Also: Microsoft plans Vista enterprise edition; CA, Sun announce layoffs; Telco Systems buys Integral Access; study says 9 out of 10 teens online
The SANS Institute last week reported 422 new Internet security vulnerabilities discovered during the second quarter, an increase of nearly 11% from the first quarter. Weaknesses in popular back-up software highlighted the report . Two back-up programs – one from Veritas, acquired last month by Symantec, and the other from Computer Associates – made the Institute’s list of top 20 new vulnerabilities for the quarter. Other new vulnerabilities were found in music-downloading programs iTunes from Apple and RealPlayer from RealNetworks. In both cases, flaws allow for bad playlists or music files to be downloaded that contain malware. Also on the list were Web browsers Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Microsoft plans to increase its investment in enterprise-class products with new high-end – and higher-priced – versions of Windows and Office that the company plans to release in the next several years, CEO Steve Ballmer said last week at the company’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting in Redmond, Wash. He said Microsoft will offer an enterprise version of Vista, the next edition of Windows, plus a new version of its productivity suite, Office Premium, aimed at better serving enterprise markets. Microsoft also plans an Office Server product with a new premium client-access license that will include system management, security and e-mail offerings for high-end customers, Ballmer said. He also said Microsoft plans server and tools offerings for the high-end technical computing market, which he acknowledged is “mostly a Linux world today.”
Computer Associates plans to cut 800 positions worldwide, about 5% of its workforce, in a restructuring effort aimed at saving $75 million annually. CA will finish most of the worldwide layoffs by year-end, the company said. The move echoes a similar announcement in September, when CA initially cut 800 jobs to reduce its operating costs. The Islandia, N.Y., company finished its fiscal 2005, which ended in March, with 15,300 employees – the same number it had a year earlier, despite its September restructuring. The job cuts were offset by the 400 employees CA gained in its October purchase of Netegrity and by the 350 additional employees CA hired in India.
Sun expects to lay off about 1,000 employees at a cost of about $100 million as part of the company’s ongoing cost-cutting strategy, the company said last week. There was no word from Sun where in its operations the job cuts ax is likely to fall. Sun last announced significant job cuts in April 2004, when it began to lay off 3,300 staff. The company increased that job cut number to 3,500 last October. Sun employs about 35,000 people, according to its Web site.
Telco Systems, a provider of transport and access systems for IP and TDM networks, last week announced the acquisition of privately held Integral Access, a developer of IP-based multi-service access platforms for converged voice and data. The acquisition will enable Telco Systems to offer service providers an integrated access system designed to migrate carriers from TDM-based services to IP/MPLS-based voice and data services. Integral’s PurePacket system supports softswitch VoIP infrastructures and legacy Class 5 switches, and can be deployed in central offices and multi-tenant units, and on customer premises. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Integral, which has accumulated $113 million in venture funding since its inception in 1996, is based in Chelmsford, Mass. Telco Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of BATM Advanced Communications of Israel, is headquartered in Foxboro, Mass.
Researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project say nine out of 10 kids ages 12 through 17 are online, up from about 75% in 2000. Comparatively, the study says 66% of adults use the ‘Net. The study found about half of teens who have online access go on the Internet daily, up from 42% in 2000. Three-quarters of teens surveyed use instant messaging, compared with 42% of online adults. About half of the teens have broadband. Pew contacted 1,100 teens by phone for the survey.
