Oracle, Sun hook-up dilemmas

Through one important piece of corporate computing jargon, "integration", Oracle has found a justification for its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Now it will have to convince historically sceptical customers, too, that the idea makes sense, says CNet.

The all-cash acquisition agreement, announced Monday, costing Oracle $5.6 billion with Sun's cash factored in, and expected to close this summer, puts the innovative, but financially bumbling, Sun out of its misery after IBM's move to buy it fell apart earlier in April. The way to fit Sun's technology into Oracle's business model goes back to a project called Raw Iron that's more than a decade old.

Raw Iron ideas placed application software front and centre while demoting the server hardware and the operating system to a subordinate role. The customer, who needs some database software, need hardly know what is going on under the covers.

The House of Lords Information Committee is holding the first parliamentary inquiry where evidence can be submitted via YouTube, reports Computing.co.uk.

The inquiry into how Parliament can do more to engage with the public will be the first to admit evidence that is not in written form.

One of the areas the committee will consider is how Parliament can make more use of online communication. The aim is to ensure the public feel able to interact with Parliament rather than passively receiving news from Westminster.

As expected, server virtualisation kingpin VMware will today take the wraps off its next-generation hypervisor, ESX Server 4.0, and the related tools for managing it, says The Register.

Now called vSphere rather than Virtual Infrastructure, the vSphere stack embodies a strategy and product set that VMware used to call the Virtual Data Centre Operating System, or VDC-OS.

Now, says Bogomil Balkansky, VP of marketing at VMware, it goes by the name Cloud OS.

Concerns have been raised about the use of the Internet and new technologies to revolutionise healthcare, reports the BBC.

There has been a rise in the use of online drug sales and private DNA tests and scans in recent years, says the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

But the independent group said such changes may be putting patients at risk, or leading to unnecessary alarm.