Stories about: Accenture

Expanding Linux adoption beyond key vertical markets is an important driver for Red Hat's growth, which remains steady even as one of its strongest customer sectors, financial services, is getting hit hard by the U.S. crisis, the company's CEO, Jim Whitehurst, said Tuesday.

Sun Microsystems Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President Jonathan Schwartz made it clear Wednesday what kind of customers his company hopes to lure now that long-troubled Sun finally appears to be in the middle of an upswing.

Open source software is a given in most enterprise data centers, so it's not surprising to see the ranks of open source companies and projects swell. It's not just Linux anymore - community-developed software is offering alternatives for everything from databases to application servers to network management to disaster preparedness. How do you know which open source approach is right for you? We've pulled out a few start-ups that you might not be familiar with, but we think should be on your radar.

IT infrastructure services giant EDS has drawn a line in the sand over the way it intends to drum up new infrastructure business, with selective sourcing, open source and IBM definitely not part of the equation.

Microsoft, IBM and BEA Systems plan to submit their Web services choreography and business process specification, initially proposed in August 2002, to a standards body later this week.

Representatives from several companies, including Sun Microsystems, Cape Clear Software, and VeriSign, are seeking seats on the policy-making board of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I).

Sun Microsystems, the most notable absentee from the Web Services Interoperability Organization that was formed earlier this year by nine companies including IBM and Microsoft, is interested in joining the group but only on equal terms with the founders, a company executive said Thursday.

Microsoft 's ongoing crusade to establish a firm foothold in the enterprise got a little more traction recently from a benchmark test conducted by Accenture Ltd. that show Windows .Net servers compared favourably with Unix-based servers running mission-critical applications.

Although it may be some time before NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) technology creeps outside its higher-end niche applications, Microsoft's strong endorsement of the technology figures to generate more market interest and possibly speed development among both Unix-based and Intel-based server competitors and allies alike.

An annual gathering next week for developers who build applications for Microsoft's Windows operating systems will provide the chance for a closer look at a set of recently launched development tools designed to further the company's wide reaching .Net initiative.

IBM Corp.'s board of directors Tuesday officially tapped Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis Gerstner's longtime heir apparent, Samuel Palmisano, as the company's next CEO. Effective March 1, Palmisano will succeed Gerstner, who will remain chairman of IBM through the end of 2002, the company announced Tuesday. Palmisano, currently IBM's president and chief operating officer (COO), will remain president.