Citrix and VMWare are teaming with IBM to launch the first offering of the new IBM Virtualized Hosted Client Infrastructure that delivers full desktop functionality to any client from highly reliable and secure xSeries and BladeCenter servers.

IBM's highest tierpartner status. The move will make it simpler for clients to acquire openstandards-based Linux hardware, software, and services through integratedand streamlined sales, distribution and services channels.

Computer Sciences Corporation announced today that since Oct. 1, 2005, its Federal Sector business unit has signed 96 previously unannounced contracts and subcontracts valued at approximately $575 million during the third quarter of CSC's fiscal year. The quarter ends Dec. 30, 2005.

Incubated as part of the Business Intelligence Center of Excellence, the new Convansys Concept Centre for IBM WebSphere will develop and provide Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence solutions to extend into the Real-Time Information Integration space, which global customers across different industries were demanding, according to a statement from Covansys.

IBM announced it has acquired DataPower, a Cambridge, Mass.-based, privately-held provider of products that help improve security and speed the processing of computer transactions.

Prolifics incorporates its methodology and best practices, in combination with IBM WebSphere knowledge experts, to deliver complex, high-performing systems for leading customers in finance, telecommunications, healthcare, government and manufacturing, the company says. It can migrate apps to WebSphere from other J2EE environments, for example, and also builds portals and other pieces of IT infrastructure for its clients.

Individually and as a group, the Instantiations team has been responsible for many significant technology firsts and accomplishments: Development of JOVE, the first Optimizing Native Compiler for Java Technology; Development and marketing of the first commercial Smalltalk development environment; Creation of a market dominating line of GUI building tools for Smalltalk; Creation of the first commercial generation scavenging garbage collector; Development of one of the first optimizing compilers for Pascal. The company says it leverages its deep proprietary technology base, enterprise software market experience, and world class technical expertise to provide performance enhancement products and services to software professionals who are building, deploying and managing a range of Java systems from stand-alone to fully distributed multi-server e-business applications.

Nastel Technologies delivers end-to-end, on-demand, real-time application monitoring and automation software targeted specifically to Enterprise eBusiness Integration technologies. Competitive dynamics and technological advances in enterprise application integration have brought about widely distributed application environment powered by complex middleware systems, the company notes.

Tangosol's in-memory data management, caching and grid computing solutions for mission critical J2EE applications is personified in its Coherence software, which recently went into a 3.1 pre-release, the company reports. Among the many new features is the ability to register any compliant Standard or Dynamic MBean type with the software's Management Framework.

iTKO, Inc., a leading provider of products and solutions that maximize e-business performance, today announced it has joined the new Wily Integration Network (WIN). By joining the WIN Network, iTKO will be able to assure customers that its products integrate with Wily's Introscope?, the industry's leading application performance management solution. iTKO's load testing solutions help companies reduce business risk, ensure the deployment of high quality software and increase return on investment. Together, technology from iTKO and Wily can provide joint customers with an integrated application testing and management suite so IT staff can monitor the performance of any Java-based application, including packaged applications from leading software vendors such as Siebel, PeopleSoft and SAP.

Oracle today announced that the company will join the IBM AIX Collaboration Center (IACC) as a founding partner. As a member of the IACC, Oracle developers will work closely with IBM to more tightly integrate Oracle(R) applications with the current and upcoming versions of AIX 5L, and will continue to deliver Oracle applications on AIX concurrent with their availability on other platforms. Through this collaboration, customers will benefit from greater exploitation of each platform's leadership features including virtualization, security and cross-platform portability. Today, Oracle and IBM share more than 11,000 customers.

ClearStory Systems (BULLETIN BOARD: CSYS) , a leading provider of enterprise-class digital asset management (DAM) solutions, today extended support for industry-leading application servers with the availability of Enterprise Media Server (EMS) for IBM WebSphere Application Server.

OpenPages, the leading provider of enterprisegovernance, risk and compliance management (GRCM) solutions, today extendedsupport for industry-leading application servers with the availability ofSOX Express for the IBM WebSphere Application Server.

Mixed-mode deployments where the data center has a mixture of different technology platforms, hardware, and software and where those platforms interoperate together to deliver software applications is the norm rather than an exception.

The need to respond to changing business demands with flexible IT solutions has led many businesses to service oriented architectures (SOAs). An SOA is an IT framework that combines individual business functions and processes, called services, to implement sophisticated business applications and processes. SOA is an approach to IT that considers business processes as reusable components or 'services' that are independent of the applications and computing platforms on which they run.

IBM today announced new software designed tohelp organizations more effectively manage software and system developmentprojects across the enterprise, and to help reduce costs, manage andcontrol risks, and improve the rate of project success.

Random encounters can provide unexpected illumination. If you are the type of person who just starts talking to strangers anywhere anytime, as I am, the conversations that ensue can relate to your work a suprisingly high percentage of the time.

IBM announced that the upcoming version of the IBM Workplace Managed Client will support the newly ratified OpenDocument Format for Office Applications(ODF)s tandard. By extending the support of open standards to the desktop, IBM customers can now help protect an organization's investment in corporate data by ensuring consistency, reliability and accessibility of their documents, the company says.

IBM has announced IMS offerings to help telecommunications service providers transition to Next Generation Networks.Within the highly competitive telecommunications market, the move to IP infrastructures is enabling service providers to better differentiate themselves in order to ensure revenue protection and growth.

