Enterprise software

Oracle, Zend team on scripting

Oracle and Zend Technologies are partnering on making PHP work better with Oracle databases, a reflection of the growing interest in scripting languages for corporate software development.

The two companies in the third quarter will be offering developers a free download called Zend Core for Oracle, which will bundle together PHP with Oracle's database libraries in a single binary. The point is to make the job of building PHP Web applications that pull data from Oracle databases easier, according to Oracle executives.

Oracle is seeing growing interest in building "industrial-strength" applications from customers in PHP, said Richard … Read more

The language of grids

"Grid computing" has such an amorphous meaning that an industry group has proposed a common way to discuss what grids are, particularly to business customers.

The Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA) on Tuesday released their first Reference Model, which describes the component pieces of what a grid is and what it can be used for. The EGA is a consortium, made up primarily of vendors, to endorse adoption of grid computing in corporation. (IBM is not a member.)

Over the next nine months, the EGA will release a few technical documents, outlining requirements and giving specific guidelines for things … Read more

Ellison-backed storage start-up readies launch

Data storage start-up Pillar Data Systems -- backed by Oracle Chief Larry Ellison -- is planning to launch its first products in June after spending the last three years in stealth-mode.

Ellison's invested $100 million in the San Jose, Calif., company through his private investment group, Tako Ventures.

We wrote about the company when it went public with the Ellison connection. Network World recently reported the upcoming June debut.

The company has apparently figured out a nifty way to store and fetch data based on its importance.

Salesforce.com president to leave post

Salesforce.com President Patricia Sueltz is leaving the subscription-software company after just 14 months in the post, CNET News.com has learned.

As president of operations, Sueltz, a high-tech veteran and former star executive at Sun Microsystems, is in charge of marketing, technology research and development, and systems engineering at Salesforce. She reports directly to Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff.

Sueltz still technically holds that position but has taken the last several weeks off and does not plan to return, several sources close to the company said.

A Salesforce representative said Sueltz is still employed by the company and declined … Read more

PGP announces complete hard drive encryption

PGP Corporation on Monday announced a new way for Windows users to encrypt their entire hard drives.

Previous versions of the company's popular encryption software could only scramble chunks of a hard drive -- basically, large files that are mounted as virtual drives after you type in the correct passphrase.

Now Windows XP users can buy what the company is calling "PGP Whole Disk encryption," which is a cleaner way to preserve the confidentiality of data on, say, an external hard drive. Alas, OS X users are out of luck for now, PGP's Stephan Somogyi says, … Read more

Subscription software start-up attracts big talent

When I met Patrick Grady, chief executive of Rearden Commerce, at Foundation Capital a few weeks ago, my first thought was that the guy had had a few too many shots of espresso that morning. I got the same impression when chatting with him again this week over the phone.

Despite--or perhaps because of--his chatterbox tendencies, the guy has certainly lined up an impressive roster of talent to lead and advise his obscure software venture.

Rearden's executive team includes e-business veterans from Hewlett-Packard, Sabre Holdings, Salesforce.com, Siebel Systems and Ariba. The company's advisors include Google Vice President … Read more

Sun's Schwartz lukewarm on Carr's latest

You might think that Sun Microsystems President Jonathan Schwartz is in violent agreement with Nicholas Carr's latest piece, "The End of Corporate Computing."

After all, Carr, the writer who raised hackles two years ago with his "IT Doesn't Matter" article, argues that today's computing business is like the nascent electricity industry--a favorite topic of Schwartz's.

Carr predicts the emergence of IT utilities, companies that provide the raw computing horsepower, applications, and bandwidth to supply hosted technology services.

Having each company build and maintain its own data center is wasteful and ultimately untenable, … Read more

BEA's Kapoor moves to Gluecode

Chet Kapoor, the former general manager of BEA Systems' integration software group, has resurfaced as CEO of an open-source middleware start-up, Gluecode Software.

Last summer, BEA saw several high-level executives leave the company and Kapoor was one of those people rumored to be on the way out. He's been at Gluecode since January and has taken over the reins from Winston Damarillo, who is moving on to another venture.

Given Gluecode's business, the move seems like a natural for Kapoor. Gluecode sells installation and update services around Java open-source middleware developed at the Apache Foundation. Gluecode is trying … Read more

Siebel talks tough

Siebel Systems' CEO told Wall Street analysts on Thursday that the he intends to reverse a trend of declining revenue at Siebel by reorganizing the company and "returning to our roots" in the customer relationship management market.

"We're going to be more aggressive and more nimble," said George Shaheen, a Siebel director the company installed as CEO last month after giving his short-lived predecessor, Mike Lawrie, the boot.

Analysts and investors have been critical of Siebel's ability to regain its footing in the face of intense competition from SAP, Oracle and Salesforce.com. Lawrie'… Read more