Based on IBM's open, Jazz technology platform, Rational Quality uses a web-based tool to aid this process.

Embarcadero Technologies is adding visual representations of where data resides and how it has changed, to its ER/Studio data modelling tool, which is scheduled to be released next week.

Mainsoft has released a tool to link users of IBM's Jazz platform for ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) to users of Microsoft's SharePoint platform.

Parallels CEO has defended the recent upgrade of his company's Mac virtualisation software and complained that a small but vocal batch of users was responsible for the negative feedback that the product has received. Serguei Beloussov said that Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0 was a "quality product" and said that negative comments from users had been overblown because the firm didn't edit its support forums.

Mozilla is to add a third beta to the development schedule for Firefox 3.1. The move will enable the company to get a better handle on remaining bugs and give several new features, including a faster JavaScript engine and a private browsing mode, more testing time, the company's browser director said yesterday.

Business networking site, LinkedIn, has overhauled its search platform, claiming it will let users more easily find who they are looking for.

IBM has launched a set of cloud computing consulting and implementation services, convinced it will spark wider adoption of the model.

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 SAP will bring a unified interface across its suite of business applications over the next few quarters as part of an ongoing effort to make its software easier to implement,  company co-CEO Leo Apotheker has said.

One of the leading academic experts on databases has come out of retirement to help Microsoft scale SQL Server.

Microsoft is to issue a release candidate (RC) for Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) in the first three months of 2009, indicating it will ship its newest browser sometime in the first half of 2009.

A company has complained that the vetting process for Java is not legally pure, according to a Sun official.

The specification for Office Open XML (OOXML) has finally been published by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

The feature will arrive with the upcoming Kilimanjaro release of SQL Server 2008. Due in 2010, Kilimanjaro will be the first version of SQL Server that can "scale out" to hundreds of servers - hence the need for the management feature.

SAP has halved the cost of developer subscriptions for its NetWeaver platform.

Microsoft is set to release Dynamics NAV 2009, the latest version of its midmarket ERP product, next month.

Sun has added a query analysis tool to MySQL Enterprise, its subscription-based service for the open-source MySQL database. The new tool will aid users in tracking and fixing problematic code and performance issues.

Mozilla has launched an application that allows users to speed up Firefox customisation by offering several sets of pre-selected add-ons.

Sun Microsystems has announced that it will lay off 15 percent to 18 percent of its workforce, as the company seeks to save $700 million to $800 million a year in costs. Sun also said that its top software executive is leaving the company.

Microsoft has launched a revamped Live Search API for enhancing search capabilities on websites.

CA is set to acquire role-based access and identity management vendor Eurekify. The companies were already partnering on CA's Identity Manager and, in addition, CA was reselling Eurekify's Enterprise Role Manager.

Businesses using Google's hosted site search service will now have the ability to trigger a re-indexing of their site whenever they want.

Microsoft has released an updated bundle of infrastructure servers for small business and its first-ever offering tailored to mid-sized businesses

IT spending will increase at just half the rate previously predicted according to IDC.

As Microsoft continues to roll out its redesigned Windows Live Hotmail, angry users have been complaining online about the speed and appearance of the new interface.

IT managers are "grossly underestimating" the explosion of unstructured data in the enterprise, according to Hewlett Packard.

Microsoft has given a guarded welcome to the notion of open-source browsers yet. Speaking in Australia, CEO Steve Ballmer has not rulied out adopting such technology as an alternative to its own popular Internet Explorer, saying it is "interesting".

IT managers are "grossly underestimating" the explosion of unstructured data in the enterprise, according to Hewlett Packard.

SAP has partially retreated in the face of customer pressure and is to  extend maintenance for its ERP 6.0 platform until 2017. The company has also sweetened the feature set of its Enterprise Support service,in an attempt to further appease angry users.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has changed his tune about the company being taken over by Microsoft and has sent out overtures to Microsoft saying that he's still willing to talk.

Kapow Technologies has beefed up its mashup server technology by adding enterprise management backing and enhanced RSS and AJAX capabilities.

During his presentation at a Goldman Sachs event, SAP co-CEO Henning Kagermann faced a series of questions about a topic SAP is eager to forget: its decision in July to move all customers to a more expensive Enterprise Support package.

Sun and IBM are expected to announce the Open Document Format Toolkit Union, an open-source project aimed at making it easier for developers to use ODF.

Microsoft is giving away free software to early-stage web start-up companies as part of a worldwide program called BizSpark.

UK systems integrator, Centrix Software, has taken the unusual step of developing its own software package to resolve the fragmented user experience of staff having to deal with multiple applications and services.

Mozilla's Firefox climbed above 20 percent market share for two weeks last month, but ended October just under the milestone, a web metrics has said.

The number of organisations planning to implement SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) has halved according to research from Gartner.

The number of organisations planning to implement SOA has halved according to research from Gartner. And at the same time, take-up plans are also taking a dive: organisations looking to adopt SOA for the first time has fallen from 53 percent to 27 percent.

On-demand ERP vendor NetSuite is launching a new scheme to lure high-paying SAP R/3 customers. Under the deal, NetSuite will charge an SAP R/3 customer 50 percent of whatever their R/3 maintenance costs are for an equivalent number of NetSuite seats, along with support.

Two-thirds of UK businesses are either currently using cloud-based applications or have already made the investment and will be rolling it out in the next year, according to recent research from Citrix.

Salesforce is set to launch a site, Force.com, that couldl enable its customers to run their own websites on Salesforce's cloud infrastructure.