MS virtualisation restrictions remain

Microsoft's last-minute decision last week not to ease virtualisation restrictions for Windows Vista are designed to "delay market adoption of competitive virtualisation software" and are "unjustified", analyst firm Gartner charged in a news analysis, according to IT Week.

The planned changes would have eased virtualisation restrictions for Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, which currently lack support for the Bitlocker data encryption technology and have restrictions on digital rights management.

Microsoft, however, pulled the planned changes at the last minute and without explanation. Gartner alleges that Microsoft is delaying the licensing changes because it wants to slow down the desktop virtualisation market. The firm currently lacks a competitive virtualisation product and isn't expected to catch up until 2009.

IBM has launched an effort to extend Web 2.0 to the corporate world by unveiling team collaboration, social computing and Web mash-up development tools, reports Computer World UK.

The new Quickr 8, Lotus Connections and Info 2.0 products are part of IBM's new "Web 2.0 Goes to Work" initiative, which aims to expand business use of popular consumer technologies like blogs, wikis and social networks, said Rod Smith, VP of emerging technologies.

Web 2.0 technology can help workers more easily brainstorm and collaborate with one another and with corporate partners and customers, explained Smith.

IT directors should build a case for service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects by starting with smaller targets, Reports Computer World.

Edward Cobb, VP of architecture and standards at San Jose-based BEA, said building the business case for SOA could be tricky, particularly because immediate cost savings were not easily linked to larger projects. As a result, he said, "it's all about starting small so you can learn how to monitor the benefits and see how your business is becoming more flexible and adaptable".

The benefits of SOA "grow over time... through a series of small incremental wins," as shared services and the benefits of governance and clear practices take shape.