Topics
BirdBlog
CuteSQL
DataDirect XQuery
DB2
dream4 Koobi
FoxPro
JDeveloper
MySQL
SourcePro DB
SQL Server
VistaDB
Visual CE
Visual Paradigm

Financial
Oracle
Sybase
Cognos

Mobile
Afaria
Syware

Of Note
Reporting Services

Opinion
Censorship

Sponsored Links

Sun Drops UltraSPARC Processor with Transactional Memory
Prior to the deal to be acquired by Oracle, Sun Microsystems planned to ship a new UltraSPARC processor that provides transactional memory. By supporting atomic transactions, it promised to reduce bottlenecks in database servers. Ken North take a closer look at Rock transaction processing and database price/performance.

Fortinet Updates FortiDB Database Security Appliances
Fortinet, a provider of unified threat management solutions, announced new features of its FortiDB™ database security appliance. The appliance now provides 24x7 monitoring and provides a complete audit trail, enabling organizations to comply with the Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Fortinet also announced two new models, the FortiDB-400B and FortiDB-2000B. Besides auditing and monitoring, the FortiDB appliances also includes an automated, policy-driven vulnerability assessment capability.

ITTIA Announces ITTIA DB-SQL for Embedded Applications
ITTIA announced ITTIA DB-SQL, a database manager for the i.MX family of processors for Freescale Semiconductor. The i.MX processors combine peripheral interfaces and multiple subsystems on a single chip. This enables VARs and OEMs to use the i.MX processors in portable media players, point-of-sale systems, instrumentation, wireless and video surveillance applications. i.MX processors and ITTIA SB-SQL support the Linux and Microsoft Windows CE platforms.

Open Source BI Poised for Great Leap Forward
The availability of open source business intelligence (BI) software has improved dramatically in the past two years. A recent survey by Ventana Research reports surprising levels of adoption and plans for open source BI. In this article about open source BI software, Ken North discusses trends, LAMP, Eclipse and what's available from open source BI projects.

Continuent Announces Tungsten Database Scale-Out Stack
Continuent has announced open source software, Continuent Tungsten, that provides advanced scalability and data replication capabilities. Tungsten provides an open source replication engine that supports multi-master and master-slave replication. The Tungsten ScaleOut stack includes components for replication, cluster services management and performance testing. Continuent Tungsten supports replication for loading data warehouses and distributing data for scalability and performance. It also supports cross-site clustering for disaster recovery.

SQL Injection Outpaces Other Malware Attacks
ScanSafe, a provider of Web Security software-as-a-service (SaaS) reports that Web-based malware increased 278 percent during the first half of 1978. Legitimate web sites, such as Wal-Mart and BusinessWeek, have been compromised. Password stealers and backdoor Trojans increased to 27 per cent of malware. SQL injection attacks have become the most common form of malware, outpacing other forms of malware by 212 per cent.

LogiXML Adds ETL Tool to Web-Based BI Product Line
LogiXML, Inc. announced the release of LogiETL, an extract, transform and load tool for putting enterprise data into a consistent format to support integration with a variety of corporate applications. One unique feature is that LogiETL product is a Web-based data integration tool. It can transfer data from disparate sources, including IBM DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase SQL Server, Sun Microsystems MySQL, and InterSystems Cache. It can also transfer data from web services, flat files, CSV, Excel and XML files, as well as RSS/ATOM feeds, Amazon SimpleDB, Google Docs, and Google Spreadsheets.

IBM Acquires Solid for In-Memory Database
IBM has reached an agreement with the private owners of Solid Information Technology to buy the in-memory database company. Private equity firms Apax Partners and CapMan have agreed to sell the company, which had 2007 sales of $14.4 million. Annual revenues for Solid are not a compelling reason for buying the company, but after Oracle acquired Innobase Solid signed an agreement with MySQL to provide a transactional storage engine. MySQL is reportedly planning to release its own transactional storage engine with MySQL 6.0. SolidDB is a prime competitor of the TimesTen in-memory database product acquired by Oracle. IBM and MySQL announced an agreement in April 2007 that would enable using the IBM DB2 storage engine with MySQL Server for i5/OS.

Despite Criminal Penalties, More Talk Than Action on Compliance Monitoring
A survey of the Oracle Application User Group (OAUG) found only a small percentage of organizations are ready for compliance audits related to SOX, HIPAA, FISMA and PCI Data Security requirements. Ken North discusses those requirements and the results of the survey by Unisphere Research.

Microsoft Updates Visual Studio 2008 with Data Services Features
Microsoft has released a beta version of Visual Studio 2008 and a service pack update to the .NET 3.5 framework. SP1 for .NET 3.5 introduces new data access capabilities, ADO.NET Data Services and the ADO.NET Entity Framework, that support the database development cycle beginning with development of the conceptual model. ADO.NET Data Services enable applications to expose data as a REST-based data service that can be consumed by Web clients within a corporate network and across the Internet. The updates support Dynamic Data, an ASP.NET feature that enables a developer to build a web site using LING to SQL or using an Entity Framework data model. In a blog post, Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, wrote "With the ASP.NET Dynamic Data feature you can automatically build web UI (with full CRUD - create, read, update, delete - support) against a variety of data object models (including LINQ to SQL, LINQ to Entities, REST Services, and any other ORM or object model with a dynamic data provider).

EnterpriseDB Raises $10 Million from IBM and Other Investors
EnterpriseDB, which offers an Oracle-compatible version of PostgreSQL, has raised $10 million in series C financing from IBM, Charles Rivers Ventures, Fidelity Ventures and Valhalla Partners. IBM's investment is notable in the wake of Sun's purchase of MySQL, one of EnterpriseDB's competitors in the open source database space. EnterpriseDB offers services for PostgreSQL, a version known as Postgres Plus, and PostgreSQL Plus Advanced Server for Linux and AIX. EnterpriseDB has recently released an open source GridSQL product and positioned its DBMS as a web database product running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3).

Network Resonance CEO Presents Security Taxonomy
The CEO of Network Resonance, Kevin Dick, discusses a security taxonomy of distributed systems and web services in a podcast and videos released this week. Network Resonance, a company founded by Kevin Dick and Eric Rescorla, recently patented a technology for secure SSL auditing. In the video/podcast, Kevin discusses security for point-to-point services, multi-hop services, service components and complex services.

Bradmark Announces Update of Database Surveillance Tool
Bradmark Technologies, Inc., a provider of enterprise monitoring and database administration tools, has released version 4.1 of Bradmark Surveillance™. Version 4.1 includes enhancements for improving reliability and performance and reliability when monitoring databases, including Sybase, Oracle, IBM DB2 UDB and MS SQL Server environments. The new features include Enterprise Deployment and support for Sybase® Adaptive Server® Enterprise (ASE) and Windows Vista. Enterprise Deployment enables organizations to install Surveillance on many machines to expedite deployment. Standard Stores allow database administrators (DBAs) to collect historical data, enabling Surveillance Flashback feature to diagnose database problems.

Information Builders Releases Mashup for BI and Google Maps
Information Builders, Inc. (IBI) has released a new WebFOCUS mashup application that integrates Google Maps and business intelligence data. IBI's WebFOCUS for Google Maps GUI supports overlaying maps with data without creating custom code. It supports dashboard integration and enables users to insert Google Maps into WebFOCUS procedures. Users can leverage Google Maps to filter and drill down to WebFOCUS reports that contain details on one or more geographic locations.

Amazon Enters Web Database Services Race with SimpleDB
Amazon Web Services has jumped into the web database hosting business with the announcement of Amazon SimpleDB. A limited beta is available for the new service that runs in conjunction with Amazon Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). SimpleDB exposes a web service interface for storing and retrieving multiple data sets. The data is organized by domains, with items stored as attribute-value pairs. The cost for SimpleDB is $0.14 per machine hour and $1.50 monthly per gigabyte of storage. The SimpleDB API includes a small number of calls for manipulating domains and getting, putting and deleting attributes.

Sybase Announces WorkSpace 2.0 for SQL Developers
Sybase, Inc. has announced Sybase® WorkSpace 2.0, a developer toolkit based on Eclipse. WorkSpace 2.0 provides an integrated design and development environment that combines enterprise modeling, database development, data federation, Web application development and services development and orchestration. Sybase WorkSpace supports real-time notification of database events and integrates with Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise, SQL Anywhere and Sybase IQ.

Sun to Drop Developer Tools and Encourage Move to NetBeans IDE
Consolidation in the Java tools space continues with a recent announcement from Sun Microsystems. Sun will discontinue Sun Java Studio Creator and Sun Java Studio Enterprise, although it will honor existing support contracts. Java Studio provides a visual development environment for Web applications and Java Studio Enterprise is a toolkit for enterprise computing. Sun will encourage developers to migrate to the open source NetBeans IDE, a rival to the Eclipse tool suite that supports multi-language development. Sun is offering six months free support for migrating to NetBeans 6.0. Borland previously discontinued its Java tool suite (JBuilder) and encouraged developers to migrate to Borland plug-ins for Eclipse.

ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 to Support Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Spatial
ESRI announced ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 will exploit the spatial technology included with Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Microsoft is providing a tight integration of spatial technology with SQL Server's relational and business intelligence capabilities. ESRI software is currently in use by more than 300,000 organizations, including the 200 largest US cities, more than 2/3 of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities.

SQL Injection Vulnerability with JBoss Seam
Secunia has issued an advisory for JBoss Seam users that warns of an SQL injection vulnerability. The org.jboss.seam.framework.Query class has a flaw that enables a malicious user to exploit the "order" parameter of the getRenderedEjbql() method. Input to the parameter is not properly sanitized to prevent SQL injection attacks. The vulnerability affects JBoss Seam versions before 2.0.0 GA.

dbaDIRECT Receives Research Grant from Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation
dbaDIRECT, a provider of remote monitoring and automated DBA services, has received a grant from the Kentucky Enterprise Fund. The award from the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation will support the company's research. dbaDIRECT announced CEO John Bostick recently spoke at the International Conference on Information Technology for Financial Services (ICITFS) 2007 at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. dbaDIRECT currently manages more than 3,000 corporate databases, including Oracle, DB2, Sybase. MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases.

Red Gate Announces One Click Support with SQL Multi Script
Red Gate Software has released SQL Multi Script, a new tool for database administrators (DBAs) managing multiple databases across multiple servers. With one mouse click, SQL Multi Script will execute scripts against multiple SQL Servers. A demo and a fully-functional 14-day trial version of the software are available from the Red Gate web site.

MySQL Denial of Service Vulnerability with InnoDB Engine
MySQL installations using the InnoDB engine are vulnerable to denial of service (DoS) attacks by malicious users. The problem is the convert_search_mode_to_innobase function in ha_innodb.cc. It can trigger an assertion error by the InnoDB engine that can be used to crash the server with specially crafted CONTAINS statements. Exploiting the vulnerability requires ALTER privileges. The vulnerability affects MySQL 4.1.20, 5.0.44 and 5.1.17. The InnoDB repository includes fixes for MySQL 5.x.

IBM to Ship DB2 7.5 for VSE and VM
IBM has announced DB2 Server for VSE and VM version 7.5 mainframe will begin shipping November 30. It includes a newly designed client that enables users to buy just the Client Edition of the product. It supports two-tier and three-tier application architectures. The Client Edition adds bind file support and reduced DRDA® code path length to simplify connecting to data servers. This DB2 product for VSE and VM mainframes is distinct from DB2 UDB.

Information Builders WebFOCUS Bundled with IBM DB2 Web Query
Information Builders' WebFOCUS is now included with IBM DB2 Web Query for System i, which is a replacement for IBM Query for iSeries and Query/400. The agreement for DB2 Web Query with IBM is the first time WebFOCUS has been licensed as an oem or private version. Gerald Cohen, president and CEO of Information Builders said "Through our IBM relationship we are harnessing the System i sales force and IBM business partners to substantially multiply the number of people selling WebFOCUS-based products around the globe."

Authentication Vulnerability Affects DB2 9.1
A security vulnerability in IBM DB2 9.1 can be exploited to trigger memory corruption or launch a denial of service attack. IBM has released DB2 9.1 fix pack 3a that corrects the problem.

More BI Consolidation: SAP to Acquire Business Objects
SAP joins IBM as another software company riding the acquisition wave, perhaps in response to Oracle's hyperactivity in that area. SAP has agreed to a price tag of 4.6 billion Euros ($6.8 billion) for the Business Objects acquisition. Business Objects has 43,000 customers, 2006 sales of $1.25 billion and a stake in the on-demand, software-as-a-service market. Earlier this year Oracle acquired Hyperion Solutions, a Business Objects competitor.

Zoho Upgrades Online Office Suite with Database and Reporting Features
Zoho, provider of a leading Web-based office suite, has announced the availability of an online database and reporting capability. ZohoDB is one of more than a dozen productivity applications that enable users to collaborate and share data over the Internet. ZohoDB supports multiple SQL dialects, including Oracle, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL. It is in beta test and doesn't currently support integration with other Zoho applications, such as the spreadsheet (Zoho Sheet) and application creator (Zoho Creator).

MySQL to Optimize for SAP, SAP to Support MaxDB
At SAP TechEd '07. MySQL AB announced plans to optimize MySQL Enterprise Server for the SAP NetWeaver® platform. MySQL and SAP also announced SAP will assume responsibility for sales and support of MaxDB, the database engine used by the SAP on-demand business suite (SAP® Business ByDesign™).

Sybase Q3 Earnings Exceed Forecasts
Sybase quarterly revenues have increased to $255.3 million, up 22% from the same quarter last year. Sybase's three business units experienced strong growth, with license revenue increasing to $85.1 million. The messaging software business unit had revenues of $34.3 million. Sybase IQ recently set a new price/performance record on the Transaction Processing Council's TPC-H decision-support benchmark.

Enterprise DB Announces New Version of EnterpriseDB Postgres
EnterpriseDB Corporation announced a new version of EnterpriseDB Postgres, a pre-configured version of the PostgreSQL distribution. The new release includes a Procedural Language developer and a
MySQL-to-PostgreSQL Migration Toolkit. EnterpriseDB Advanced Server is an Oracle-compatible server targeted for high-volume, mission-critical enterprise applications.

REAL Software Announces REAL SQL Server 2007
REAL Software announced REAL SQL Server 2007, a cross-platform SQL server for REALbasic users. REAL SQL Server 2007 supports AES256 encryption for databases and support for multi-core processors. Options for client connectivity include ODBC, PHP and C. The REAL SQL Server Developer Edition is available at no cost to application developers. REALbasic is a cross-platform language for Windows, Macintosh and Linux developers.

