Briefs: October 18, 2004

RED HAT LAUNCHES EMBEDDED PARTNER PROGRAM
Linux

The Red Hat Runtime Partner Program allows appliance vendors, software makers and integrated solutions providers to license the company's Linux distribution for use in their appliance and to support their own customers.

Michael Evans, vice president of partner development at Red Hat, said the company devised the new business model to grow its reach beyond enterprise customers and into the appliance space. The program will address firewall servers, storage servers and network servers but not handheld devices, Evans said. As part of that, Red Hat will require partners to pay a per-device fee and partner support fees.

"We're targeting a wide segment of the technology market and set of solutions that range from appliances and single-function systems like security box, firewall, medical system, network, or storage box in telecom and [POS] solutions," Evans said.

Red Hat's partnership with Wind River, a leading embedded systems vendor, allows Red Hat access to Wind River's sizable installed base, and the two companies will combine sales and marketing efforts.

PEOPLESOFT: SWETE REPLACES GUPTA
On the heels of ousted CEO Craig Conway, Ram Gupta, PeopleSoft executive vice president of product and technology, has also left the company. PeopleSoft has not yet commented on whether Gupta left voluntarily.

During his four-year stint at PeopleSoft, Gupta's main role was the oversight of PeopleSoft's integration with J.D. Edwards, acquired in 2003.

His replacement is Stanley Swete, the principal architect of PeopleSoft 8, who retired in 2002. Swete's 10-year tenure at PeopleSoft overlapped with that of current CEO Dave Duffield.

MICROSOFT'S SECURITY TAKES A NAP
Microsoft and Cisco Systems plan to announce Monday an agreement to make their respective network access security architectures compatible and interoperable. However, Microsoft's Network Access Protection (NAP) technology has slipped from the Windows Server 2003 R2 update due in the next 12 to 16 months.

Microsoft said NAP is now planned for the Longhorn client release in 2006 and Longhorn server release, which is expected in 2007. Instead, Microsoft will push the free VPN quarantine add-on available for the current Windows server and provide scripts that make it easier for IT administrators to use the service. Cisco's Network Admissions Control technology is currently included in Cisco's routers and will be available in switches in the first part of 2005, Cisco executives said. When Microsoft first debuted NAP in July, Cisco was not among the many ISV partners that committed to it.

Verisign Service ConnectS VoIP Providers With Carriers VeriSign unveiled a new service that offers VoIP service providers a cost-effective way to exchange voice traffic with traditional telecommunications carriers.

VeriSign's new SIP-7 (Session Initiation Protocol 7) Services lets service providers exchange VoIP traffic via PSTN networks by connecting to VeriSign's SS7 network. According to VeriSign, this allows VoIP carriers to lower capital expenditures and more quickly launch production services.

Carriers and ISPs can use VeriSign's services to introduce new services based on SIP and VXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language), including local number portability, voice VPNs and other intelligent network services. SIP-7 customers can also access IP-to-IP connectivity using VeriSign's Public IP director, according to the company. IBM'S PALMISANO: IT SPENDING EXPECTED TO GROW IN 2005
IT spending is expected to grow at an even better rate next year, IBM's CEO Sam Palmisano told a group of customers in Paris.

"We see capital spending increasing in '04 6 [percent] to 7 percent," Palmisano said. "And we see it again increasing in '05, as more companies are investing in growth."

Palmisano was not available to comment, but executives at IBM said his comments were based on reports from IT market-research firms.

A recent survey by Accenture revealed that more than half of 300 executives polled expected their organizations to increase spending over the next three years. Only 10 percent expected IT spending will decrease.

The survey also noted a nagging problem for IT managers--about half of those surveyed said their companies "did not know how to make their technology organizations accountable for delivering real business value."