Wipro's Terranova: High-end technology simulation
Sun unveils Solaris 9
Intel believes that the platform makes a difference
IE patch flawed

Wipro's Terranova: High-end technology simulation
Wipro Infotech has set up Terranova—a Centre of Excellence (CoE) at its corporate headquarters in Bangalore. Spanning an area of over 5000 sq. ft., Terranova showcases Wipro Infotech's strengths in integrating the latest technologies on multiple industry platforms. These include Intel, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Nortel and Hewlett Packard. The CoE aims to provide Wipro's customers the latest technology solution setup, through a replication of the customers' IT environment.

CoE showcases a range of enterprise applications and products in areas of e-Business, ERP, CRM, etc. The CoE will demonstrate approaches and solutions in basic technologies and specific application areas. This will provide customers the latest technology solution setup and guarantee of principal certification on high-end technologies that he plans to deploy. The CoE ensures simulation of the client solutions and modeling of various factors, thus providing the client a feel of the entire solution before the actual investment is made.

In Terranova, Wipro's consultants simulate solutions that would meet the business requirements of customers. This ensures that they get to see exactly how the solution would work for them before a huge investment is made. They have a proof of concept that enables them to see how the technology will work, when integrated into their business cycle. Apprehensions on issues such as compatibility, performance, reliability etc. are allayed by the demonstration and simulation exercise carried out in the CoE.

Dr. Anurag Srivastava, Chief Technology Officer, Wipro Infotech said, "We at Wipro constantly strive to enhance value to our customers by offering latest technologies that integrate with their business requirement. This CoE will enable us to showcase evolving technologies to our customers. What is unique about this is that we are showcasing multiple platforms, all under one roof, thereby demonstrating how customers can use such technology." "Terranova ensures simulation of the client solutions and modeling of various factors. Therefore, our customers will get a feel of the entire solution before the actual investment is made. This will result in tremendous savings in time as well as cost," he added.

The CoE will act as a platform for testing new technologies, simulation of the customer solution, compatibility assessment, migration methodologies, SLA modeling and architecture simulations. The CoE will demonstrate approaches and solutions in basic technologies and specific application areas. Customers will have a proof of concept that enables them to see how the technology will work before deployment in the actual business environment.

Some key technologies demonstrated in Terranova include Voice Portal & CRM solutions, Data Mining & Decision support system using DWH technologies, EAI solutions and Knowledge Management technologies. On the infrastructure side it showcases Storage Area Networks, clustering, remote log-in and load balancing, IVR and fax-on-demand applications. They also cover network integration technologies in Content Delivery Network architectures; Audio/Video Streaming, Unified Messaging, IP Telephony with Call managers.

Security infrastructure includes solutions like Firewall/VPN, IDS/Scanners, Authentication, Antivirus/URL filtering and Integration. To ensure troubleshooting of customer problems, it showcases various compatibility, stress and performance testing environments with multiple platforms.

- Mahesh Rathod

Sun unveils Solaris 9
Sun Microsystems has unveiled Solaris 9, the new version of its popular OS. The company claims that the product has 300 improvements, which include new security tools, additional integrated applications, and a wider range of system configuration tools.

Upgrades include tight integration of Sun ONE Directory Server 5.1, Solaris 9 Resource Manager, and Solaris Volume Manager into the OS core. This adds new capabilities for systems administrators to have further control of applications and hardware for improved performance.

Features like Directory Server can help customers have scalable means to provide name services for thousands of users. With the help of a volume manager, data storage can be in control. You can divide a disk up to 8,000 pieces or span many disks to create a virtual disk of up to 1 TB. It also allows you to mirror the disk and the RAID arrangements.

Intel believes that the platform makes a difference
Intel believes that a well-tuned and well-configured processor on a hardware platform paves the way for an application to run more efficiently. At Intel Developers' Forum held recently in Bangalore, John E. Davies, VP/GM Ebiz Channels & Marketing, stressed on the need for companies to migrate out of proprietary microprocessor-based platforms. "Growth statistics show that enterprises worldwide are shifting towards open platforms. It's a good strategy to use a platform that offers more flexibility and scalability so that your applications will work smoothly regardless of company growth and technology migrations."

Intel's current generation Itanium processors and its next generation processor McKinley which is due to be released soon claim to offer several technology benefits. "We are the first to use hyper-threading technology where one processor acts like two and is able to perform more functions than any other single processor," claimed Davies.

Intel announced that it will concentrate on Web services due to the increasing dependency of companies to use the Internet as a communications and business tool. Intel is looking forward to support its processors in mobile devices and aims to create compatibility within all Internet-enabled devices.

Traditionally Intel has the highest market share in microprocessors manufactured in the desktop segment. It remains to be seen if the company will be as successful in the worldwide enterprise and Internet-enabled devices space as well.

- Soutiman Das Gupta

IE patch flawed
Q321232.exe, a patch designed to address security vulnerabilities in Microsoft's IE (Internet Explorer) does not fix all the flaws as expected, according to security researchers. The patch was designed to fix cross-site scripting problem and other security and privacy flaws affecting IE versions 5.01 through 6 and Outlook. The problem has also been identified in Internet Explorer 5.01 and 5.5.

According to security researchers the patch fixes the cross-site scripting issue on one of the listed browsers and fails to address a second vulnerability. A fault in the dialogArguments component of IE is not addressed.

Microsoft's explanation to the vulnerability is that the flaw can be exploited only when a user clicks on HTML link on a Web page or in an e-mail message. But according to security researchers the code embedded in an HTML file can automatically execute, as a result of which malicious code can be launched simply by opening an infected e-mail message.

According to the researchers another vulnerability in the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), a component of HTML that could be used to read files on a PC, is also not fixed sufficiently by the patch. The security researchers said that the vulnerability could still be exploited by using a URL that redirects the user, as opposed to accessing the files directly.