OpenAjax Alliance Announces OpenAjax Hub to Support Secure Mashups
The OpenAjax Alliance has announced OpenAjax Hub 1.1 will add support for secure mashups. Developers looking to create enterprise applications with persistent information from SQL databases and XML data sources have been concerned about security with Web 2.0 mashups. OpenAjax Hub 1.1 will isolate mashup components using a secure sandbox security model and the OpenAjax Hub's publish/subscribe features for mediated cross-component messaging.

Advanced Data Access Releases Beta Version of SQLfX XML Integration Middleware
Advanced Data Access Technologies, Inc. has released a beta version of its SQLfX XML integration middleware. The SQLfX^® product uses standard SQL as its hierarchical structure engine. It provides transparent and seamless integration of native XML by ISO standard SQL. SQLfX provides non-procedural, navigation-free operation and dynamic hierarchy optimization to allow processing of multi-leg queries using global SQL hierarchical views. SQLfX is Java code that's compatible with any Java Standard Edition (JSE) including JDK 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 and later. (Free download).

Apache Derby 10.3.1.4 Released
The Apache Derby Project released Apache Derby 10.3.1.4 with a variety of new features, including SSL encryption and a security manager for the Network Server. The SQL grammar has been updated to add the TRIM function and drop or rename columns. JDBC support has been enhanced to include all JDBC methods for operating on BLOBs and CLOBs. There is also an enhancement to reduce CPU use when Derby is operating in embedded mode.

Australian Software Company Announces SQL Delta Upgrade
The Australian Software Company announced the release of SQL Delta version 4.1, a tool for comparing SQL database schemas and data. The data comparison tool works with Microsoft SQL Server 7, 2000 and 2005 databases. It supports a project metaphor and structure searches using keywords. It provides reports on schema and data differences in HTML, PDF and text formats.

McObject Announces eXtremeDB ODBC Support
McObject, a company founded by embedded database specialists, announced support for Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) in the newest update to its flagship database product. McObject eXtremeDB is an in-memory embedded database system that's available in five editions (Standard, High Availability, Transaction Logging, and 64-bit). Support for ODBC was added to eXtremeSQL 3.1 and it's available with all editions of the product and eXtremeDB Fusion, which is a hybrid disk-based/in-memory database manager.

Chicago Business Intelligence Group Releases Frogpoint 2.3
Chicago Business Intelligence Group announced the release of Frogpoint® version 2.3. Frogpoint is an integrated suite of tools for business intelligence projects. Frogpoint project management capabilities help organizations plan, manage and execute successful data warehouse and business intelligence programs.

Remote Command Execution and SQL Injection Vulnerabilities Uncovered in Oracle Products
FrSIRT reports several high-risk security vulnerabilities in Oracle software, including Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g, Oracle Application Server and suite products. Exploiting the vulnerabilities could enable an attacker to execute arbitrary commands, alter sensitive data and launch cross-site scripting or denial-of-service attacks. The solution is to apply the July 2007 Oracle Critical Patch Update.

Sybase Announces Security Upgrade for Information Anywhere Suite
Sybase iAnywhere announced collaboration and security enhancements in an update to the Information Anywhere® suite. It includes a secure instant messaging capability that works with Jabber, Microsoft Office Live, Google Talk and other enterprise IM systems, with support for Blackberry, Palm, Nokia and other mobile devices. The suite also includes a laptop security solution that supports encryption of removable media and two-factor authentication. More than 20,000 customers are using iAnywhere solutions for millions of mobile devices.

Oracle Releases Critical Patch Updates
Oracle has released a Critical Patch Update that includes 45 new patches for multiple Oracle product lines. The update includes 19 fixes for Oracle 9i and 10g database products, including two vulnerabilities that are exploitable without authentication. There are four new patches for Oracle Application Server, one critical patch for Oracle Collaboration Suite and 14 for Oracle E-Business Suite.

Actual Releases ODBC Pack 2.7 for Mac OS X
Actual Technologies has released a set of database drivers for Mac OS X. The Actual ODBC Pack version 2.7 drivers are tailored for use with FileMaker Pro 9's External SQL Source (ESS) feature. Actual ODBC enables FileMaker Pro to access Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL databases without writing SQL code. (Download an evaluation copy.)

McObject Perst Adds Lucene for Text Indexing and Searching
McObject announced Perst for Java 2.71 has integrated the Apache Lucene information retrieval software and provides Perst functions that encapsulate Lucene indexing and searching APIs. When a Perst developer designates an object class as full-text searchable, Lucene will automatically add it to its index. The Lucene library includes features such as single- and multi-term keywords, proximity queries, phrase queries, relevance ranking and wildcards. Perst also provides multi-version concurrency control and it supports ACID transactions for updating the full-text index.

SQL Power Group Releases Power*Architect Modeling Tool as Open Source
The consulting portfolio at SQL Group includes business intelligence and data warehousing projects, but the firm is making a foray into the world of open source software providers. SQL Power released the source code to its Power*Architect data modeler software under a BSD license. Power*Architect is a Java-based tool that enables users to reverse-engineer databases, profile source databases and
generate extract, transform and load (ETL) data. Download.

SQL Script Builder Version 1.6.0.20 Announced
David Birebent announced the release of SQL Script Builder Version 1.6.0.20. It creates SQL scripts and dump files from any SQL data source for which there is an ODBC driver. The script supports migration of a single table or multiple tables to Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, Pervasive SQL and PostgreSQL databases. The latest version handles batch conversions and date formatting.

SQL Farms Announces One-Click Technology for Restarting Microsoft SQL Server
SQL Farms, Inc. announced SQL Farm Combine will offer one-click restart of SQL Server services on all network machines. This will assist database administrators (DBAs) in handling automated SQL patches and multi-server configuration changes.

Zmanda Announces Recovery Manager for MySQL
Zmanda™ announced the Zamanda Recovery Manager for MySQL is available with the Zmanda Management Console, a set of tools for simplifying MySQL database backup and recovery. Zmanda ZRM for MySQL is an open source solution that offers storage engine awareness and support for multiple MySQL database storage engines. Zmanda Management Console for MySQL Backup is available to subscribers to the Zmanda Network.

dbaDIRECT Announces Remote Database Administration Support Services for IBM DB2 z/OS
dbaDirect, a managed service provider of remote database administration capabilities, announced it will offer support for the IBM z/OS mainframe environment. dbaDirect currently manages thousands of databases globally. It provides DBA support for major SQL platforms, including Oracle, IBM DB2 UDB, DB2 z/OS, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Sybase. In making the announcement dbaDirect CEO John Bostick cited a shrinking pool of mainframe talent amidst a "continuing renaissance for 'Big Iron' computing".

DBA at Fidelity National Subsidiary Sells Info on 8.5 Million Consumers
A recent SEC filing by Fidelity National disclosed a senior database administrator (DBA) at its Certegy Check Services subsidiary stole data belonging to 8.5 million consumers. The database administrator illegally downloaded and sold customer information to a data broker, which sold the information to direct marketing companies. The stolen data includes name and address information, birth dates and bank account and credit card information. Of the 8.5 million records, approximately 5.7 million contain checking account data and 1.5 million include credit card information.

PASS Summit 2007 for SQL Server Community Closes
The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), a global association of 25,000 SQL Server professionals, announced its annual user group conference ran 18-21 September 2007. The keynote presentation about PerformancePoint was by Bill Baker, General Manager of Business Intelligence at Microsoft. The conference offered a hands-on lab that enabled comparisons between SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and SQL Server Analysis Services 2008. The 2007 PASS Community Summit ran at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.

Predictive Analytics Seminars The Predictive Analytics for Business, Marketing and Web seminar ran 18-19 October 2007 in Washington, DC. The October seminar followed the eMetrics Summit, 14-17 October in Washington, D.C. The instructor was Eric Siegel, PhD, a former professor of computer science at Columbia and a consultant in data mining and analytics. The September 2007 seminar was at the AMA Executive Conference Center in the San Francisco Marriott.

Texas Memory Systems Unveils Oracle Accelerator Kit with Supercomputer-Class Hardware
Texas Memory Systems introduced a new Oracle Accelerator Kit for Infiniband-based Oracle grid computing environments. The Oracle Accelerator Kit includes Texas Memory Systems RamSan solid state disks with switches and host channel adaptors from QLogic. The new accelerator kit uses supercomputer-class hardware that's expected to deliver as much as a 2500% increase in Oracle database performance. It is available in three different configurations: a Small Business Kit, Medium Business Kit and Enterprise
Business Kit.

Workday Challenges Oracle and SAP with SaaS
Entrepreneur David Duffield, who founded and built PeopleSoft into a powerhouse, is putting his energy today into 2-year old Workday. The new venture is challenging established software suite vendors by offering on-demand software, also known as software as a service (SaaS). To provide integration in a hosted, on-demand SOA, Workday is using Cape Clear Software's ESB. Workday is currently embedding the Cape Clear ESB in SaaS-based human resources applications for a dozen customers. Besides Workday, companies such as Salesforce.com, NetSuite and RightNow Technologies are promoting a migration to SaaS and on-demand software.

Oracle Acquisitions Boost 4Q Profit to 23%
Oracle acquisitions contributed to stellar performance during the company's fiscal fourth quarter. Oracle's profits increased 23% to $1.6 billion. Since beginning a wave of acquisitions in 2004, Oracle market value has grown by $30 billion. Oracle has invested $25 billion for acquisitions, beginning with PeopleSoft in 2004. IDC estimates Oracle's share of the $81 billion business applications market is $5.6 billion and Gartner recently reported Oracle owns 47% of the database market.

Quest Software to Acquire Script Logic
Quest Software announced the acquisition of ScriptLogic Corporation for approximately $90 million in cash. Privately-held ScriptLogic is a provider of systems lifecycle management solutions for Windows networks. ScriptLogic has more than 19,000 customers using its products on 4.75 million desktops and 110,000 servers. Quest Software is a provider of database, applications and Windows solutions
with more than 50,000 customers. The acquisition will increase Quest's portfolio of client-side and server-side Windows solutions. It is expected to complete in Q3 2007 and ScriptLogic will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quest Software.

Gartner Reports Oracle is the Leader in Growing Relational Database Market
In its 2006 database market report, Gartner Research reported Oracle remains the leader in a relational database market that has grown to $15.2 billion from $13.3 billion in 2005.. In 2006 Oracle database license revenue grew 14.9% to $7.2 billion and Oracle's market share increased from 46.8% in 2005 to 47.1% in 2006. IBM relational revenues increased 8.8% in 2006 to $3.2 billion, giving IBM 21.1% of the market. IBM's market shared dropped a point from 2005. Microsoft's database license revenues grew by 28% to $2.7 billion, giving Microsoft a 17.4% market share. NCR Teradata and Sybase each had a 3.2% market share.

The top three best-selling database products comprise 85.6 percent of the business. Unix remained the leading operating system for running database servers (34.8%). Windows is close behind at 34.5% and Linux is third at 15.5%, although it grew 67% in 2006.

Misuse of Object-Relational Mapping
In this editorial, Shahid N. Shah discusses the current state of data modeling and object-relational mapping. The subject is information technology in the healthcare industry, but the commentary is valid in other contexts. Shah writes "Even though data are so important, we in health-IT don’t seem to spend the quality time necessary to structure our schemas and databases in such a way as to make it easier to maintain in the future." The author expresses concerns about using object-relational mapping to generate a database schema, instead of designing the database before using a mapping tool to generate application objects.

IBM Opens Beta Testing of DB2 9 Version 2
IBM announced an open public beta test program for DB2 Viper 2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows.
DB2 Viper 2 provides workload management functions integrated into the database engine and other enhancements for data warehousing. It provides check constraints and triggers on XML and an SQL function to transform XML documents using an XSL stylesheet. DB2 Viper 2 also offers improved data compression, more scalar functions and ARRAY objects for stored procedures.

Microsoft Building Chinese R&D Center for SQL Server
Microsoft China is setting up an SQL Server R&D Center to speed up research and development in China. Prakash Sundaresan will be the director of the SQL Server R&D Center, which will focus on developing core technology and products for the global market. Microsoft China Research and Development Group will expand R&D centers in Beijing and Shanghai to a total staff of 100 developers within three years. According to a recent report by Gartner Research, Microsoft's database license revenues grew by 28% last year.

Mainsoft Releases Three Editions of Visual Studio Tools for Java
Mainsoft has announced a suite of tools that enable developers to use for Visual Studio 2005 for Java development. Three editions of Mainsoft Java EE 2.0 are available. The free Developer Edition supports building applications for the Apache Tomcat application server. The Enterprise Edition adds support for IBM WebSphere, JBoss and BEA WebLogic. The Portal Edition supports SOA development and integration of Java EE portals with ASP.NET 2.0, SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and other services.

Microsoft Releases SQL Server 2008 Community Technology Preview
Microsoft has released a preview of its flagship database product. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 adds a vector-based spatial solution, a policy-based management framework, transparent encryption, support for external encryption hardware support, a resource governor, Language Integrated Query, and several new non-relational data types. SQL Server 2008 Community Technology Preview download.

Business Objects Acquires Inxight Software to Enhance Search Capabilities
Leading BI vendor Business Objects has acquired Inxight Software in a transaction expected to close in July 2007. Inxight provides tools for operations with unstructured information, including data visualization, federated search and text analytics. Business Objects will provide information discovery capabilities for BusinessObjects XI. Inxight is a member of the Business Objects Technology Partner and it has more than 300 OEM license agreements with companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and SAS. Unstructured information includes text documents, e-mails, web pages and other data sources not formatted for database queries. Business Objects estimates unstructured information comprises 80 per cent of corporate data.

Gartner Recognizes IBM as the Top ECM Vendor for 2006
A recent report by Gartner Research recognizes IBM as the leading enterprise content management (ECM) vendor in revenue for 2006. Gartner also reported the ECM market expanded 12 percent between 2005 and 2006, with increased interest in content archiving, web content management and records management. More than 17,000 customers use the IBM ECM portfolio, which includes FileNet and IBM content management software. IBM's portfolio supports SOA with platforms from HP, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun Microsystems, in addition to IBM DB2 and WebSphere.

DataArchitect 4.0 Release Supports Multiple Platforms
The release of database design tool DataArchitect 4.0 has been announced by theKompany.com. Users can design and reverse engineer databases using DataArchitect entity-relationship diagram (ERD) capabilities. The product is available for HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows platforms. It supports database design for DB2, Firebird/InterBase, Gupta SQLBase, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL. It also supports generic database design using ODBC.

