Databases Breaking News

Oracle raises prices significantly for some products
Amid tough economic times and about a week before its fiscal year earnings report, Oracle has pushed through a number of significant price increases on its products. More..

Start-up launches 'Internet-scale' database
Startup Aster Data Systems is coming to market with what it calls an "Internet-scale" cluster database, and has landed a major initial customer: MySpace, to back up the claim. More..

Vertica moves BI database to Amazon's cloud
Database maker Vertica Systems is moving its technology to Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud infrastructure (EC2), hoping to score customers who want a hosted, pay-as-you-go model for data warehousing and BI (business intelligence), the company announced Monday. More..

Disaster recovery tips and lessons learned
In his keynote address at the recent Network World IT Roadmap event in Chicago, Marshall Lancaster, vice president of IT, Enterprise Infrastructure Services for United Stationers, offered up lots of tips and lessons learned that can help companies implement effective -- and cost-effective -- disaster recovery plans. More..

5 Software Tools to Speed Up Your Day
Last month I discussed some hardware upgrades that have helped me get more work done. This time, let's look at software. More..

MySQL users mostly unfazed by Sun acquisition
Customers at the MySQL conference this week said Sun Microsystems' acquisition of the database company could increase MySQL's credibility among senior IT decision makers still skittish about using open-source software. More..

MySQL upgrade now slated for June, Sun says
Sun Microsystems pushed out a "near final" version of MySQL 5.1 on Tuesday, but is holding back the production release of the open-source database until it irons out some remaining bugs, officials said Tuesday. More..

Oracle to ship critical database fixes next week
Oracle will release patches for a slew of products next week, including fixes for two nasty vulnerabilities for its database software. More..

Oracle looks to India for financial services business
Oracle plans to make its Indian subsidiary a hub for its strategy for the financial services market. I-flex solutions, the Indian banking software subsidiary of Oracle, said Friday that in line with these plans, it will change its name to Oracle Financial Services Ltd. More..

CanGoogleHearMe guy reveals his secret idea
Aaron Stanton doesn't give up. More..

Database expert: Oracle behind Microsoft on patch management
Oracle needs to improve patch management, an area where it's currently lagging five years behind Microsoft, according to database expert Karel Miko at Czech consultancy DCIT. More..

Microsoft revels in new Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio packages
Besides launching a set of updated products Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer lauded the company's IT user base, calling them the "heart and soul" of the industry. More..

Sun's CEO talks up buy as MySQL deal closes
Sun announced Tuesday that its US$1 billion deal to buy open-source database vendor MySQL has closed, and with the news came a bold proclamation from Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz. More..

New Windows Server will lead march to 64-bit OS
The launch of a new family of Windows server products this week will kick-start a broad shift among customers to 64-bit versions of Microsoft's server software, analysts and customers said. More..

Database pioneer continues to bash RDBMS
Database guru Michael Stonebraker, one of the pioneers of the relational database model, continues to bash the way relational database management systems (RDBMS) stores data. More..

Microsoft partners to deliver ads on shopping carts
A partnership unveiled this week between Microsoft, MediaCart Holdings and Wakefern Food will deliver personalized ads to grocery shoppers through computerized carts. The initiative is yet another way that Microsoft aims to derive revenue from ads, even as it continues to struggle with Google to take more of the online advertising market. More..

LongJump databases go on-demand
LongJump has joined the trend toward on-demand databases with an offering allowing companies to provision their own database and storage access as an online service. More..

Oracle to ship critical security patches next week
Oracle plans to fix dozens of flaws in its software products next Tuesday, including critical bugs in the company's database, e-business suite and application server. More..

IBM buys in-memory database company Solid
IBM is buying Solid Information Technology, a maker of high-performance databases and a close partner of IBM rival MySQL. More..

VMWare fires back at Oracle's VM performance claims
A VMWare official on Friday scoffed at Oracle's contention that its recent entry into the virtualization market performs better than "the existing leader server virtualization product." More..

Virtualization hot; ITIL, IPv6 not, survey says
IT managers say managing virtual environments is a higher priority than adopting best practices, such as those laid out in ITIL, or deploying a configuration management database. More..

Microsoft's Centro becomes 'Essential' business server
Microsoft will release a public beta version of a bundle of server software products for midsize businesses, codenamed "Centro," in the first half of next year. More..

ParAccel targets midmarket with new database
Start-up ParAccel this week released a database for midsize companies that combines a number of business-intelligence oriented features at a low price point. More..

MySQL to get injection of Google code
MySQL AB has laid out its software road map through 2009, including some code contributed by Google and security improvements that are due in MySQL 7.0. More..

Does software life begin at 40? IBM updates IMS database
IBM later this month plans to release Version 10 of its Information Management System (IMS), a 39-year-old database originally built to help land men on the moon. More..