MS offering virtual test drives

Microsoft has announced a virtual hard drive (VHD) test program designed to let IT experts analyse new software with less fuss - and perhaps less headache - than normal.

The program lets customers download preconfigured virtual machines that run on Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005 R2. According to Microsoft, the virtual machines could include software from 7 000 vendors in the future, although current plans are more modest.

For now, Microsoft's VHDs include recent versions of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, the 32-bit version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (currently in beta) with Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005, and Internet Security & Acceleration 2006 Standard Edition.

Level Four Software has partnered with Galitt, the provider of EFT testing software and consultancy services to the French banking sector. Unveiled at the CARTES 2006 exhibition, the alliance enables Galitt and Level Four to target banks in France with Level Four's flagship ATM TrueTest product to deliver a comprehensive solution for testing open standards-based ATM networks.

Galitt's KaNest host testing product is used by almost every bank in France to test the messaging protocol used between acquiring devices and transaction processing systems.

Additionally, Galitt's KaNest-ICC EMV Test Suites are used by major EMVCo accredited labs for compliance testing of EMV devices.

Financial service company Friends Provident is using software testing tools to improve the quality of its e-commerce applications, reports Silicon.

The company's tech team designs, implements and manages e-commerce applications that deliver insurance information to banks and independent financial advisors, and needed a testing tool that could be used by distributed teams.

Craig Gibbons, senior IT consultant at Friends Provident told Silicon.com: "If you go back about three years, IT at Friends Provident was working in smaller teams with business people to do projects. We started to move away from that as Friends Provident got bigger."