McObject Announces eXtremeDB™ 3.1 for High-Availability Applications
McObject® announced an upgrade to its eXtremeDB real-time in-memory embedded database system. eXtremeDB version 3.1 includes enhancements to hot synchronization, schema evolution and indexing functions. eXtremeDB supports transactions, concurrent access and a high-level data definition language, but its memory footprint is as little as 50K. New index types in eXtremeDB 3.1 are the R-Tree index and Patricia Trie index. The R-Tree index is typically used for spatial data access and searching multi-dimensional data. he Patricia Trie index is a longest match index used for network and telecommunications applications.

Symbian OS for Smartphones Adds SQL Database
Symbian Ltd. announced an upgrade to the Symbian OS for smartphones. Symbian OS v9.5 introduces performance and hardware cost-containment features, using less memory, processor and battery resources than earlier versions. It offers improved connectivity to personal computers and an SQL database for storing thousands of contacts. Symbian licenses Symbian OS to leading handset manufacturers and the operating system has shipped with 110 million phones sold worldwide.

IBM Announces Next-Generation Business Intelligence with Dynamic Warehousing
IBM announced a new business intelligence initiative with a Dynamic Warehousing strategy that supports analytics as part of real-time business processes. Dynamic Warehousing will integrate technologies from IBM research and development with technology obtained by IBM acquisitions. It will marry enterprise data modeling, information integration, master data management, and search and text analytics. The new strategy will provide information on demand to call centers, field workers and to mobile computing users. To support the new initiative, IBM has released a new version of the DB2 Warehouse.

Quest Toad for SQL Server 2.0 Arrives
Quest Software announced a new version of the Toad database management product line. Toad for SQL Server 2.0 includes SQL optimization, integrated debugging, and integrated comparison and synchronization with SQL Server 2005 databases. The comparison and synchronization feature will work with the schema, data and server settings of different SQL Servers. Toad for SQL Server 2.0 also includes a database backup indicator that advises of the need to perform a a backup. It integrates with LifeSpeed for SQL Server.

MySQL Single Row Subselect Security Vulnerability Uncovered
Researchers have uncovered a MySQL security flaw that is exploitable to launch a denial of service. An error has been found in the filesort routine when processing a single-row subselect query using an ORDER BY clause. Malicious users can use a specially-formulated SQL query to launch an attack. The flaw exists in versions prior to MySQL 5.0.37.

Roth Capital Muddies Waters of Hyperion Acquisition by Oracle
Oracle announced the acquisition of Hyperion Solutions to boost its business intelligence product line, but at least one stock advisor disagrees with the acquisition. Nathan Schneiderman of Roth Capital advises Hyperion stockholders to vote against the sales to Oracle. Hyperion's performance management software is in use by 12,000 customers, including more than 90 of the Fortune 100. Oracle will roll out a new product family, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, that will work with heterogeneous data sources. The transaction will close in April 2007.

SoftTree Technologies Releases Database Auditing Libraries
SoftTree Technologies, maker of the DB Audit Expert tool, has announced the release of cross-platform libraries for database auditing. The Java-based libraries enable developers to include auditing and compliance reporting features in applications. Several SoftTree business partners contributed to the development of the new database auditing APIs, which are usable with IBM DB2, Oracle, Sybase ASE and Microsoft SQL Server. The Database Auditing API supports monitoring of database access, compliance auditing and reporting, auditing multiple database systems, and e-mail alerts.

Oracle 10g Sets New TPC-H 10 Terabyte Record
Oracle announced world record performance on the TPC-H 10 Terabyte benchmark by Oracle Database 10g Release 2. The latest benchmark result is the best price-performance overall on TPC-H 10 TB and the fastest performance for a non-clustered configuration. The Oracle DBMS was running on an HP Integrity Superdome server with 64 Dual-Core Intel Itanium 1.6 GHz processors using the HP-UX 11i operating system. Oracle Database 10g Release 2 achieved a non-clustered performance of 171,380 QphH@10000GB with a price-performance ratio of $38.98/QphH@10000GB.

ColdFusion Cross-Site Scripting Security Vulnerability
Brent Moore reports an Adobe ColdFusion MX security vulnerability enables malicious users to launch cross-site scripting attacks. The problem is due to an error when cross-site scripting protection filters malicious tags. Developers are encourage to use a web proxy to filter malicious characters and character sequences.

Microsoft SQL Server is First in Market Share Among Wireless Developers
Evans Data released results of a wireless developer survey that showed their database of choice is Microsoft SQL Server. Fore developing wireless applications, MySQL was the second choice of developers, followed by Oracle. Evans Data surveyed more than 380 wireless developers and found 47% are targeting smart phones and more than 40% are working with location-based services, such as Google Maps. Among wireless developers surveyed, 30% use Microsoft SQL Server and 20% use MySQL.

Rogue Wave Announces New HydraSDO Components
Rogue Wave Software, a division of Quovadx, Inc., announced an early access version of HydraSDO™ for Databases and an update to HydraSDO for XML. HydraSDO for XML 1.1 offers Distributed SDO, which provides a standards-based architecture for sharing XML documents between applications without reparsing. Distributed SDO supports streaming data objects between machines using XML as a messaging format without reparsing data as it travels throughout a SOA environment. HydraSDO for Databases provides relational data access for traditional application architectures and SOA using the SDO Application Programming Interface (API). HydraSDO for Databases provides access to Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL, and DB2.

Apple Leopard Server to Bundle MySQL and Apache Server
Apple's next-generation server operating system, Mac OS X Server 10.5 (code-named Leopard), is a 64-bit operating system that will run 32-bit applications. Leopard will run any Unix-certified application and it will include versions of MySQL and Apache web server. It will include an adaptive firewall, a Dashboard widget for server monitoring, Open Directory, Darwin Calendar Server, Ruby on Rails and a 64-bit version of QuickTime.

Dell Introduces Direct Attached Storage Array
Dell has introduced the PowerVault™ MD3000, a direct-attached storage array for critical applications requiring performance and high availability. The PowerVault MD3000 is an external RAID SAS array that uses dual active/active RAID controllers that produce throughput up to 1,400 MB per second. Performance levels are suitable for video services and transaction processing with clustered applications such as Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Maximum capacity is 4.5 terabytes per system.

IBM Announces Free DB2 Server for Vista
IBM has announced the DB2 9 Express-C data server is available for the Microsoft Vista operating system. DB2 Express-C for Vista runs on AMD or Intel x86 with up to 2 dual cores. It supports a maximum memory size of 4GB and there is no limit to database size. Besides Windows platforms, DB2 Express-C has also been validated with several Linux distributions, including Novell Open Enterprise Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Mandriva and Ubuntu.

DataDirect and ZapThink Offer Seminars for Software Architects
In May 2007, DataDirect Technologies and ZapThink presented a series of software architecture seminars titled "Innovation for Software Architects: Successful Strategies for SOA Enablement & Data Connectivity". Seminar attendees learned the state of the art in data access, mainframe integration, and XML query technology. Speakers included John Goodson and Rob Steward of DataDirect and Jason Bloomberg and Ronald Schmelzer of ZapThink. The seminars ran in London (1 May 2007), Amsterdam (3 May), Chicago (15 May), New York (16 May), Washington, DC (17 May), San Francisco (22 May), and Dallas (24 May).

Microsoft Releases Visual Studio Edition for Database Professionals
Recognizing that database professionals face different testing and lifecycle issues than application programmers, Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2005 for Database Professionals. It enables database developers to create a baseline version of a database, track changes to the schema and automatically cascade schema changes. It includes features to compare different schemas, to compare different databases and to generate scripts for schema or database synchronization. Another feature, the DataGenerator, creates data generation plans for use with database unit tests.

Oracle Releases Identity Management Solution
Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-on Suite. A component of Oracle Identity Management, the Suite provides password management and access control using a single sign-on for a variety of Oracle products, including Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle Siebel applications, Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Database. It provides an security infrastructure for Oracle Fusion Middleware and supports XACML, SAML and Web services security-related specifications.

Continuent Ships HA Cluster Solution for MySQL and PostgreSQL
Continuent, Inc. announced an update to its Continuent™ uni/cluster that provides a high-availability clustering solution for MySQL and PostgreSQL. Continuent uni/cluster uses a multi-master approach to database replication with data committed simultaneously to all servers in a cluster. This enables load balancing because any server in a cluster can process queries. The new release of uni/cluster includes native 64-bit libraries and a new management and configuration tool.

PostgreSQL 8.2 Adds SQL 2003 and Performance Improvements
The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announced the release of PostgreSQL 8.2 with new features that improve performance and support for SQL 2003. Version 8.2 also adds warm standby databases, generalized inverted indexes, online index builds, and enhanced tracing capabilities. New SQL 2003 features include multi-row VALUE statements, UPDATE RETURNING, multi-column and statistical aggregates. In addition, version 8.2 includes load-balancing via PGPool and a full implementation of Java in the database (PL/Java).

BNP Paribas Chooses DB2 Performance Tools from CDB Software
CDB Software, an independent software vendor (ISV) that specializes in DB2 z/OS data management, announced BNP Paribas has adopted the CDB product line for all z/OS platforms throughout its global banking system. BNP Paribas is banking and financial services group with 140,000 employees and operations in 85 countries. It operates six IBM Z9 mainframes with 1604 databases, 11,000 Tablespaces and 25,000 indexes. BNP Paribas uses CDB/Auto Utilities to provide automated restarts, automatic copies and continuous data availability during tablespace reorgs.

dbaDIRECT Expands Amidst Fourth Year of High Marks on Customer Satisfaction Surveys
dbaDIRECT announced a recent survey reported high customer satisfaction ratings for the fourth consecutive year. The company also announced the addition of 14 new customers in the past two quarters. The company offers database administration services for IBM DB2, Oracle, Sybase and SQL Server. It has provided IT management services since 1998 and currently manages more than 3.000 corporate databases.

IDC Reports Oracle on Top in Business Analytics Market
IDC reported that Oracle, with a 13.2 percent share and annual revenue of $2.2 billion, is the leader in business analytics software market share . SAS was second with 8.2 percent of the market, followed by IBM. Microsoft, Business Objects, SAP, Cognos, Hyperion Solution, Teradata and Fair Isaac completed the top 10. In this market, the primary revenue for Oracle, SAS, IBM, Microsoft, and Teradata is data warehousing, with Business Objects and Cognos focusing on business intelligence tools. Total revenue for the market grew to $16.5 billion dollars, with tools generating $11.5 billion in revenue and applications generating $5.1 billion.

Database Security Report Compares Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server
Researcher David Litchfield of NGS Software has released a database security report comparing the Microsoft and Oracle flagship database products. Over the past six years, SQL Server 7, 2000 and 2005 required 59 patches to fix security vulnerabilities. During the same period, Oracle released 233 fixes to security vulnerabilities in Oracle 8i, 9i and 10g databases. Litchfield has reported 49 security vulnerabilities to Oracle.

Microsoft CEO: Linux Infringes on Microsoft Patents
At the recent Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Linux infringes on patents held by Microsoft. When discussing the rationale for the Microsoft deal with Novell for SUSE Linux support, Ballmer said Linux "uses our intellectual property". As part of the deal, Novell paid Microsoft $40 million so Microsoft will not sue SUSE Linux users over patent infringement. Ballmer said "Only customers that use SUSE have paid properly for intellectual property from Microsoft" but indicated Microsoft is willing to deal with Red Hat and other Linux distributors.

Continuent Releases Beta Version of Sequoia Clustering Solution
Continuent has released a beta version of Sequoia 3.0, a middleware solution that provides scalability and high availability for databases. Sequoia is a successor to the C-JDBC project and it provides a clustering, load balancing, hot recovery and failover solution for databases. It's available under an Apache license, with commercial versions available for MySQL and postgreSQL.

Borland Spins Off Tools Group as CodeGear Subsidiary
Borland Software Corporation has decided to move its developer tools group into CodeGear, a newly-formed subsidiary. During the 1990s, Borland established a reputation as a premier provider of tools for software developers. The company has evolved under CEO Tod Nielsen and its focus is Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). Earlier this year Borland announced intent to sell its Integrated Development Environment (IDE) business but decided to change course. Borland is moving its IDE products, including JBuilder, Delphi, C++ Builder and C# Builder, to the CodeGear subsidiary managed by CEO Ben Smith. In fiscal year 2005, revenues from the IDE business was $90 billion.

Public beta of db4o Version 6
db4objects announced the release of db4o 6.0, the open source object DBMS, to a community of 15,000 registered developers. db40 provides object persistence for .NET and Java application objects by storing objects as their application format. db40 can be used in a client-server architecture or embedded in applications. Version 6 is currently available as a public beta product that includes a Replication System and ObjectManager.

MySQL and Infobright Partner on Data Warehouse Engine
Infobright, Inc. and MySQL AB announced a partnership for integration of MySQL with the BrightHouse database engine. BrightHouse, the Infobright storage engine, compresses data so its useful for archiving data from multi-terabyte data warehouses. Its available currently for Microsoft Windows servers, with a Linux release scheduled for 2007. Infobright also offers the BrightWorks tool set for managing data archiving by analyzing query logs. MySQL estimates there have been 10 million installations of the MySQL open source database.

Microsoft Announces Release of Vista, .NET Framework 3.0, SQL Server Compact Edition
At TechEd in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft announced a wave of new software products have been released to manufacture. These include the Microsoft Vista operating system, Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition, the .NET Framework 3.0, and Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition is a lightweight DBMS for embedded database applications, suitable for Tablet PCs, Pocket PCs, SmartPhones and desktop computers. It shares a common programming model with SQL Server and it's free to deploy and redistribute. It provides encryption, transaction commit and rollback, merge replication and databases up to 4GB.

Sun to Release Java Source Code
Sun Microsystems is set to release key portions of the Java source code as open source software available with a GPL license. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz is expected to announce parts of the Java Platform Standard Edition (JSE) and Java Platform Micro Edition (JME) will be available as open source code. Java components to be released include the Java Compiler and Java HotSpot virtual machine, although Sun will still offer commercial licensing for Java.

Zend and Microsoft Collaborate to Bring PHP to Windows Server
Zend Technologies has entered into an agreement with Microsoft to enhance the PHP scripting language for Windows platforms. Microsoft and Zend will develop a production-quality PHP runtime environment for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and "Longhorn", the next version of Windows Server. Zend will establish a Windows testing lab and Microsoft will develop a FastCGI component to provide the
interface between PHP and Internet Information Services (IIS).

