Dell Computer Corp. announced early this month that it will begin to offer factory installations of Microsoft Corp.’s Small Business Server 2000 on its line of PowerEdge Servers. Customers will have the ability to order and receive a pre-configured server with the software already installed, according to a press release issued by the company. This will save businesses time, and will enable them to streamline business operations, the company said. Dell worked directly with Microsoft, as well as with customers, to test and develop the software. Business customers were then able to provide feedback on features and on how wizards within the software should work. Microsoft Small Business Server is expected to be available for factory installation on Dell PowerEdge 300, 1400, 2400, and 4400 servers this spring. Pricing was not available at press time. For more information, see Dell Canada on the Web at www.dell.ca.
Sun Microsystems Inc. last month announced an update to the Solaris operating system that the company claims includes more than 30 new and improved features that will increase network performance and eliminate bottlenecks. Sun Solaris 8 1/01 OE now includes features that boost performance and scalability of customers’ networks by as much as 10 per cent, according to Sun. The software has refined the Unix File System so that databases will operate up to 200 per cent more efficiently and an additional memory management facility that improves system performance by 10 per cent while allowing on-the-fly system reconfiguration. The Solaris OE software is available for use on an unlimited number of systems with eight or fewer processors for the cost of media (US$75) and shipping. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.sun.com.