Wily Technology has announced the results of the 2005 Wily Benchmark Survey of Java EE Application Performance and Availability. This global survey measured industry-wide user experiences with the deployment and management of Java EE applications.

MQSoftware, a provider of business transaction assurance and middleware management solutions, has announced that Wily Technology is now an MQSoftware Strategic Alliance Partner.

IDC, a leading IT market research and advisory firm, reported has that in the first half of 2005, IBM was once again the number one tape product vendor in the world based on branded factory revenue. IBM continued to build upon its revenue leadership position it established in 2004. The report indicated that at the close of the first half of the year, IBM held the top spot in worldwide tape revenue with a 30 percent share.

IBM has announced IBM Workplace Forms, new electronic forms, or 'e-forms,' software that can help companies streamline and customize the way employees capture, process and exchange business data. More efficient than paper forms, IBM Workplace Forms provides customers with the ability to take back-end corporate data and applications - such as inventory figures, customer data or pricing information - and present it in a consistent interface, which is critical in vertical industries like insurance, government, banking and healthcare.

Boomi and Jinfonet has announced an agreement to embed JReport, Jinfonet's 100% Java-based reporting solution, into Boomi's enterprise integration platform. This partnership will provide business activity monitoring to Boomi's clients comprised primarily of mid-sized companies. Boomi's enterprise application integration and business-to-business integration capabilities will combine with JReport to provide insight into the performance of the integration software. More importantly, it will provide insight into business-level events through business activity monitoring.

According to Gartner, a leading provider of research and analysis about the global information technology industry, IBM increased its share in UNIX revenue, growing 3.7 points year-to-year. In addition, IBM grew 82 percent year-to-year based on blade server revenue, to take more than 45 percent of the revenue in the third quarter.

Marcopolo has announced the launch of an innovative public-private partnership between the MCI Foundation, the New York State Education Department, the New York Institute of Technology and New York State Teacher Centers. The initiative aims to improve student achievement by training K-12 teachers throughout New York on how to effectively utilize the thousands of educational resources from the MCI Foundation's renowned MarcoPolo program.

MCI, SkyTel unit has introduced UnpluggedCity SM wireless broadband services for businesses, residents and visitors in Lexington, Kentucky, as part of a SkyTel pilot program to test Wi-Fi service in various markets. Under a cooperative agreement with the city, SkyTel has designed and built a Wi-Fi 'hot zone' that it will own and manage to immediately deliver this innovative new service in Lexington's downtown area.

The new WRDI capabilities give IF5 readers edge-server capabilities including the ability to perform on-board decision-making, reducing network traffic by filtering incoming data from external RFID tags and sending only the most pertinent information upstream to a company's application server.

In a keynote address at the XML 2005 Conference, Bob Picciano, vice president of database servers for IBM, outlined the company's plans for DB2 Viper--the industry's first database designed with both native XML data management and relational data capability. Picciano also announced that Viper is entering open testing and evaluation by qualified customers, developers and partners.

At its sixth annual customer conference Motive, has announced that SOFTBANK BB, Japan's largest broadband service provider is using Motive software to build a strategic advantage into its digital services, which include the delivery of value-added offerings such as security and streaming software services that significantly enhance the digital home experience.

MQSoftware, Inc., a provider of business transaction assurance and middleware management solutions, training and services, has scheduled three new training courses: MQS1148: Web Services in WebSphere, MQS1182: WebSphere Application Server: Default Messaging Provider and JMS Programming, and MQS1172: WebSphere Process Server Workshop. Several WebSphere training courses have been updated to address the features and content of IBM WebSphere Message Broker Version 6. These courses will be offered in Minneapolis and Wayne, New Jersey.

Motive has announced the speaker lineup for its sixth annual customer conference, Motivation 2005.

Gartner has warned IT professionals that technical aptitude will no longer be sufficient to secure their future in IT organisations.

Prolifics, a provider of WebSphere, Portal, SOA and Business Integration solutions, has announced that it was the recipient of IBM's Five Star Value Advantage Plus Certification Award.

'As Web services adoption increases, so performance demands increase,' stated Roman Stanek, founder and chief strategy officer at Systinet. 'Customer benchmarks show that Systinet Server is not only highly secure, but also the most efficient solution available, usually by a magnitude or more. It also scales well as the number of service users increases. This analysis is driving customers to reconsider the solutions they will use for further deployment of enterprise Web services.'

Wily Technology, the leader in Enterprise Application Management, announced it achieved worldwide sales growth of 43 percent in Q3 2005 compared to the same period in 2004.

Aldon, provider of enterprise software configuration and change management solutions, announced Aldon Lifecycle Manager plug-in support for IBM Rational Application Developer 6.0 and WebSphere Development Studio client (WDSc) for iSeries 6.0.

ClearForest Corporation, a provider of text-driven business intelligence solutions and Kapow Technologies, the leader in Web Integration, has announced a strategic partnership designed to broaden customers' ability to access Web content for business intelligence applications.

Wily Technology, the leader in Enterprise Application Management, has announced Gerhardt Merkel has been appointed managing director of European operations.

Empirix, the leading provider of testing and monitoring solutions for VoIP, contact center and Web technologies, has announced that it has partnered with Wily Technology to provide customers with integrated solutions for ensuring the quality and performance of Java-based application environments.