Microsoft Announces Executive Change and Limits Operating Systems for SQL Server 2005
Microsoft has announced vice-president Paul Flessner, of the data storage and platform division is leaving as of January 1. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 experienced consistent revenue growth under his stewardship. Previously Microsoft issued an advisory that it will be phasing out support for older versions of Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine (MSDE). The Microsoft Windows Server "Longhorn" and Microsoft Windows Vista operating systems will only support Microsoft SQL Server 2005 service pack (SP) 2 when it becomes available. Vendors bundling MSDE with applications are advised to upgrade to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) with SP2.

Oracle to Acquire Stellent for Content Management
Oracle and Stellent announced an agreement for Oracle to acquire Stellent for $440 million in cash. Stellent's Universal Content Management product works with Oracle Content Database and the acquisition is expected to boost Oracle's content management solution portfolio. Stellent second quarter fiscal 2007 revenues increased 12% over FY 2006 to $33.7 million, with net income increasing 139% from FY2006.

CA ERWin Certification for ObjectRiver Master Data Management
According to ObjectRiver, CA, Inc. has certified the latest release of its Master Data Management solutions for interoperability with CA AllFusion ERWin Data Modeler r7. ERWin is a entity-relationship modeling tool that simplifies database design and creation of data warehouses. ObjectRiver Master Data Management generates a data access layer, and when integrated with AllFusion ERWin Data Modeler, assists users in generating a data dictionary. It provides a capability of using Java interfaces instead of SQL in migrating to service-oriented architectures and web services.

IP2Location Announces Update to IP Location Database
IP2Location announced the November 2006 edition of its geographic location database. The database provides matching of Internet IP addresses to geographic locations. Given an IP address, Ip2Location provides the country, region, state, city, latitude, longitude, ZIP code, Internet service provider (ISP) and domain name of the Internet user. Because the service is available in real-time, it enables web applications to customize content, balance server loads, display native languages and detect fraud. The database contains more than 3 million IP address records.

U.S. Navy Selects ANTs and IBM Team for In-Memory Database Technology
IBM and ANTs software, inc. announced their selection to provide software for mission-critical electronic and combat systems for the U.S. Navy's DDG 1000 program. Prime systems integrator Raytheon announced the DDG 1000 program will use a modular architecture based on open standards. Raytheon evaluated several in-memory database products, including Oracle Times Ten, before selecting the ANTs Data Server. IBM does not offer an in-memory database product but IBM DB2 pioneer Don Haderle has taken a key role with ANTs software that included establishing a strategic alliance with IBM.

Oracle Announces E-Business Suite 12 and Enterprise Linux Support
Extending its commitment to open source computing, Oracle announced an enterprise class support program called Unbreakable Linux. The program will be comparable to Oracle support for its databases, middleware and applications and it will include bug fixes to previous Linux releases. Oracle is throwing down a gauntlet by modifying a Red Hat distribution of Linux and undercutting Red Hat's prices for support. Intel, Dell and Hewlett Packard have signed on as partners for the Oracle Unbreakable Linux program. Oracle will offer Enterprise Linux binaries for free. The OracleWorld conference in San Francisco also previewed Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, which includes a web services repository.

MySQL Enterprise Includes Automated Monitoring and Tuning
MySQL AB introduced a new version of its commercial subscription service for enterprise computing customers. MySQL Enterprise includes technology to automate database monitoring and support self-tuning production databases. MySQL Enterprise simplifies database administration by automating tasks such as performance tuning and troubleshooting. It includes MySQL Enterprise Server, Network Monitoring and Advisory Services and 24x7 Production Support. MySQL Enterprise is available for 11 platforms, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris and Macintosh OS X.

IBM Unveils Information Server Platform
At the Information on Demand conference, IBM unveiled its new Information Server as a solution for data integration and aggregation. Information Server bundles the DB2 database, WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere DataStage, Federation Server, Metadata Server, Quality Stage, Replication Server and Data Event Publisher. It combines software from IBM acquisitions of Ascential, Venetica, Unicorn and CrossAccess with technologies from IBM software labs. IBM expects Information Server to be a foundation for service-oriented architectures. It can be deployed as server blades in organizations using computing grid and building information grids.

Oracle Releases Quarterly Security Patch Release
Oracle released patches in a quarterly update that fixes security vulnerabilities, including a number of SQL injection and buffer overflow problems. The updates fix 100 vulnerabilities in Oracle's Application Server, Application Express, Database Server, E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications. Nearly 2/3 (63) of the vulnerabilities are related to Oracle database software (servers and application express). The risk matrices Oracle publishes for each product now include Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) ratings.

Upswing in Adoption of DataDirect Shadow for SOA and Mainframe Integration
DataDirect Technologies announced an increase in customers using its software to enable mainframe applications to consume Web services. The Shadow z/Services™ WsC Web Services Consumption tool is included in the DataDirect Shadow RTE™ suite that integrates with mainframe databases and applications. The DataDirect Shadow product provides bi-directional support (Web services consumer and provider) for mainframes and supports Web services security standards.

Pillar Data Systems and Oracle Announce Storage Grid
Pillar Data Systems, an enterprise network storage vendor, and Oracle announced the availability of the Pillar Axiom™ storage system with the Oracle® Database 10g Accelerator. The combination provides a storage grid with simplified administration for Oracle DBAs. The accelerator program guides users through a process of defining business and IT requirements in order to partition databases, separating objects into separate tiers of storage to optimize performance. The Pillar Axiom system blends storage area network (SAN) and network addressable storage (NAS) technology.

Sybase iAnywhere Ships Advantage Database Server 8.1
Sybase iAnywhere announced an updated Advantage Database Server is shipping. The Advantage Database Server 8.1 includes SQL performance improvements and improved user defined functions (UDFs) and TCP/IP support. It's an embedded client/server database management system that provides both keyed ISAM and SQL access to data. Release 8.1 also adds vertical filtering to control which columns of tables are replicated. The product has been in development for 15 years, with 3 million deployed seats globally. The company recently announced support for Borland's new Turbo Pro products for Windows and .NET development.

EMC Extends Documentum to Integrate Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and SharePoint
Microsoft and EMC have formed a content management alliance that will lead to the integration of Microsoft products with the EMC Documentum platform. The alliance will integrate Microsoft Office 2007, SQL Server 2005 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 with EMC Documentum content management software. The integration will permit archiving SharePoint repositories to a Documentum repository while preserving the ability to search content from SharePoint.

Quest Software Announces Expanded Freeware Version of Toads for DB2
Quest Software announced two milestones for Toad for DB2. Quest has released a new expanded freeware version of Toad for DB2. It also has partnered with IBM for bundling Toad for DB2 and IBM DB2 Express-C in the DB2 Developer in a Box freeware. Quest reported the freeware version of Toad for DB2 has 500,000 users worldwide. Toad for DB2 freeware includes Toad Project Manager and an enhanced data grid that has no limit to the number of rows displayed. Download DB2 Developer in a Box.

Sybase IQ Accrues Recognition and Revenue Increase
Gartner Research has positioned Sybase IQ in the challengers quadrant of its 2006 Data Warehouse DBMS Magic Quadrant report. Recognition by Gartner follows a 34% increase of Sybase IQ license revenues for 2005. Unlike traditional online transaction processing (OLTP) databases, a Sybase IQ database is optimized for analytics using column-vectored data storage. It supports fast query performance without using query governors for complexity, amount of data or concurrent users. Sybase IQ has been a TPC-H price performance leader for 100GB and 300 GB databases.

Oracle Announces Berkeley DB Release 4.5
In announcing a Berkeley DB upgrade, Oracle has firmed up its commitment to an open source software strategy. Berkeley DB Release 4.5 adds a framework for replication and HA systems, non-stop upgrades, and a multi-versioning solution for concurrency control. Berkeley DB is an in-process C library, a DBMS that's embeddable in applications. It stores data in key value pairs and support multiple processes per application with multiple threads per process. Languages supported include C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, PHP, Tcl, and Ruby.

Hitachi Unveils Entier Embedded Database Manager
At the Embedded Systems Conference 2006, Hitachi unveiled the Entier DBMS for embedding in applications. Because Entier has a small memory footprint (under a megabyte), it's suitable for mobile devices, televisions, GPS devices and phones. The Entier SDK runs on Windows XP Pro and Windows 2000 Pro platforms. Entier includes extensions for spatial, contextual and incremental text searches. For GPS applications, Entier uses R-tree indexing to support spatial searches.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Beta Tools for Visual Studio 2005
Microsoft has released a service pack (SP1) for Visual Studio developers using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition. The new tools for Visual Studio 2005 complement the Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta smart device development components with a design time environment. SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition is a platform for developers needing an in-process SQL database engine for desktop and mobile
applications.

Grid Computing Data Access and Integration Specifications Published
The Open Grid Forum DAIS Working Group announced three new specifications have been published a Provisional Recommendations. The specifications represent four years of effort to define standardized interfaces for service-based access to databases. The new specifications are GFD.74: The Core (WS-DAI) Specification, Version 1.0, GFD.75: The XML Realization (WS-DAIX) Specification, Version 1.0 and GFD.76: The Relational Realization (WS-DAIR) Specification, Version 1.0.

Oracle® Application Express Release 2.2 Announced
Oracle Application Express (APEX) Release 2.2, a tool for building and deploying web applications, is now available as a free download from Oracle. APEX enables developers to package applications and dependent objects into a single file. This packaging provides portability because applications install seamlessly in Oracle databases. APEX is a web-based development tool integrated with all editions of Oracle Database 10g and Oracle 9i Database Release 2. It includes an Item Finder Search Tool for locating items, pages, queries, tables or PL/SQL objects within the pages of an application.

Security Vulnerability Detected in DB2 Client-Server Protocol (DRDA)
Imperva Application Defense Center (ADC) uncovered a critical client-server protocol security vulnerability in IBM DB2 version 8. The DRDA flaw enables an attacker to take down a server without leaving traces in the auditing mechanisms of the database server. An attacker can use incomplete DRDA messages during a client session to terminate the server's DB2 main process. IBM has provided a patch in a DB2 FixPack.

Revelation Software Releases Driver for Real-Time Mirroring
Revelation Software updated its network product suite with the release of Universal Driver Heavy (UDH) version 3.1. UDH 3.1 is client/server software that supports the mirroring of Revelation Linear Hash Data in real time. Available for Windows platforms only, UDH is designed to handle applications that scale up with high availability.

Oracle to Add Real-Time Predictive Analytics Technology
Oracle announced the acquisition of the intellectual property assets of Sigma Dynamics. The company will use Sigma Dynamics' real-time predictive analytics technology in Oracle Business Intelligence Suite and Oracle Fusion Middleware products. The Sigma Dynamics software combines business requirements and customer insight to make recommendations. Applications include offer management, field service optimization, fraud detection and predictive call routing.

Timeline Severs Patent Licensing for SQL Server and Launches Legal Battle with Microsoft
Timeline and Microsoft could be headed to court over a patent infringement dispute. In 1999, Microsoft licensed Timeline technology for creating OLAP databases for SQL Server. Timeline terminated that limited license agreement. Timeline is involved in litigation with ProClarity over patent infringement and it has filed a motion to add Microsoft as a defendant in that case. Timeline licenses its technology to Oracle, Cognos and Hyperion.

DB2 Denial of Service Vulnerabilities Found
Secunia reports IBM DB2 version 8.x is vulnerable to two exploits that can be used to launch denial of service attacks. One threat is from unspecified errors during CONNECT/ATTACH processing. A second is related to an unspecified error after CONNECT processing. IBM recommends updating to DB2 version 8 FixPak 13.

MySQL Database Creation Security Vulnerabilities
FrSIRT reports to MySQL vulnerabilities can be exploited by malicious users to bypass security restrictions. The first problem is due to an error when creating MySQL databases. On case-sensitive file systems, a user can create arbitrary databases using case variants of a database name for which he has permissions. A second threat comes from a malicious user with EXECUTE privileges. An error results from calculating suid routine arguments in an incorrect security context, enabling the malicious user to execute arbitrary DML statements with the privileges of the user who defined the routine. The problems affects MySQL 4.1.20 and prior, 5.0.24 and prior and 5.1.11 and prior. The solution is to upgrade to MySQL 4.1.21, 5.0.25 or 5.1.12.

EnterpriseDB Announces Advanced Server 8.1 Release 2
At LinuxWorld, EnterpriseDB announced the general availability of EnterpriseDB Advanced Server 8.1 Release 2. The new release features new security enhancements, new developer and DBA tools, XML support, automatic tuning, and automated migration of data and business logic from Oracle to EnterpriseDB. EnterpriseDB Developer Studio now has the capability of browsing Oracle, PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB databases. The company also announced availability of EnterpriseDB Network and EnterpriseDB Replication Server.

Coral8 Partners with TIBCO to Provide Real-Time Complex Event Processing
Coral8, Inc. and TIBCO Software announced Coral8 and TIBCO will work together to provide complex event processing solutions. Coral8 will support real-time processing using TIBCO Enterprise Message Service and TIBCO Rendezvous. Coral8 adapters for TIBCO EMS and TIBCO Rendezvous are available now and they are include in the Coral8 Developer Edition. The Coral8 engine combines an SQL-based language (CCL) with a continuous processing architecture.

Vista Software Announces First Fully-Managed Embedded DBMS for .NET
The release of the VistaDB 3.0 Community Technology Preview marks the availability of the first fully- managed SQL database engine designed for the Microsoft .NET Framework, Compact Framework, Windows Vista and Mono. The .NET developer community can use VistaDB3 to build 100% managed WinForms and ASP.NET database applications for desktops, mobile devices and web servers. Vista Software CEO noted that VistaDB 3.0 is not a port of the VistaDB 2.x code base, but a re-design to exploit the features of the Visual C# language and the classes in the .NET Framework.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Sets New Decision Support Query Record for 100 GB Database
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 has set a new record for (decision support) TPC-H query processing for 100 gigabyte (100 GB) databases. Using a Dell PowerEdge server, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (x64) achieved record-breaking performance of 16,320 composite queries per hour (16,320 QphH@100GB) with a price-performance ratio of $13.40/QphH@100GB. The Dell PowerEdge 6800 server used an Intel Xeon MP 3.4 GHz (four processors, eight cores), 16 MB RAM and Microsoft Windows 2003 Enterprise x64 edition.

