China Martens

IBM Corp. announced the first application vendors -- SAS Institute Inc. and Absoft Corp. -- to support its Grid and Grow bundle of software, hardware and services. Big Blue first unveiled the bundle two months ago positioning it as a starter pack for midsize and large companies wanting to move into grid computing.

IBM Corp. is expected to release the first servers based on its new 64-bit Power5+ processors Tuesday, according to a company executive. The machines are aimed at small to midsize businesses (SMBs). They include several new products, notably a quadcore server, together with new virtualization and systems management software

IBM Corp. is to license commercial releases of Globus middleware from open-source grid software startup Univa Corp., according to a partnership deal due to be announced. Big Blue will also use Univa's software internally on its grid projects, according to a company executive.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) is to buy RLX Technologies Inc. as a way to provide better systems management for HP blades running Linux, the company announced. The deal is part of HP's strategy to plug holes in its enterprise management product portfolio via acquisition.

IBM Corp. is to license commercial releases of Globus middleware from open-source grid software startup Univa Corp., according to a partnership deal due to be announced Monday. Big Blue will also use Univa's software internally on its grid projects, according to a company executive.

Along the physical gateway to continental Europe by sea or by air, the Netherlands is now positioning itself as the digital portal to the region. That's the pitch of the country's Minister for Foreign Trade Karien van Gennip. She points to the statistic that the Netherlands is poised to overtake South Korea as the most wired nation by the end of this year as well as her country's existing strengths in grid computing, embedded systems and nanotechnology.

Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of chip giant Intel Corp., led Virtual Iron Software Inc.'s latest financing round to secure US$8.5 million in funding for the virtualization software startup, the two companies announced Monday. In addition, Virtual Iron and Intel Corp. have signed a non-exclusive collaboration agreement.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) is to acquire IT asset and service management software vendor Peregrine Systems Inc. in a cash deal for US$425 million, the two companies announced Monday. By integrating Peregrine's products into its HP OpenView systems management suite, HP hopes to position itself as one of the market leaders in asset management software.