Infrastructure
Sun Microsystems announces several enhancements to the Solaris 10 Operating System
Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced a series of updates to the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) – Solaris 10 11/06.
Security features include Solaris Trusted Extensions which protects data and applications using labeled security technology. Another feature is Secure By Default Networking, which automatically configures a customer’s system to be impervious to network attacks by disabling unused services, reducing the network exposure, while leaving the system functional for typical use.
Solaris 10 11/06 is currently in process for Common Criteria Certification at EAL4+ with Controlled Access, Role-Based Access Control and Labeled Security Protection Profiles (CAPP, RBAC, LSPP) for SPARC and x64/x86 servers. More information is available on Solaris 10 security certifications at: http://www.sun.com/software/security/securitycert/#sol10.
Virtualization improvements include Logical Domains and enhanced Solaris Containers. Using Logical Domains customers can provision and run up to 32 OS instances on each UltraSPARC T1-based system. Running inside the Logical Domain instances, Solaris Containers allow the isolation of software applications and services, enabling the creation of many private execution environments within a single instance of Solaris.
To expand support for Solaris Containers, the company also announced improvements to Solaris Cluster, Sun’s business continuity and disaster recovery platform for Solaris 10. Sun will continue to add virtualization technology to Solaris 10 through 2007 – most notably with the addition of the open source Xen hypervisor, a paravirtualization technology that presents a software interface to virtual machines. The Xen hypervisor is available today from the OpenSolaris Xen community project at: http://opensolaris.org/os/community/xen/.
For more information or to download Solaris visit http://www.sun.com/solaris. For more details about Solaris 10 features, see http://www.sun.com/solaris/features.
Sun delivers alternative to commercial Linux for Web 2.0 and start-up customers
Sun Microsystems Inc. announced support plans, remote systems management capabilities, migration assistance, training and professional services that make the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) an alternative to commercial Linux distributions. Solaris 10 runs on over 700 x64/x86-based systems from manufacturers including Sun, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell, among others.
Solaris 10 Support Subscriptions include indemnification and binary and source code compatibility, and provide access to free updates and upgrades to the latest Solaris technologies. They range from the developer focused US$49 per-incident support, all the way to the customized site-wide Solaris Everywhere Plan. Solaris Support Subscriptions are integrated across Sun and non-Sun x86, x64 and SPARC platforms. Specific details of the Solaris Support Subscription offerings can be found at: http://www.sun.com/service/subscriptions/
The Sun Connection service is a life-cycle management platform that simplifies the deployment of Solaris in the Web tier, by enabling customers to provision Solaris, Red Hat and SUSE systems; manage updates and configuration changes and eventually redeploy systems. The Sun Connection’s Solaris 10 Update Knowledge Channel is included with active Sun service plans. Other provisioning and update knowledge channels are available as a subscription service. More information on Sun Connection Enterprise Edition can be found at: http://www.sun.com/service/sunconnection.
Sun also offers The Global Migration Program for a broad range of OS platforms including IBM AIX, HP-UX, Tru64, VMS, Red Hat and Novell SUSE Linux. Sun is also offering The Hats off to Solaris Program which-capitalizing on the forced migration of Red Hat customers from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3-provides tools, documentation and services to help ease migration.
With Solaris 10, customers get a free and open source, indemnified and commercially-supported platform, while gaining access to a vibrant community of some of the developers to drive ongoing innovation. Solaris 10 has an installed base of any UNIX or Linux OS and boasts an application catalog of over 4,000 unique titles from more than 2,000 independent software vendors. To browse the growing catalogue of software titles available though Solaris partners, visit: http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/apps.
For more information or to download Solaris visit: http://www.sun.com/solaris. A free, Web-based training course is available at: http://www.sun.com/solaris/freetraining.
HP announces server and storage management software and services
HP announced additions to its portfolio of server and storage management software and services to help customers save time and costs, streamline and automate the management of IT operations and build an infrastructure with HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers.
With these features, customers can optimize server density by up to 40 percent based on power and thermal measurements, add Linux capabilities and reduce administrator time spent managing servers, warranty information and support services.
The offerings include HP Insight Control Environment, HP Systems Insight Manager version 5.1, HP Insight Power Manager, HP Service Essentials Remote Support Pack and HP Insight Control Linux Edition.
Available today, the products have starting prices per server as follows: HP Insight Control Environment for HP ProLiant ML or DL servers, US$549; HP Insight Power Manager, US$99 and HP Insight Control Linux Edition US$199.
More information on HP’s server management solutions is available at www.hp.com/servers/manage. More information on HP ProLiant Essentials services is available at www.hp.com/services/proliantessentialsservices.
Data Management
SAP delivers next version of SAP All-in-One solutions
SAP introduced the next version of its SAP All-in-One solutions. With the announcement, SAP also introduced programs and tools for its worldwide network of channel partners to evolve existing SAP All-in-One solutions and build solutions to address additional industry segments.
The SAP All-in-One offerings will feature enhancements in usability. PC-like user interface and simplified navigation powered by the SAP NetWeaver platform, the offerings will provide role-based access to relevant user information, the ability to personalize applications and easy-to-use help features.
The enhanced offerings also will provide integrated reporting capabilities, enabling visibility of business operations through business intelligence technologies that access information directly from the business processes and functions in the ERP system. The reporting capabilities will enable flexibility in analyzing data and creating standard and ad hoc reports integrated with Microsoft Excel.
The CRM capabilities optimized for midsize companies include account and contact management, activity management, lead management, campaign management, opportunity management and service ticket management.
In addition, SAP introduced a program to enable its partners to bring their solutions and customers to the next version of the SAP All-in-One solutions. With tools and resources including upgrade road maps, checklists to facilitate migration, as well as educational materials and training and service offerings, the program uses the SAP PartnerEdge program to support partners in the adoption of the technology from SAP. Details on the program are available to SAP partners through the SAP Channel Partner Portal site at http://channel.sap.com. For more information about SAP All-in-One solutions, visit www.sap.com/solutions/midsize/allinone
InstallBuilers creates installation packages
InstallBuilders announces the release of version 3.11 of “Smart Install Maker,” a solution for creating installation packages.
Delivered in a friendly interface, you will find capabilities as registry and INI files modification, checking the system specifications for their compliance with the program’s requirements, setting file associations, registering fonts and ActiveX components.
The support of LZMA compression technology allows creating installation packages of smaller size, which will enhance the end-users installation experience.
Other program features include the multilingual support expanding your program audience to worldwide, creation of silent distributives, which can install software in one click and system requirements checking that will verify the program’s compatibility with the user’s system.
Pricing and Availability
Smart Install Maker runs under all versions of Microsoft Windows and costs US$79.99 for a single-user licence. Licensed customers are entitled to the fully-functional version of the product, free technical support and free upgrades. Further information on Smart Install Maker, as well as a free trial copy is available free of charge from http://www.sminstall.com/.