Pervasive Withdraws from Open Source Database Support Market
Hoping to emulate the success of MySQL and Red Hat, Pervasive announced in January 2005 it was going into the open source database support business. Pervasive jumped in to offer PostgreSQL support for high-end databases and enterprise computing. In announcing withdrawal from that market, Pervasive pointed to commoditization within the database market. Pervasive CEO John Farr also noted the opportunity to meaningfully increase PostgreSQL adoption was "quite limited".

DB2 Viper Test Drive Ends and IBM Releases Free DB2 Edition
As the test drive period for IBM DB2 Viper ended, IBM announced the availability of a free edition of DB2 UDB version 9. DB2 Express-C 9 is free for development and deployment. It is freely distributable with applications and there are no limitations on database size. DB2 9 is available for 32- and 64-bit Linux and Microsoft Windows platforms. A version for Windows XP Home edition will be available soon. Download.

SecureWorks Finds Surge of SQL Injection Attacks against Utilities and Financial Institutions
SecureWorks reported a 40-fold increase in three months in SQL injection attacks against its bank, credit union and utility clients. CTO Jon Ramsey reported that from January to March 2006, SecureWorks was detecting 100-200 SQL injection attacks per day. By April, that number had risen to 8000 per day. Ramsey pointed out they are targeted attacks and most of them originate outside the United States. An SQL injection attack is the use of malicious SQL statement input to compromise or crash a computer, or compromise or steal information from a database. SecureWorks suggests 24x7 monitoring with a Network Intrusion Prevention System or Host Intrusion Prevention System.

REAL Software Ships REAL SQL Server
Software vendor REAL Software, makers of REALbasic, announced the release of a cross-platform multi-user SQL server. REAL SQL Server is derived from the SQLite database engine and it's designed for REALbasic users. It provides an upgrade path for users of the built-in REALbasic database engine. It's available for Windows, Macintosh OS X and Linux users with a recommended 512K of available RAM.
Download.

Oracle Repairs Security Holes with 65 Fixes in Critical Patch Update
The July 2006 Oracle Critical Patch Update includes 60+ fixes related to security problems with Oracle software. The update includes 23 patches for the Oracle database server, four for database clients, 10 for Oracle Application Server, 20 for Oracle E-Business Suite, four for Oracle Enterprise Manager, two in PeopleSoft Enterprise, one in HD Edwards HTTP Server and one in Oracle Collaboration Suite. The next Critical Patch Update will be October 17, 2006.

Cognetic Systems Unveils XQuantum XML Database Server
Cognetic Systems rolled out XQuantum 1.0, an XML database and information server that supports W3C XML Query (XQuery) with full-text extensions. XQuantum integrates XQuery with Internet standards including HTML, XML and XSLT. It includes an XQuery Server Page scripting language that enables users to link HTML forms to searches written in XQuery. The product ships with Java, C++, C# and Visual Basic programming examples. XQuantum runs on Red Hat Linux and Microsoft Windows 200x Server platforms. A single-user developer edition of XQuantum is available for $649.

Sybase ASE 15 Sets New Linux Transaction Processing Record
Sybase and IBM announced a configuration including Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) version 15 and IBM System p5 520 with Linux set a new record for two-core systems transaction processing performance. The combination recorded 81,439 transactions per minute (tpmC) on the Transaction Processing Council's TPC-C benchmark. Previous record holders include a 2-core HP Itanium 2 and Oracle 10g for Linux and an HP Opteron with Microsoft SQL Server.

EDS Team Selected for U.S. Army Information Technology Contract
EDS announced the U.S. Army has selected its team for the Information Technology Enterprise Solutions -2 Services (ITES-2S) contract. The team composing the EDS Agility Alliance has 65 companies, including Cisco, Dell, EMC, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Towers Perrin, and Xerox. The Defense Department and federal agencies can use the ITES-2S contract to purchase products and IT services such as information security, business process re-engineering, and network support.

Microsoft Releases Free JDBC Driver for SQL Server 2005
Microsoft has released a Community Technology Preview (CTP) version of the JDBC driver for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000. The SQL Server JDBC Driver 1.1, a Type 4 JDBC driver, is available for download for all SQL Server users with no charge.

Ruby on Rails Starter Kit for DB2
IBM alphaWorks has released version 1.1 of the Starter Toolkit for DB2 on Rails. It provides a packaged set of products for developers getting started with Ruby and Rails. The toolkit includes DB2 Express - C, a DB2 Adapter for Rails, a DB2 driver for Rails, and a free to develop and deploy data server. The DB2 on Rails Starter Kit runs on Windows and Linux platforms. The toolkit is not a trial version and there is no expiration date.

GeoServer 1.3.2 Arrives
The GeoServer Project announced the release of GeoServer 1.3.2. GeoServer is an open source server for geospatial information, connecting web clients to a variety of files and spatial databases. GeoServer is capable of operating with geospatial databases containing millions of rows. It supports PostGIS, ArcSDE, MySQL, Oracle Spatial, DB2, and Shapefiles. Recent improvements to GeoTools 2.2 offload the majority of spatial processing to the database server. The GeoServer download is available at http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Latest.

Oracle Acquisition Wave Continues with Portal Software
Oracle announced the completion of its acquisition of Portal Software, Inc., with Portal Software becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle. Portal Software provides billing and revenue management solutions for the global communications and media markets. The company delivers a platform for end-to-end management of customer revenue across offerings, channels, and geographies.

EMC to Acquire RSA Security
Storage vendor EMC has completed a definitive agreement to acquire RSA Security, a leader provider of encryption and key management technology. The aggregate purchase price is approximately $2.1 billion, with EMC paying $28 per share for RSA stock. The expected time for completion of the acquisition Q3 or Q4 2006. EMC plans to tightly integrate RSA's security products with its information and storage solutions.

DataMirror Unveils iCluster 4.0
DataMirror iCluster 4.0 is a high availability solution for applications running in an IBM iSeries environment. iCluster mirrors DB2 application data in real time from a primary system to one or more secondary systems. The secondary system is available for read-only applications, backups and queries. iCluster uses MatchMerge technology to ensure insertions, modifications or deletions made to a data store are synchronized with object transactions and mirrored to the backup system.

Coral8 Launches Version 4.0 of Complex Event Processing Engine
Coral8, a new vendor of complex event processing (CEP) software, announced version 4.0 of its Complex Event Processing Engine. Coral8 combines a high-performance stream processing architecture with an SQL-based programming language (Coral8 Continuous Computation Language). The product includes a visual development environment (Coral8 Studio) and an enterprise-class server that provides failover, cluster support, SNMP support and secure SSL support. Coral8 has reportedly processed more than a million messages per second in a
single system.

Research Study Finds Grid Adoption Increase and SOA Awareness Problem
The Fourth Oracle Grid Index report by Quocirca found a global increase in grid computing adoption, with the Asia Pacific region making the greatest gain (from 4.9 to 5.3). The index for the United States was the highest among all regions, but it was unchanged (6.1) from the previous survey in November 2005. The global grid index increased from 5.2 to 5.4. 70% of the organizations surveyed indicate they are using grid computing in some capacity. The survey also found 76% of IT respondents were familiar with service-oriented architecture (SOA), but 55% of business respondents were not. 52% of respondents are in the process of moving to SOA.

StreamBase Processes 500,000 Financial Messages Per Second, Announces Event Persistence Roadmap
StreamBase Systems reported a real-time financial messaging benchmark demonstrated StreamBase can process and analyze 500,000 messages per second on a single AMD Opteron CPU. It announced the benchmarks in conjunction with the StreamBase Event Persistence roadmap. The roadmap includes run-time compilation with StreamOptimizer and being able to query terabytes of data using StreamSQL. StreamBase integrates with IBM WebSphere and DB2 database. The company reports StreamBase Chronicle can query 1.9 billion rows of trade data in less than a minute.

Open Source ERP Company Compiere Receives Funding for Expansion
Compiere, a provider of open source business applications founded in 1999, has secured its first infusion of venture capital. New Enterprise Associates has provided $6 million to enable Compiere to relocate its corporate headquarters and expand its global partner network. The target market for the Compiere ERP and CRM suite includes small to medium-sized enterprises. There have been more than 1 million downloads of Compiere software, which operates with Oracle databases on Linux, Unix, Solaris, Macintosh and Windows platforms.

IBM and Georgia Tech Develop 500 GHz SiGe Chip
Researchers at IBM and the Georgia Institute of Technology announced development of a 500 GHz chip using silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology. The researchers attained the 500 billion cycles per second milestone by using cryogenics, lowering the chip to 451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (4.5 Kelvins). 500 GHz is approximately 250 times faster than processors in cell phones. At room temperatures, the silicon-germanium (SiGe) chips operate at 350 GHz. Computer simulations suggest silicon-germanium SiGe technology can attain operational frequencies near 1,000 GHz.

Sybase Replication Server 15 Arrives
Sybase, Inc. announced the general availability of Sybase® Replication Server® 15 and Sybase Replication Server Oracle Option 12.6. Sybase Replication Server synchronizes operational data across mixed database platforms. Replication Server Oracle Option provides log-based replication for Oracle environments. Sybase Replication Server 15 works in conjunction with Sybase PowerDesigner® to provide a model-driven approach to data replication, development and maintenance.

Demo by ANTs software, Tervela and HiT Software at Wall Street Conference
Attendees of the SIA Technology Management Conference & Exhibition in New York City viewed a demonstration of financial applications from ANTs software, Tervela and HiT Software. Using the ANTs Data Server, the Tervela messaging software "can persist message records, such as orders and market data, to disk at an unprecedented 250,000 database inserts per second" according to Barry Thompson, CTO of Tervela. HiT Software has integrated its Allora middleware to provide a high-performance XML data exchange solution.

SAS and Attunity Form Partnership For Technology Integration
Attunity, Ltd., a provider of integration software, and SAS, a provider of business intelligence software, have formed a partnership for sales, marketing and technology integration. The partnership will enable customers to use Attunity's change-data-capture (CDC) capabilities with SAS Data Integration products. SAS products are in use at 40,000 sites, including 96 of the Global 100. Attunity licenses software to IBM, HP and Oracle for inclusion in their products.

Oracle Reports 25% Growth in Revenue for Q4 2006
According to a preliminary report, Oracle's revenues for Q4 2006 exceeded management expectations by a wide margin. Fourth quarter GAAP revenues were $4.85 billion (a 25% increase), with earnings per share estimated to be $0.24. Oracle's new license revenues increased 32%, application license revenue grew by 56% and database technology license revenue increased 18%.

Microsoft SQL Server Everywhere CTP Arrives
During the TechEd 2006 conference, Microsoft announced the community technology preview of Microsoft SQL Server Everywhere Edition. The new SQL Server Everywhere Edition is a lightweight database engine that's embeddable in applications and mobile devices. The product requires 2 megabytes of disk space and it supports merge replications with data synchronization. Like SQL Server Express Edition, the product is a free download, distributable without license fees.

IBM DB2 Vulnerability to Buffer Overrun and Denial of Service
IBM DB2 UDB 8.x is vulnerable to buffer overrun problems from a malicious  connection request (CONNECT or ATTACH). This can corrupt memory and crash a server instance. The vulnerability affects DB2 UDB versions for Linux, Unix and Windows. Users can disable remote access to the database server or install a fix. IBM included the fix in IBM DB2 UDB 8.1 FixPak 12.

Lasso Professional Server Marries Web 2.0 Techniques and SQL Access
OmniPilot Software has released Lasso Professional Server 8.5, which provides multi-database connectivity and the Lasso scripting language. Lasso 8.5 supports Web 2.0 dynamic web page generation. It adds Lasso AJAX tags and a universal binary version for Intel-powered Macintosh computers. It supports ODBC, JDBC, LDAP, FileMaker, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, OpenBase SQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL and SQLite database connections.

Cargo Container Company Selects DataDirect Middleware for Customs Manifesting System
DataDirect Technologies announced Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has selected DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET for inclusion in its electronic customs manifesting system. Hong Kong-based OOCL is one of the world’s largest container transport and logistics companies. The system requires 24x7 operation to generate electronic customs documentation from a Sybase ASE database. OOCL has implemented electronic customs manifesting for ships traveling to Australia, and will soon update the system to handle cargo for the United States, Europe and Asia.

Oracle to Assist Grails Marriage of AJAX, Scripting and Java
Oracle announced participation in the open source Grails project that marries the Groovy scripting language with Java. The Grails development framework offers a dynamic language capability that can co-exist with Java in the same development project. The Grails framework includes components for simplifying development of database-power web applications.

Security Companies Report Surge of SQL Injection Attacks Against Financial Institutions
Atlanta-based security companies SecureWorks, SPI Dynamics and Internet Security Systems, Inc. report a dramatic rise in the incidence of SQL injection attacks against databases. SecureWorks reported 120,000 attacks in May 2006 against its 1,000 bank and credit union customers. That represents a 300% increase since March. The attackers, primarily based in Russia, increasingly extort banks and credit unions. SQL injection attacks use bogus SQL queries to gain access to confidential data or to take control of a computer.

Whitemarsh Information Systems Launches Data Interoperability Series
Mike Gorman, long-time member of the SQL standards committee, has created a new Data Interoperability Series. His company, Whitemarsh Information Systems, offers both seminars and workshops in the new series. The Data Interoperability Workshop runs five days.

Microsoft Targeting the BI Market with Office PerformancePoint Server
To expand its business intelligence product line, Microsoft has announced Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. The new product's focus is performance management, with support for analytics, planning and business scorecarding. PerformancePoint Server will include analytic and visualization technologies from ProClarity, which Microsoft recently acquired. PerformancePoint Server includes provides an integrated solution for scorecarding, analytics, budgeting, consolidation, forecasting, planning and financial reporting. It integrates with Excel, Outlook, SharePoint and SQL Server 2005.

HP Lowers Fault-Tolerant Server Pricing for NonStop SQL Users
Hewlett-Packard is hoping NonStop SQL databases and NonStop servers can regain their former dominance among users of fault-tolerant computer systems. HP has created a new NonStop Server that uses Intel 1.3GHz Madison processors and NonStop ServerNet interconnect for four nodes. The single system image can scale out to 2048 processors, with 8GB RAM per processor socket.

Comments Solicited on History Facility Proposed for SQL Standard
History is proposed as a new part of the SQL standard. It is now a Committee Draft and will be voted on by the end of August. Mike Gorman summarizes his concerns as "In short, the document restricts the capture of history to merely whole rows of tables within one database of a single DBMS on a single instance of hardware under a single operating system." We join Mike in encourage readers to read the History draft and contribute to the review process. Download ANSI SQL History draft (ZIP format).

