Stories by: Denise Dubie

Open source management software has become a viable alternative to commercial products, and a recent rash of partnerships proves it, analyst says.

Systems management software maker FiveRuns announced Monday that it had garnered US$6.2 million in funding from Austin Ventures.

Data center automation software maker Stratavia this week announced it had upgraded its flagship product to be able to make decisions based on past actions and further lessen the amount of manual intervention needed in managing data center operations.

Levanta Wednesday made available a free version of its Linux server management software to help organizations get started managing the open source server operating system on their networks at no cost and with no hardware to install.

Citrix's announcement that it would acquire XenSource demonstrates the company's plans to support the most relevant application delivery technologies possible, company officials say. The software, according to Citrix Chief Strategy Officer Wes Wasson, will not only enhance Citrix's desktop and server products, but also be put to use in the company's application-networking tools also acquired with NetScaler and Orbital Data. Network World Senior Editor Denise Dubie talked with Wasson yesterday to learn more about why Citrix made this move now and what it means to corporate IT customers.

HP on Monday announced plans to acquire thin-client computing vendor Neoware for approximately US$214 million in a deal HP says will enhance its personal systems technologies.

Untangle has made its open source security software available free for download to network managers supporting environments of all sizes.

IBM coined the term autonomic computing in 2001 and since then has been beating the automation drum across its software and hardware product lines. The premise of a self-healing, self-protecting, self-optimizing and self-managing data centre caused some industry watchers to scoff, but Big Blue stuck to its plans and now has about 450 autonomic features shipping in 70 or so IBM products. Now with virtualization, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and other innovative technologies increasing complexity across corporate data centres, IBM says automation is needed more than ever. Ric Telford, vice president of autonomic computing at IBM, recently talked with Denise Dubie to learn more about the state of the company's autonomic initiative.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have developed a computer-based tool that, when put to use in large distributed networks, could uncover the most used, expensive and vulnerable links.

When it comes to Internet use, men tend to devote more time each week to playing games and researching techie gadgets, while women log on to chat with friends, shop and plan vacations.

A handful of open source supporters Wednesday formed an alliance with plans to develop and promote open source business solutions, ultimately making it easier for enterprise companies to adopt open source technologies in their IT shops.