Sun Micro to revamp Solaris

Sun Microsystems Inc. is revamping its Solaris operating system, incorporating key pieces of rival Linux software in a move that could gain better support from developers who have massed behind Linux.

Solaris is one of the main varieties of the Unix family of operating systems, known for their ability to safely and securely handle major computing tasks rather than for ease of use.

Sun itself is known for its business computers that can handle major corporate loads and it long has courted programmers who cooperatively develop Linux and other so-called open-source software, with mixed success.

The revamped Solaris system will have features borrowed from Linux that could make it easier to use, correspondence on Sun's Web site shows.

"This is a big deal to the extent that it lowers the barrier for adoption of Solaris," said IDC software analyst Al Gillen.

The new system will keep the Solaris kernel, which is a basic group of code at the heart of the operating system that controls the way other programs interact with each other as well as the computer's hardware.

"Solaris is hard to set up. It doesn't have good hardware support," said Ladislav Bodnar, founder of Distrowatch.com, a Web site that reviews open-source software. "The hope is that things may change."

Google aims to go carbon-neutral

Google Inc. aims to voluntarily cut or offset all of its greenhouse emissions by the end of the year, the Web search leader said.

Google is one of a number of companies, including News Corp., and Yahoo Inc. that are attempting to cut emissions of gases scientists link to global warming. To make the cuts, Google is investing in energy efficiency, renewable energy like solar, and will purchase carbon offsets for emissions it cannot reduce directly, the company said.

"On their own, carbon offsets are not capable of creating the kinds of fundamental changes to our energy infrastructure that will be necessary to stabilize global greenhouse gas emissions to safe levels," Google said on its Web site."But we believe that offsets can offer real, measurable, and additional emissions reductions that allow us to take full responsibility for our footprint today."

European companies can invest in carbon offsets through a Kyoto Protocol U.N. program that allows rich countries to invest in clean projects in developing nations. The United States did not ratify the Kyoto pact, but some U.S. companies have begun to offset emissions on a voluntary, unregulated basis.

Google said it would invest in projects like capturing and burning methane, a greenhouse gas with about 20 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide, from animal waste at Mexican and Brazilian farms. "Our funding makes it possible for anaerobic digesters to be installed, which capture and flare the biogas produced while simultaneously improving local air quality and reducing land and water contamination," Google said.

Separately, Google is planning to spend $600 million to build a data center in western Iowa that will receive power from a MidAmerican Energy Co. plant fired by coal, the fuel that emits the most carbon dioxide. A Google spokesman told Reuters all emissions from its Iowa project were accounted for in its carbon neutral plan.

Symantec launches new control compliance suite

Symantec , an infrastructure solution provider, has announced the launch of its updated control compliance suite 8.5, which has been claimed to designed to reduce the cost and complexity of IT policy management and compliance. Automating the assessment of policies against industry regulations, standards and best practices, does it.

Scheduled to be available this month, Symantec control compliance suite offers integrated management policy management, automated technical configurations and procedural response assessments in one product, ensuring more repeatable and effective compliance processes, said company spokespersons.

" Organizations today are required to demonstrate compliance with the various industry regulations, mandates and standards," said Sangameswaran M.V, Principal Security Consultant, Symantec India " Symentec's control compliance suite 8.5 helps IT executives unify the assessment and management of both programmatic and procedural IT controls to effectively lower the administrative cost and complexity of corporate compliance programs."

IBM to launch Lotus Connections

"Tools combine social networking applications for next generation businesses."

IBM is all set to launch its new social networking software suite – Lotus Connections.

Disclosing this to CyberMedia News here, Alistair Renee, president, development and technical support at IBM said the new set of tools in Lotus Connections, will combine social networking applications for next generation businesses.

“The new offering on Web 2.0 style social networking is aimed at empowering next generation businesses with help of advanced usage of tools such as AJAX. The new set of tools will enable exchange of information within an organization, which will be usable and sharable, but at the same time not compromising on the security aspects,” he informed.

Renee said that continuous innovation has gone into building ‘Lotus Connections,’ as a collaboration tool that will enhance employee productivity and business efficiency.

“Lotus Connections has five tools, namely profile, social book called dogear, communities, blogging section and activities. While four of the tools have been developed out of IBM’s Boston development center, the India Software Labs at Pune has developed the activities section,” Renee added.

Indications are that Lotus Connections will be a replica of IBM’s Innovation Factory, a tool employed internally by the company. The tool again uses social networking technologies to help companies quickly conceive and test new products and services, promising to reduce a product’s launch process from years to a days.