Fix for PostgreSQL SQL Injection Vulnerability Can Break Applications
Open source community developers released fixes for a PostgreSQL SQL injection vulnerability in web-facing databases. Applications that deal with un-sanitized strings are vulnerable, particularly those using a Far Eastern multi-byte encoding (SJIS, BIG5, GBK, GB18030, and UHC). PostgreSQL minor versions 8.1.4, 8.0.8, 7.4.13 and 7.3.15 include a security patch, but the patch may break some applications.

Oracle PL/SQL Export Extensions SQL Injection Vulnerability
The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) reports an Oracle PL/SQL Export Extensions vulnerability may allow an attacker to modify privileged information. DBAs and developers who write Oracle extensions use the DBMS_EXPORT_EXTENSION package to import and export information within an Oracle database. Users can create plug-in index types using the ODCIIndex Interface and the ODCIIndexGetMetadata method. The DBMS_EXPORT_EXTENSION package does not sanitize the user input to ODCIIndexGetMetadata, which enables an attacker to execute SQL statements with SYSDBA privilege.

MySQL Security Vulnerabilities Exposed
A Debian security advisory reported several MySQL security problems. The The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project identified four vulnerabilities. CVE-2006-0903, improper handling of queries containing the NULL character, allows users to bypass logging. CVE-2006-1516, improperly formed user names, allows attackers to read memory. CVE-2006-1517, incorrect packet length, permits attackers to obtain sensitive information. CVE-2006-1518 and CERT VU#602457 refers to a vulnerability from improper validation of user-controlled parameters in COM_TABLE_DUMP packets. Specially crafted packets can cause a buffer overflow and allow the execution of arbitrary code.

IBM and SAP Partner for mySAP All-in-One in U.S.
IBM and SAP announced a partnership to pursue the small and midsize enterprise (SME) market. IBM Global Solutions will be a reseller of mySAP All-in-One solutions, with assistance from IBM Business Partners. The new agreement will enable the partners to pursue opportunities in life sciences, construction, food and beverage distribution, wholesale distribution and industrial machinery.

Sybase iAnywhere Adaptive Server Anywhere Attains EAL3 Security Certification
Sybase iAnywhere announced a security certification milestone for the Adaptive Server Anywhere® database within SQL Anywhere® 9.0.1 and 9.0.2. Testing by an accredited laboratory revealed the Adaptive Server Anywhere database exceeds requirements for Evaluation Assurance Level 3 (EAL3) certification. EAL3 certification means the database complies with the Common Criteria certification standard of a joint activity of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA).

Adobe Announces Fix for Dreamweaver SQL Injection Vulnerability
Adobe released an advisory about a Macromedia Dreamweaver SQL injection vulnerability. Code generated by Dreamweaver 8.0.2 and earlier versions is vulnerable, for Windows and Macintosh users. It affects ColdFusion, PHP MySQL, ASP, ASP.NET and JSP server models. The generated code does not validate input so an attacker could use malicious SQL statements to gain control of a machine. Adobe has provided an update for Dreamweaver 8 and instructions for code generated using Dreamweaver MX 2004.

CDB Software and DBI Announce Partnership for Database Accountability
CDB Software and Database-Brothers, Inc. (DBI) announced a strategic alliance to enhance enterprise accountability. The companies will update CDB/Audit, a reporting tool for database auditing, to track information about web access to databases. CDB offers accountability solutions for DB2 z/OS and DBI provides solutions for Oracle and DB2 on Linux, Unix and Windows. The new software will identify the actual end user connecting to DB2 through DB2Connect and web applications.

Ventana Research Reports Gains in Open Source Business Intelligence (BI)
A new report from Ventana Research notes an increase in the adoption of open source software for business intelligence (BI). Based on a survey of 320 organizations, the report indicates deployments of open source BI have been successful. The survey also found more than 80% of respondents have deployed or are planning open source BI applications.

Gartner Research Cites Oracle Siebel CRM Application in 2006 Field Service Report
Gartner Research has positioned Oracle's Siebel CRM Application in the Leader Quadrant of the 2006 Gartner Field Service Management (FMS) Magic Quadrant. Gartner produces Magic Quadrant reports to permit comparison of products with features desired for a specific marketplace. Gartner selections for the Leader Quadrant "demonstrate field service management market strength and have the ability to affect market trends in all the categories of criteria on which they are evaluated". Siebel Field Service capabilities include wireless connectivity, problem resolution, schedule optimization, shipping, receiving, depot repair, inventory management and invoicing functionality. (Download the complete Gartner report.)

CA Releases AllFusion Modeling Suite r7
CA released AllFusion Modeling Suite r7, a new version that includes a patented generalized data modeling (GDM) engine. The GDM engine is embedded in the ERwin Data Modeler, in part to deliver data model consistency. Besides AllFusion ERwin Data Modeler, the AllFusion product suite includes AllFusion Model Manager and AllFusion Data Model Validator. The r7 release includes a capability to do a compare and analyze the effect of database design changes. AllFusion Modeling Suite r7 supports DB2 iSeries, DB2 for Linux, Unix, and Windows, DB2 for z/OS, Informix, Ingres, Microsoft SQL Server, ODBC (generic), Oracle 10g/9i, PROGRESS, Red Brick Warehouse, SAS, Sybase and Teradata.

Tier-3 To Release Huntsman 4.5
Security vendor Tier-3 announced version 4.5 of Huntsman, a threat management system. Huntsman can detect known and unknown threats using the Behavioral Anomaly Detection (BAD) system. It maintains a repository of rules and policies in an SQL database managed by IBM DB2, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL. Huntsman runs on AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris and Windows. Tier-3 will participate in the AusCERT Asia Pacific Information Technology Security Conference (21-26 May, Gold Coast, Australia).

Sybase Revenues Increase in Q1 2006, Mobile and Wireless Growth Reaches 30%
Sybase reported Q1 2006 license revenue increased 7% over the first quarter of 2005. Q1 2006 license revenue was $66.9 million, compared with $62.7 million in 2005. Total quarterly revenues increased 2% to $195 million. In the mobile marketplace, Sybase introduced RFID Enterprise 2.0. It also integrated RFID Anywhere 2.0 with SAP's Auto-ID infrastructure.

IDC Reports Oracle, IBM and Microsoft Hold 82.8% Share as Database Market Expands
IDC reported the worldwide market for relational DBMS increased by 9.4% in 2005. The total market was $14.6, with the top 5 vendors holding the same position in 2004. Oracle had 44.6% of the market, followed by IBM at 21.4% and Microsoft with 16.8%. The combined market share of Oracle, IBM and Microsoft was 82.8% of the market in 2005. The fourth and fifth positions were Sybase (3.5%) and NCR Teradata (2.9%), respectively. IDC noted the open source MySQL DBMS has attracted developers and "could ultimately spur a change in the way RDBMS products are priced and licensed."

Gartner Reports Linux, SQL Server and Mainframes Mark Growth in Database Market
An annual survey by Gartner Research reported the 2005 relational database market expanded 8.3% to $13.8 billion. The strongest growth in adoption, not revenue,  occurred in the open source DBMS category that includes MySQL, PostgreSQL and Ingres. In terms of total software revenue, the top 5 vendors represented 92% of the market. Oracle had 48.6% of the market, IBM had 22% and Microsoft had 15% of the market. Linux platforms had 84% growth and the growth of mainframe platforms was greater than Unix. Among commercial SQL products, Microsoft experienced 16.6% growth and Oracle had 7.8% growth.

Idera Announces SQL Server Monitoring Software for Mobile Devices
Idera announced SQL Server monitoring software that is accessible from Windows mobile devices, such as PDAs and phones. SQL mobile manager 2.3 is compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 databases. It provides real time information, including alerts and performance metrics, that enable database administrators (DBAs) to diagnose problems and respond quickly, regardless of
location.

SilverStorm Announces RDS over InfiniBand Solution for Oracle Real Application Clusters
High-performance interconnect solutions from SilverStorm Technologies are in use by customers listed among the top 500 supercomputer sites. It's no surprise Oracle has teamed with SilverStorm to develop a Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) InfiniBand interconnect solution for Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC). RDS over InfiniBand is a high-bandwidth, low-latency transport system that provides IPC communication between RAC nodes. InfiniBand technology enables organizations to create high performance clusters using commodity servers and storage. The new RDS over InfiniBand solution includes Oracle 10g release 2, Oracle Real Application Clusters with RDS and SilverStorm QuickSilver 3.2 for Linux.

Microsoft Releases Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2005
Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft SQL Server 2005, a few months after the initial product release. SP1 adds database mirroring capability, updates to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and a new SQL Server Management Studio Express. Microsoft has plans to do a product release every 24 to 36 months, with an upcoming release to provide continuous availability. Database mirroring complements Always On Technologies such as failover clustering and database snapshots. Microsoft tested mirroring with 20 customers before including it in SP1.

Microsoft Unveils SQL Server Everywhere for Mobile Devices
Microsoft is readying SQL Server Everywhere, a lightweight edition of SQL Server for embedded and mobile users. SQL Server Everywhere will run on all versions of Windows, including 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. It can be embedded in applications and exchange data with servers running SQL Server. Microsoft will have a common programming model across all versions of SQL Server, including SQL Server Everywhere. Microsoft will ship the first community technology preview of SQL Server Everywhere Edition this summer and it expects to ship the final release by year's end.

Oracle Releases Berkeley DB Java Edition 3.0
Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition Release 3.0, which includes a new persistence application programming interface (API). Berkeley DB Java Edition is a pure Java embeddable database that provides in-memory operation and deferred writes. The Persistence API adds a Plain Old Java Object (POJO) object storage model. Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition is available without cost for use in open source applications.

Microsoft Teams with SlaterLabs to Build Banking System
Microsoft and SlaterLabs, a US-based consultancy, are working together to develop a core banking system. The system, known as The Etude Programme, will be based on Windows, the .NET framework, SQL Server, BizTalk Server, and Visual Studio .NET. Initial deployments of The Etude Programme will be at European banks.

Quest Software Announces Application Advantage
Quest Software announced it will release Application Advantage during 2006. Application Advantage includes a suite of products for managing change through the complete application management lifecycle. The phased rollout of Application Advantage will start with Foglight® Experience View, which captures and replays user sessions. Quest is also updating its tools that monitor .NET and SAP performance, as well as tools for Oracle, DB2, SQL Server and MySQL. Quest will also release a product code-named Zanzibar, which automates the application deployment process and compares changes details with changes in performance. Application Advantage will also include tools that provide better correlation of end-users, Web sessions and performance.

Oracle to Acquire Supply-Chain Software Maker Demantra
Oracle has been boosting its application software product line with a wave of acquisitions. Oracle's latest acquisition is Demantra, a marketing and supply-chain planning software company. Demantra has been growing and moved to an expanded headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts in 2003. Demantra customers include consumer goods, pharmaceutical and industrial companies.

Microsoft Releases Beta of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) Technology
Microsoft has released a Community Technology preview of Language Integrated Query (LINQ). LINQ is an enhancement to the .NET framework that enables developers formulate queries using a programming language instead of a query language such as SQL or XQuery.

Sun Announces Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5
Sun announced the Java Community Process has approved the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5) specification. The new release includes 23 JSR-related technologies and specifications, including seven web services JSRs, six component model JSRs and three management technology JSRs. Java EE 5 builds on Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) and includes major changes to the programming model. The Sun Developer Network released the complete list of technologies in Java EE 5 and Sun will release the SDK during the JavaOne conference.

Business Objects Moves to SaaS and EII as Migrations Lag
Fewer than 10% of Business Objects customers have migrated to its flagship business intelligence suite (BusinessObjects XI), but the company experienced record growth in 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. This article discusses Business Objects' Enterprise Information Strategy, a move into software as a service (SaaS) and new reporting products.

Microsoft and Hyperion Partner for Integrated Business Intelligence
Microsoft and Hyperion Solutions, a leader in business performance management software, announced a partnership to integrate their business intelligence products. The companies will integrate Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services, Reporting Services and Analysis Services with Hyperion System 9 BI+. This will enable Hyperion users to access System 9 BI+ Essbase Analytics with SQL Server Reporting Services and display reports in the Hyperion Workspace. Microsoft users will be able to access SQL Server Analysis Services data using Hyperion System 9 BI+.

HP to Provide MySQL Services
At the MySQL Users Conference 2006, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and MySQL AB announced a services agreement. HP Services professionals will provide MySQL consulting, integration and support services. HP channel partners will sell MySQL Network subscription services starting in June 2006. MySQL will now be a part of the HP Open Source Integrated Portfolio, which includes open source middleware stacks.

Oracle PL/SQL Exploit for DBA Vulnerability Published
Security Focus has published a PL/SQL exploit, code that exploits a vulnerability with Oracle 10g. Execution of the code can grant administrator (DBA) privileges to malicious users. Oracle has released a Critical Patch Update for April that fixes 36 security flaws, including the privilege escalation vulnerability. The Oracle Security update also includes a risk matrix for the database, Oracle Application Server, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle E-Business Suite and Applications, Oracle Enterprise Manager and ERP software (PeopleSoft and JD Edwards).

Larry Ellison Reveals Oracle's Open Source and Linux Strategy
In a Financial Times interview, Larry Ellison revealed Oracle will pursue an aggressive open source strategy. Oracle has purchased open source database companies, embedded Apache web server, and plans to embed Linux in Oracle products. Ellison also sees software-as-a-service gaining traction, with subscription-based revenues driving an increase in Oracle profits. He also mentions Oracle is considering the acquisition of Novell, a Linux distributor.

IBM Launches Public Test Drive of DB2 Viper
IBM launched a public test drive of DB2 Viper, the next-generation database server that integrates SQL and XML. To address security concerns related to services-oriented architecture (SOA), IBM has added additional security features including Label Based Access Control (LBAC). Besides a column labeling capability, LBAC also provides row-level access control. DB2 Viper also supports the XML data type and queries with SQL, XQuery, and XPath. DB2 Viper also supports multiple database partitioning schemes. Download DB2 Viper

Microsoft Boosts Business Intelligence Capabilities with ProClarity Acquisition
Microsoft Corp. announced an agreement to acquire ProClarity Corporation, a software company that develops analysis and visualization software for business intelligence applications. The ProClarity software will fill in Microsoft’s business intelligence (BI) product line that includes Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 and several Microsoft Office products (Excel®, Office Business Scorecard Manager and SharePoint® Portal Server). ProClarity has been a long-time Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and it's principal product is ProClarity Analytics Server (PAS). The two companies share 1200 mutual customers. ProClarity will be wholly-owned by Microsoft but will remain in Boise, Idaho.

