IT professionals to reduce costs, increase hardware utilization, optimize their infrastructure, and improve server availability.

Furthermore, because Windows Server 2008 was developed in tandem with the Windows Vista code base, it has most of that operating system’s advanced management and security features, such as integrated Network Access Protection (NAP) and Group Policy. Customers will also see system-wide performance improvements from an integrated system architecture, including network file sharing, managed quality of service and reduced power consumption. Common tools and processes across both operating systems will result in efficiencies for IT organizations.

“We’ve been working with partners around the world who are creating solutions that take advantage of the new platform’s feature set,” said Bob Visse, senior director, Windows Server Marketing Group at Microsoft. “There’s been tremendous support for the operating system and a lot of excitement around the opportunity it represents for the industry.”

Microsoft is also offering customers a Go Live License, which permits them to deploy beta releases of Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0) into live production. So far, 28 companies worldwide have created and launched hosted offerings using this program, and hundreds more have downloaded the Windows Server 2008 beta and begun testing.

With Windows Server 2008, Microsoft is also embracing PHP hosting on Windows via the FastCGI module for IIS 7.0. PHP is a popular open-source scripting language used to build dynamic web applications. This allows IT Professionals to host PHP and ASP.net applications side by side. As a result, the PHP community will be able to take advantage of the increased reliability of PHP on Windows and simplified administration available on the Windows platform.

Customers: On Your Mark…

To help IT professionals evaluate the migration-readiness of their existing networks, Microsoft has created four automated assessment tools, or “solution accelerators:”

• the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) tool, which helps evaluate installed applications on servers, performs hardware assessments and makes recommendations regarding server virtualization;

• the Infrastructure Planning and Design guides, which describe the architectural considerations involved in implementing the upgrade to Windows Server 2008;

• the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide, which provides best practices and automated tools to help strengthen the security of servers running Windows Server 2008; and

• the Microsoft Deployment tool, which decreases the cost of client and server deployments by providing detailed guidance and job aids for every organizational role involved with large-scale deployment projects.


Enterprise customers planning to upgrade can follow a few basic steps to help prepare and plan for the move to Windows Server 2008:

1.
Use Microsoft’s free tools to assess their enterprise’s current servers and determine which can be upgraded and which servers will require a “clean install. “

2.
Engage with their application suppliers for prescriptive guidance.

3.
Test applications they’re planning to run for compatibility with Windows 2008.

4.
Research certified hardware and software solutions in the Windows Server Catalog.



Upgrade Options

Windows Server 2008 uses image-based deployment to make the installation process as efficient as possible. Installation images are the fastest way to deploy an operating system. Image-based setup also is less error-prone than a scripted installation process.

Customers upgrading from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 will follow one of two methods, depending upon their current environment. Servers that are running only software applications that came with Windows Server 2003, such as Active Directory, Domain Name System (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), are the best candidates for a simple upgrade.

Microsoft recommends other customers running a wider variety of applications follow IT community best practices and perform a “clean install” of Windows Server 2008. A clean install involves loading Windows Server 2008 on a partition that is not running an existing operating system. Microsoft advises those customers who want to pursue an upgrade to first contact the software manufacturer for prescriptive guidance. Customers running applications whose manufacturers do not provide support during the upgrade process, which did not ship with Windows Server 2003 or that weren’t delivered to Windows Server via Windows Update should remove those applications first, perform the upgrade to Windows Server 2008, verify the applications are supported on Windows Server 2008 and then reinstall the applications.

Windows Server 2008 also offers a barebones installation option called Server Core, in which only the services required to perform the Active Directory Domain Services, Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), DHCP, DNS Server, File Services, Print Server, Streaming Media Services, Web Server (IIS), or Hyper-V (Virtualization), roles are installed. A Server Core installation offers base-level server functionality without any extra overhead, so it will typically require less maintenance and fewer updates than a full installation.

Ensuring Compatibility

To help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), independent hardware vendors (IHVs), independent software vendors (ISVs) and other developers build solutions that IT professionals can deploy immediately with confidence, Microsoft created the Windows Server 2008 Logo Program.

“We’ve been working with more than 1,000 software and hardware partners to help ensure that their products take full advantage of the capabilities and features of Windows Server 2008,” said Visse.

Windows Server 2008 software certification comprises approximately 100 test cases that independently confirm an application’s compliance with best practices for compatibility, security, reliability and availability on the server operating system. The certification identifies top-performing technologies that are ready to deploy in mission-critical environments.

The program features two designations – the “Works with Windows Server 2008” designation ensures that an application is in compliance with best practices for the most common Windows Server 2008 functions, while the “Certified for Windows Server 2008” logo supports rigorous standards for stability, security, reliability and overall performance.

Microsoft expects there to be at least 80 software applications certified for Windows Server 2008 by the end of February, and roughly 300 more that are considered ready for the new platform. A complete list of compatible hardware and software products is available at http://www.windowsservercatalog.com.

In addition to encouraging customers to look for the certification logo when they make purchasing decisions, Microsoft has done something new for Windows Server 2008. The company has made the same tools that ISVs used to test their products for compatibility available to IT professionals so that they can test both commercial applications and custom applications they’ve developed in-house. The tools are downloadable at http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/ready.

There is also a Windows Server 2008 Developer Center site that is a portal for both ISV developers and enterprise developers working on custom applications. The site provides how-to videos, interviews with Microsoft engineers and related documents. It also links to a moderated technical forum for application readiness and certification discussions and questions http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/default.aspx.