Chris Conrath

Periodically there is a brief, yet concerted, buzz about shared computing, but it invariably fades as events and developments push it out of the limelight. Sept. 11 reared its head and brought increased security concerns to the forefront, and once again the desire for shared computing faded. For years computational power has increased at phenomenal rates, even as prices fall, and with it the need for shared computing becomes less pressing.

As officials debate creating a national database of medical records, ThenCredit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ont., is already taking advantage ofnits new centralized storage solution.

San Francisco

The Internet and e-mail, for all they have done for corporate growth, have their weak spots. Employees, under the guise of anonymity and spurred on by data

Periodically there is a brief, yet concerted, buzz about shared computing, but it invariably fades as events and developments push it out of the limelight. Sept. 11 reared its head and brought increased security concerns to the forefront, and once again the desire for shared computing faded.

The high-end enterprise database market is often viewed as a two-horse racenwith Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp., seemingly the only two contenders,ntogether cornering almost two-thirds of the market. Now Microsoft Corp. isnpositioning itself to their join ranks.

Human attachment to cash, be it stones, shells, coins or paper is inexorably linked to our desire to get something palpable in return for goods or services rendered. But cash has one huge drawback

SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp. is planning a major upgrade of its application server that adds integration components to enable enterprises to use the product as a platform for application-to-application, business-to-business and Web services integration, the company said during its recent OpenWorld conference.