Study Compares Management Cost of Oracle 10g and Microsoft SQL Server 2005
An Edison Group report found the cost of managing Oracle 10g release 2 to be lower than Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The study found Oracle Database 10g has the advantage because typical DBA functions are 38 percent faster and require 30% fewer steps. The study also estimated using Oracle 10g, instead of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, will produce a cost saving up $31,664 per year due to increased DBA productivity. The recent study followed an earlier report comparing Oracle 10g release 2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Microsoft Business Solutions Releases SQL Server Reporting Services Report Packs
Eight Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services reports are available in a a report pack for Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains 8.0 and Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0. The reports work with the Fabrikam sample database and are modifiable using SQL Server Reporting Services Report Designer.

The Report Pack includes a Commissions Report, Customer Profitability Report, Inventory Value by Site Report, Item Quantity Back Order Report, Open Purchase Orders Report, Open Sales Orders Report, Work Center by Weeks - Employee Capacity Report and a Work Center by Weeks - Machine Capacity Report. Free download of SQL Server Reporting Services Report Packs.

Oracle Introduces Business Intelligence Suite
Oracle introduced Oracle® Business Intelligence Suite, an enterprise software product that's the fruit of a wave of Oracle acquisitions. Oracle Business Intelligence Suite combines Oracle's business intelligence (BI) middleware with Siebel Business Analytics, Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle's Siebel pre-built analytic applications. It delivers a powerful infrastructure for business intelligence, with historical, real-time and forward-looking capabilities.

Oracle Business Intelligence Suite is part of Oracle Fusion Middleware. It is available in three editions: an Enterprise Edition that integrates Siebel analytics, a Standard Edition and a small business edition planned for future release.

Microsoft Reorganizes Platforms & Services Division
In preparation for Windows Vista and Windows Live, Microsoft has re-structured its Platforms & Services Division (PSD). The new PSD will consist of eight groups: the Windows and Windows Live Group, Windows Live Platform Group, Online Business Group, the Market Expansion Group, Core Operating System Division. Windows Client Marketing Group, Developer and Platform Evangelism Group, and the Server and Tools Business Group. Senior Vice President Steven Sinofsky moves from the Office Group to manage the Windows and Windows Live Group. Senior Vice President Bob Muglia will head the Server and Tools Business Group. Jim Allchin, co-president of PSD, will retire in 2007.

Oracle Releases Graphical SQL Developer Tool
For decades Oracle developers and DBAs have been using SQL*Plus to create and operate on databases using a command-line mode of operation. Now Oracle has released a graphical tool, Oracle SQL Developer, for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. It will connect with Oracle 9.2 and later versions. Oracle SQL Developer is a free download from Oracle technology Network.

IDC Cites Quest as Top Vendor of Distributed Data Management Facilities Software
IDC named Quest Software as a market leader in a report titled Worldwide Data Management Facilities Software 2005-2009 Forecast and 2004 Vendor Shares. The report covers the distributed data management facilities (DMF) market for 2002-2009. The distributed DMF market segment includes products for databases running on UNIX, Linux and Windows platforms. IDC defines DMF products as those used to load, manage and optimize databases.

Introduction to OGSA and Grid Services (Webcast, April 26, 2006)
SQL developers and DBAs will increasingly work with databases powering web services and grid services, which share common technologies such as TCP/IP, XML messaging and WSDL. The Global Grid Forum (GGF) developed a specification for Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) based on those technologies. The GGF OGSA Working Group hosted a free webcast on Wednesday 26 April 2006 at 2:00 pm EDT. The webcast discussed the OGSA, the evolution of grid computing and how service-oriented grids fit into the enterprise. The presenter was Professor Andrew Grimshaw of the University of Virginia. Registration for "Defining the Grid: An Introduction to the Open Grid Services Architecture" is free.

MySQL to Contribute to the Eclipse Data Tools Platform
To coincide with EclipseCon 2006, MySQL AB announced it has joined the Eclipse Foundation as an Add-In Provider. MySQL will contribute to the Eclipse Data Tools Platform project and collaborate on the Eclipse PHP IDE project. The Eclipse Data Tools Platform will provide open source SQL tools for database developers using languages such as Java, C++, PHP and Python.

Aldon Suite Adds Database Change Management
Aldon, a leading provider of software configuration and change management software, has announced an upgrade to its Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) suite. Aldon has added a database change management capability for database from major vendors, including Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, and Sybase. The suite includes components to ensure data integrity and track database changes. A change request component enables users to monitor database projects and problems. A workflow component automates change management tasks and provides visibility on developer progress. A third component enables users to define configurations or releases that can be managed along with application code.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Adds .NET and Windows Server Support
Oracle has released an upgrade to Oracle Enterprise Manager that provides support for the Microsoft .NET framework and Windows Server System. The extensions enable Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control to diagnose and manage Microsoft servers, including Microsoft SQL Server, Commerce Server, BizTalk Server, Internet Security and Acceleration Server, Active Directory and Internet Information Services. The plug-ins are available for download at the Oracle Technology Network site.

Google Database Outage Hits Blogger Users
Google recently reported problems with the database cluster that supports Blogger. It said that changes made in an 18-hour period over 17-18 February, 2006 were not saved. Google suggested users copy the changes made to blog pages because they would be lost when blog pages are re-published.

Cross Site Scripting Vulnerabilities with ADOdb
ADOdb is a database abstraction library for PHP and Python. There are cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in ADOdb 4.71 and earlier versions that may allow an attacker to execute malicious client code using an Internet browser. The vulnerability occurs because it is possible to set the $this->curr_page variable to a user input value that has not been checked for validity. There are also input validation problems with performance scripts (adodb-perf.inc.php and perf-oci8.inc.php). A new release of ADOdb that fixes the cross-site scripting problem is available for download at SourceForge.

XQuery and Database Presentations at TheServerSide Java Symposium
From March 23-25, 2006, TheServerSide Java Symposium will run in Las Vegas. The conference will include Frank Cohen's presentation about native XML databases and Jason Hunter's presentation about XQuery for the Java Geek. Scott Ambler will also present a session about re-factoring database designs.

SQL Injection Vulnerability Mandates Patch for Oracle 9i and 10g
Security researchers have found SQL injection techniques can exploit a vulnerability in Oracle 9i and Oracle 10g. A fix for the problem (DB27, execute on sys.pbsde) is available with Oracle Critical Patch Update for October 2005. The patch update released 18 October 2005 includes 33 patches to the Oracle DBMS and 14 for Oracle Application Server.

IBM Launches Free DB2
IBM has announced a free version of DB2 UDB for Windows and Linux. DB2 Universal Database Express-C will run on dual-core processors and 64-bit servers. It is embeddable in commercial software without requiring royalties or licensing fees. It has no limitations on database size or the number of concurrent users. Minimum hardware requirements include 256 megabytes of RAM and 450 megabytes of free disk space for Linux, 350 megabytes for Windows (download).

SQL Server Growth Contributes to Microsoft Record Quarterly Revenue
Microsoft's revenue for the quarter ended ended December 31, 2005 was the largest quarterly revenue in the company's history. The $11.84 billion in quarterly revenue was a 9% increase over the same period in the prior year. Revenue for Server and Tools business line increased 14% over the prior year. SQL Server 2005 revenues increased 20%. Microsoft's annual revenue for fiscal year 2005 was $39.788 billion. For the second quarter of FY 2006, Microsoft forecasts 14% growth in Server and Tool Revenue, PC market growth of 14-15%, Windows Client Revenue increasing 8% to $3.46 billion.

London Planning Database Goes Live
A database for the Greater London Authority is now operational to permit web access to planning permissions. The system, developed by Creative Database Projects (CDP), will help to monitor the London development plan of Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London. The web site uses tools from MapInfo and Business Objects, in combination with spatial data in an Oracle database. Web site users can search for permissions (permits) by postal code, by locality or by using an interactive map.

Sybase to Release Open Source SQL DBMS in China
Raymond Yu, President of Sybase China, revealed that Sybase is considering releasing the source code for it DBMS to the Chinese market. He also noted that any decision to do so requires U.S. government approval due to export controls on software. China is currently the biggest revenue source for Sybase. Sybase has already released open source ebXML messaging software in China. It also offers its DBMS on Linux.

JNetDirect Releases Free JDBC Driver for Microsoft SQL Server 2005
JNetDirect is offering a free license for JSQLConnect 5.0, its JDBC driver for Microsoft SQL Server. JSQLConnect 5.0 supports connectivity with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and is backward-compatible with SQL Server 2000, 7.0 and 6.5. JNetDirect's JSQLConnect is a type-4 JDBC driver that provides database connections to Microsoft SQL Server products from Java, .JSP or J2EE applications. SQL Server magazine readers recently selected JSQLConnect 5.0 as the recipient of the Best Interoperability Tool Readers' Choice Award.

CONNX SQL Engine 10.0 Provides Enterprise Data Connectivity for UNIX and Linux Users
CONNX Solutions, Inc. announced release of CONNX 10, data access management and enterprise information integration software. CONNX 10 includes a Linux/UNIX implementation of the CONNX SQL Engine. The engine provides a single-server solution for access to relational and non-relational data sources. The CONNX SQL Engine includes a native JDBC driver and it also provides connectivity via ODBC, OLE DB and .NET data providers.

Firebird SQL Roadmap for 2006
Following a recent developer conference in Prague, the Firebird Project published a roadmap for 2006 and beyond. Firebird 2.0 included 82 improvements and bug fixes. Firebird 3.0 will merge Firebird 2.0 with the Vulcan code base, which includes fine-grained multi-threading, enhanced security. Target date for a beta version of Firebird 3.0 is the second quarter of 2006. Firebird 3.0 will likely include new built-in functions and several SQL-99 features, such as global temporary tables, external functions and recursive queries. Other high priority features include asynchronous statement cancellation, monitoring and caching of compiled statements.

Actual Technologies Ships ODBC Drivers for Intel-Based Macintosh
Actual Technologies, LLC announced the availability of an ODBC driver suite for Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. The Actual ODBC Driver Pack 2.0 packaging uses the Apple universal binary format to run natively on both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs. Actual provides a single installer that works for both the Intel and PowerPC-based Macintosh computers. The Actual ODBC Pack 2.0 include drivers for Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft Access.

Oracle Security Issues with Remote Scripts
Pete Finnegan warns of possible security issues related to executing scripts from remote locations. Oracle users running SQL*Plus can enter a URL to execute a remote script. This opens the door to vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting and DNS spoofing. Even databases located behind firewalls would be vulnerable to malicious scripts.

IBM Announces WebSphere Application Server Community Edition
IBM acquired Gluecode Software in May and has announced a new product that represents the payoff from that acquisition. WebSphere Application Server Community Edition is the evolution of software that was Gluecode Standard Edition, which includes the Apache Geronimo application server and the Apache Derby (IBM Cloudscape) DBMS. The WebSphere Application Server Community Edition is freely-downloadable.

Microsoft Ships Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, .NET Framework 2.0
Microsoft concluded testing and shipped several important products, making them available to MSDN subscribers. The products released to manufacturing included Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 includes full text search enhancements, Oracle to SQL Server replication, column level encryption, IPV6 support, secure HTTP data synchronization for mobile computing, tighter BI integration, XML type, XQuery, service broker, CLR integration and six editions, including a free Express edition. The .NET Framework 2.0 SDK and Redistributable Packages are available for download from Microsoft. Microsoft will also release a technology preview of Biztalk Server 2006.

IBM Boosts Enterprise Search with Information Integrator Plug-in for Google Desktop
IBM is extending the WebSphere Information Integrator product line with a plug-in that works with Google Desktop Search for Enterprise. The IBM WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition includes WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.1, DB2 and WebSphere Information Integration Content Edition.

Google to Add Web-Hosted Database
Google is set to launch a Google Base service that will create a massive database for "all types of content" available on the web. Google Base will host content and make it searchable for free. A Google Base web page provided examples of content that can reside in Google Base. The list included items for sale, protein structures, descriptions of commercial services and articles about current events. Webmasters and merchants can use a bulk upload capability to update Google Base. When you post an item to Google Base, you can include attributes to support searching.

Vista Software Releases VistaDB 2.1 Embedded SQL DBMS
Vista Software announced a free version 2.1 update to the VistaDB embedded SQL database engine for Microsoft .NET. The update includes over 60 enhancements, including improved .NET Provider support for Visual Studio .NET 2005, .NET 2.0 and .NET Compact Framework. VistaDB 2.1 includes a free 2-User VistaDB Server that extends the 500KB embedded engine to provide true client/server SQL database support. No royalties are required to distribute the embedded software or server.

Recent Reports of SQL Injection Vulnerabilities
More SQL injection vulnerabilities have been reported recently. For versatileBulletinBoard, there is a report of cross-site scripting and SQL injection vulnerabilities. There is also an alert concerning aspReady FAQ Manager and a vulnerability from failing to validate input to the txtLogin and txtPassword parameters. Input validation failures are also the cause of Utopia News Pro cross-site scripting and SQL injection vulnerabilities. There is a report several scripts fail to properly filter HTML code.

EMS Releases SQL Manager 2005 for SQL Server
EMS Database Management Solutions has released EMS SQL Manager 2005 for SQL Server. The latest release supports triggers, typed XML columns, synonyms and aggregates. User interface improvements include a Navigation bar, a Windows Toolbar and support for Office 11 visual schemes. The database designer provides
multiple diagramming notations, including IDEF1x, and it can reverse engineer existing databases.

Microsoft Boosts Enterprise Security by Acquiring Alacris Smart Card Identity Management Solutions
Microsoft boosted its enterprise security capabilities by acquiring Alacris Technology, a Canadian identity management solutions provider. Alacris brings credential management and smart card authentication to Microsoft networking technology. Alacris' PKI-based technology will be used to extend the security capabilities of Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Active Directory. The demand for smart card technology has been growing and is expected to surge because of a recent (US) Homeland Security directive. Presidential Directive 12 will require all federal employees and contractors to have smart cards.

Oracle Wave of Acquisitions, Fusion Architecture and Lifetime Support Policy
Consolidation of the software industry continues with announcements of acquisitions by Oracle. It made a move to capture a larger share of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market by offering to acquire Siebel. It also went after the integrated supply chain market by entering into an agreement to acquire G-Log, a provider of logistics and transportation management software. Oracle's planned acquisitions of Siebel and G-Log follow the recent strategic acquisitions of PeopleSoft (ERP), Retek and ProfitLogic (retail solutions), i-flex (banking), Oblix (identity management), TimesTen (in-memory database), TripleHop (search software) and Context Media (integration software).

