John Fontana

Enterprise customers can lessen the financial impact of Microsoft Corp.'s new licensing program if they are able to sign fresh contracts before the end of this month, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

So-called ghost accounts, those not closed when workers leave their employers, can include access to mainframes, databases, file servers, intranets and e-mail.

Siemens AG and Fischer International Systems Corp. have teamed up to deliver a metadirectory for IBM OS/390 and z/OS mainframes, which means big-iron users won't need to create a separate infrastructure just to deploy an overarching directory implementation and the powerful mainframe, with its attention to transactional integrity, is a natural for the transactional loads put on a metadirectory.

Directory and security services are beginning to merge

U.S. Court of Appeals reverses earlier ruling against software giant.

"We want to give people help to build their own commercial implementations," said Tony Goodhew, product manager for shared source CLI at Microsoft.

With decisions about migration to Microsoft Corp.'s Office XP on the docket for many enterprises, AssetMetrix Inc. has unveiled a Web-based inventory tool to help assess the cost of such a move.

XML is seeping into every nook and cranny of the computing industry, and now there are databases based on the data markup language that IT executives may find a speedy alternative to traditional databases.