At Oracle Open World 2005, Oracle President Charles Phillips announced a Lifetime Support Policy for all PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Oracle software. He
also announced Oracle Fusion Architecture based on grid computing, enterprise information architecture and service-oriented architecture.

Ralph Kimball to Present Business Intelligence Webinar on October 25
Sybase has announced that Ralph Kimball will present a one-hour webinar titled "Real-time Business Intelligence: Evolution in Information Access". It will run October 25, 2005 at 6:00 GMT, 1:00 pm Eastern Time, 10:00 am Pacific Time. Dr. Kimball will explain "How a unified layer of shared data can speed business processes, eliminate stale information and enhance IT service levels."

IBM Business Intelligence Customer Solutions Summit Opens in San Francisco
The San Francisco Hilton is hosting the IBM Business Intelligence Customer Solutions Summit this week. For three days (October 10-15), IBM customers interested in analytics and business intelligence will listen to presentations from IBM executives and business partners. The technical track includes sessions on data warehouse sizing, implementing the Balanced Configuration Unit, and best practices for storage design for data warehouses.

Oracle Acquires Innobase, Developer of the InnoDB Storage Engine
Oracle has acquired Innobase OY, a Finnish software house that developed the InnoDB transactional storage engine used by MySQL. MySQL's contract for InnoDB runs for another year but Oracle has indicated it plans to extend beyond that time. Integration with InnoDB has increased MySQL adoption for transaction processing applications. Innobase is the latest in a series of companies acquired by Oracle , including G-Log, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Retek, ProfitLogic, i-flex, Oblix, TimesTen, TripleHop, Context Media.

Zend Core Now Available for Oracle
Oracle and Zend Technologies, Inc. announced the availability of Zend Core for Oracle for IBM AIX, Linux and Sun Solaris. They also announced a beta version of Zend Core for Oracle is available for Windows platforms. Zend Core simplifies PHP integration with Oracle, including an updated Oracle Call Interface (OCI) driver that supports connection pooling and statement caching. Supported browsers include Internet Explorer 5.5+, Netscape 7+, Mozilla 1.7+ and FireFox.

Visual Paradigm Releases UML Modeling and Database Designer Tools
Visual Paradigm announced the release of VP-UML version 5.0 and DB-Visual Architect version 2.0. VP-UML provide use case modeling, XMI import/export, real-time sequence diagramming and EJB diagramming. DB-VA enables you to visualize Enterprise Java Beans, generate code and deploy them. It also provides mapping of classes to tables.

Using SQL as a Conceptual Hierarchical Data Modeling and Processing Language for XML
What makes this paper of significant importance to the SQL/XML industry is it proves how standard SQL can perform full multi-leg hierarchical processing. It explains how the relational Cartesian processing engine automatically and inherently performs Lowest Common Ancestor (LCA) logic that's required to perform hierarchical processing. This is original material from Michael David.

Microsoft Announces SQL Server 2005 Launch Date, JDBC Driver and TPC-H Benchmarks
During a keynote address at Tech•Ed 2005 Europe, Andy Lees, corporate vice president of Server and Tools Marketing and Solutions, announced Microsoft will launch several products on November 7 in San Francisco, California. The launch will include Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005, Visual Studio® 2005 and BizTalk® Server 2006. Microsoft will have more than 90 launch events globally. Lees said “We will kick off the availability of these products in San Francisco and carry it through Europe and the rest of the world in the following days and weeks.”

Microsoft reported more than 80 applications using SQL Server 2005 have been deployed internally. Lees also note the availability of a new SQL Server JDBC driver and two new TPC-H benchmarks from Bull and Unisys Corporation. Both benchmarks used SQL Server 2005 running on Windows Server 2003.

myBloggie SQL Injection Vulnerability
Secunia released a security advisory that warns of an SQL injection vulnerability in myBloggie. The threat is due to the fact "login.php" does not sanitize input to the "username" parameter so it's possible to inject malicious SQL code. The vulnerability exists in versions 2.1.2 and earlier versions.

Imperva to Present Database Security Webcast
Imperva Application Defense Center (ADC) will present an educational webinar about database security that will include demonstrations of database attacks. Imperva will present "Database Security - Defending the Data Center" on 21 September 2005 at 7:00 pm GMT (2:00 pm EDT ) and 22 September 2005 at 5:00 pm GMT (12:00 noon EDT). The webinar will cover six types of attacks used by rogue employees and hackers to breach database security (register).

Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund and Family Locator
The area devastated by Hurricane Katrina is approximately the size of Britain. A million people were evacuated and many lost their homes, jobs and businesses. The Red Cross is accepting donations and providing a family locator service.

• Donate to the Red Cross relief effort.
• Locate family members.

Red Earth Technologies Announces Superior SQL Builder 2.0
Red Earth Technologies has announced Superior SQL Builder version 2.0 is available for a 21-day free trial. The product includes a comprehensive Query Builder that can build SQL DDL and DML statements. It can export tables data as SQL INSERT statements, XML, HTML and delimited text formats. Superior SQL Builder runs on Windows operating systems, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and it requires 64 MB of memory, Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7 or 2.8 and the Microsoft .NET 1.1 framework. It works with Microsoft Access and SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle.

Anywhere Announces Innovation Awards and Beta Program
Sybase subsidiary iAnywhere Solutions announced the winners of its fifth annual Innovator Awards. The 2005 Innovator Awards went to American Technology Corporation, ELMO ICT Solutions and Eleven Technology. American Technology Corporation (ATC), a mobile solution provider for retail chains and sales forces, won for innovative retail management and sales force automation solutions for True Value Company and Kwik Trip convenience stores.

ELMO ICT Solutions of the Netherlands, a market leader in mobility in the care sector mobility leader, won for the MobiCare application used by 35 homecare companies in Holland. Eleven Technology of Cambridge, Massachusetts, received the award for its mobile solutions (Eleven DSD and Eleven Retail Execution). Brian Vink, iAnywhere marketing vice president, said "We're excited about the level of innovation that the winning companies have shown by providing mobile solutions that solve some of the toughest problems for companies needing access to data anytime and anywhere."

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005

Parameter Exploit Opens PHPTB To SQL Injection Vulnerability
Developers using PHPTB must sanitize the input to the "mid" parameter or risk an SQL injection attack. Secunia advises version 2.0 is vulnerable to such attacks, although other versions may also be at risk.

Guardium Expands SQL Guard Platform
Guardium has expanded its SQL Guard platform with the introduction of the SQL Guard PCI Accelerator™. It is an integrated solution to help organizations comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security standard. The newly-adopted PCI Data Security standard was a joint development by Visa and Mastercard. The PCI Accelerator module delivers solutions for key requirements defined by the standard, including security modules for planning, organizing, monitoring and assessing policy violations.

More SQL Injection Vulnerabilities Uncovered
Secunia Research and the French Security Incident Response Team (FrSIRT) issued another round of reports of SQL injection vulnerabilites. Secunia issued reports of a vulnerabilities in phpIncludes and MyFAQ. FrSIRT reports SQL Injection and File Inlcusion vulnerabilities with Gravity Board X version 1.1 and higher.

Sybase Reports a Surge of Demand for SQL Anywhere Studio on Linux
iAnywhere Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc., announced at LinuxWorld a surge of demand for SQL Anywhere Studio on Linux platforms. The company spotlighted Linux applications deployed by ELMO ICT Solutions, Security
Applications, Inc., and Servoy BV. Sybase is demonstrating iAnywhere mobile technologies for Linux at the Intel booth at LinuxWorld.

Websense Reports Surge in Hackers Using Free Web Sites to Distribute Malware
Websense reported a dramatic increase in the number of free personal web sites used to distribute malicious code, such as spyware and keyloggers. During 2005, Websense detected more than 2500 instances of sites distributing malicious code, such as Trojan horses and key logging software. In the first two weeks of July 2005, it detected more than 500 personal web sites distributing keyloggers, Trojan horse downloaders and other malware. The sites hosted web logs (blogs), photo albums, greeting cards, scrapbooks, music and other popular "personal" uses.

Quest Software Releases Toad for MySQL
Quest Software released version 1.0 of Quest Toad, a database development and administration tool, for MySQL. It includes an SQL Editor, grid control, database browser and a tech info database.

Toad 1.0 for MySQL runs on Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional with version 1.1 of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Quest also offers editions of Toad for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, including a freeware version for SQL Server.

Network Resonance CEO Presents Security Taxonomy
The CEO of Network Resonance, Kevin Dick, discusses a security taxonomy of distributed systems and web services in a podcast and videos released this week. Network Resonance, a company founded by Kevin Dick and Eric Rescorla, recently patented a technology for secure SSL auditing. In the video/podcast, Kevin discusses security for point-to-point services, multi-hop services, service components and complex services.

Microsoft Announces SQL Server 2005 Launch Date, JDBC Driver and TPC-H Benchmarks
During a keynote address at Tech•Ed 2005 Europe, Andy Lees, corporate vice president of Server and Tools Marketing and Solutions, announced Microsoft will launch several products on November 7 in San Francisco, California. The launch will include Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005, Visual Studio® 2005 and BizTalk® Server 2006. Microsoft will have more than 90 launch events globally. Lees said “We will kick off the availability of these products in San Francisco and carry it through Europe and the rest of the world in the following days and weeks.”

Microsoft reported more than 80 applications using SQL Server 2005 have been deployed internally. Lees also note the availability of a new SQL Server JDBC driver and two new TPC-H benchmarks from Bull and Unisys Corporation. Both benchmarks used SQL Server 2005 running on Windows Server 2003.

Oracle Adds JDeveloper 10g to Portfolio of Free Software
Oracle has announced that Java developers can download and use Oracle JDeveloper 10g free of charge. An Oracle FAQ noted an increased demand in the Java community for free tools. Development environments such as Eclipse and Borland JBuilder Foundation are also free software.

JDeveloper is a Java development environment that includes UML modeling, code analysis and optimization, BPEL process modeling, and visual editors for HTML, Java Server Pages, Java Server Faces, Swing and Struts. JDeveloper also includes developer tools for XML, web services, PL/SQL, portlet and web services development.

Visual Paradigm Releases UML Modeling and Database Designer Tools
Visual Paradigm announced the release of VP-UML version 5.0 and DB-Visual Architect version 2.0. VP-UML provide use case modeling, XMI import/export, real-time sequence diagramming and EJB diagramming. DB-VA enables you to visualize Enterprise Java Beans, generate code and deploy them. It also provides mapping of classes to tables.

SQL Injection Vulnerabilities Uncovered
Secunia Research and the French Security Incident Response Team issued multiple reports of software at risk from SQL injection. Vulnerabilities were identified recently in paFAQ, Fortibus CMS, Liberium Help Desk, ezUserManager, X-Cart Gold, NewLife Blogger, NPDS and ZonGG.

Easysoft Updates the ODBC-ODBC Bridge
Version 2 of the Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge is available now for download from the company's web site. The new version focuses on enhanced security, fault tolerance, management control and improved usability.

DataDirect XQuery Public Beta Program
DataDirect Technologies announced a public beta program for DataDirect XQuery. The beta release can query XML and relational databases.

Oracle and IBM in Tight Race for Market Share
Products based on SQL database technology continue to dominate DBMS sales. The SQL DBMS market grew to $7.78 billion in 2004 but IDC and Gartner Dataquest differ on the market share of leading vendors.

Using SQL as a Conceptual Hierarchical Data Modeling and Processing Language for XML
What makes this paper of significant importance to the SQL/XML industry is it proves how standard SQL can perform full multi-leg hierarchical processing. It explains how the relational Cartesian processing engine automatically and inherently performs Lowest Common Ancestor (LCA) logic that's required to perform hierarchical processing. This is original material from Michael David.

Report Card for Software, IT Research and Media Web Sites
Ken North Computing released a 31-page web presence report with rankings for web sites belonging to computer and software companies, open source initiatives, media organizations, and companies that provide information technology (IT) research. Section 5.3.2 discusses IT media sites that focus on SQL and databases. Section 5.4 and 5.5 provide data about commercial and open source software web sites.

Vista Software Releases VistaDB 2.0.14 Embedded Database for .NET
Vista Software has released VistaDB 2.0.14, an embedded database engine update for .NET. New features include better .NET Provider performance and a VistaDBDataSet component that provides data cursors that are fully compatible with databound controls. Other new features include first third party managed Membership Provider for ASP.NET 2.0, improved in-memory databases, and support for Visual Studio .NET 2005. 

BirdBlog SQL Injection Vulnerability
An SQL injection exploit is possible with BirdBlog by using user id and password parameters in a PHP script (userid and userpw in admincore.php). The exploit is possible by disabling magic_quotes_gpc.

SQL Injection Possible By Exploiting dream4 Koobi Parameter
An SQL injection vulnerability has been reported for version 4.2.3 of dream4 Koobi. The area parameter in index.php opens the door for SQL injection if it is not properly sanitized.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Will Feature XQuery and Encryption 
Microsoft is providing encryption and decryption functionality in the SQL Server 2005 product, as well as government security certification.

Multiple SQL Injection Vulnerabilities Threaten Oracle Applications and E-Business Suite
Customers who face the highest risk are those with Internet-facing application servers, because such servers are vulnerable to remote attack with a browser. Oracle has released a patch for Oracle Applications 11.0 and the Oracle E-Business Suite 11i to correct these vulnerabilities.

More PostNuke SQL Injection Vulnerabilities
Security researchers have found problems with two parameters that enable someone to inject arbitrary SQL commands.

SYWARE Visual CE® Software Adds Rapid Mobile Forms Development to SQL Server CE Databases
SYWARE, Inc. announced the company's award-winning rapid application development environment, Visual CE®, allows creation of forms using data from Microsoft® SQL Server CE databases.

More SQL Injection Problems
The PHP-nuke implementation code for broadcast messages is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. The login screen for thePHOTOtool photo album manager is also vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. 

Linux Port for ANTs Data Server
ANTs software inc. has chosen Red Hat Enterprise Linux for the first Linux deployment of its ANTs Data Server. ANTs software inc. is a vendor of high-performance SQL database management systems.

Opinion

Microsoft Censorship Clause Spreads to More Products
Microsoft's latest Purchase Use Rights agreement places restrictions on disclosing performance information for a long list of its products.