IT News Update
Esko-Graphics
products earn Electronic Publishing
Award
Electronic
Publishing,
November 12, 2003
Vandalia, OH - Esko-Graphics' high-speed PlateDriver HS
platesetters have received one of Electronic Publishing's
eleventh annual Hot Product awards. According to Electronic
Publishing, this elite group of products best exemplify the
qualities needed to be leaders. PlateDriver HS platesetters
are capable of imaging 4-up and 8-up violet polymer plates in
addition to violet silver plates. Up to 46 4-up plates can be
exposed per hour on the PlateDriver 4HS, while up to 42 plates
8-up plates can be exposed on the PlateDriver 8HS.
Electronic
Publishing, which covers technology from design to print...and beyond,
targets design, prepress, and digital printing professionals needing timely,
comprehensive coverage of applications, products, and trends in the graphic
arts industry. Electronic Publishing is a recognized leader in the field and
has been serving the industry for more than 27 years. To select the winners,
the editorial staff of Electronic Publishing reviewed the hundreds of
products covered during 2003 and assembled a list of approximately 50
nominees. That list was distributed to the staff for voting, and the votes
were tallied to determine winners. Participating were founding editor Frank
Romano, contributing technology editor Ira Gold, senior associate editor
Nancy Hitchcock, managing editor Courtney Howard, and editor Keith Hevenor.
The December 2003 issue of Electronic Publishing will unveil winners of the
11th annual Hot Products awards.
"The past year has been very challenging for
the graphic arts industry," says Keith Hevenor, editor. "But leaders in our
industry continued to introduce products and technologies that could help
printers become more efficient with their printing workflows. The
PlateDriver HS is an example of a well-designed platesetter that can harness
the advantages of violet plate technology, providing high quality,
cost-effective plates."
By increasing the
power of the violet FreeBeam laser from 30mW to 40mW, the PlateDriver HS can
expose polymer plates at the same imaging speed as silver-based plates. Both
visible-light plate technologies are much more sensitive than thermal
plates, allowing faster imaging with less powerful lasers.
Esko-Graphics has
found increasing interest among medium and large printers for violet polymer
plates. They are less expensive to purchase and process, and can last as
long on press as thermal plates. Unbaked, violet polymer plates offer run
lengths of 100,000 - 250,000 prints, but with baking can offer up to
1,000,000 prints, even with UV inks. Besides longer run lengths, these
plates can be processed in conventional aqueous chemistry and the waste does
not contain silver or other potentially hazardous materials. Processing
chemistry for violet polymer plates lasts up to approximately 32,000 square
feet of plate before the processor has to be cleaned and refilled - about
three times longer than some other technologies. For the average plate
department, this is equal to a free week of processing.
Printers can convert
between silver and polymer plates with only a few on-site changes activated
by the PlateDriver's control software, without changing any mechanical or
optical parts. However, because of the different nature of the two plates,
post-processing processing and chemistry need to be changed. All high speed
PlateDrivers provide printers many flexible options, including automatic and
semi-automatic loading, an unlimited number of register systems, and even
the ability to upgrade from a 4-up to 8-up model - on site.#
DTK
expands business reach in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Systems
Corporation is DTK's distributor in the Kingdom
ameinfo.com,
October 16, 2003
RIYADH ?
DTK Computer Middle East ?
a leading manufacturer of personal computers, notebooks and
servers ? is taking steps
to continue increasing its market share in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia.
The company, which has its regional
headquarters in Dubai, plans to open an office in Saudi Arabia
in the next year. DTK's investment in establishing a full-time
physical presence in the Kingdom will bolster market share by
more than 10 percent during the first year of its operations.
'To keep ahead of the game in the Middle East technology
sector, companies need to respond quickly to the demands of
the market,' said Nimar Al Attal, managing director, DTK
Computer Middle East.
'With a strong customer-base that consists of some of the
Kingdom's leading government and educational institutions, we
are accustomed to providing quality innovations. Providing the
highest standard of pre-sale and after-sale service, in
addition to comprehensive training, are just a few of the
methods we employ to bolster our position in the market.' said
Samer Atassi, sales manager, DTK Computer Middle East.
Organizations in Saudi Arabia that have already deployed DTK
technology on a large scale include General Organization for
Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT), King
Saud University - Riyadh, King Saud University - Qassim, Saudi
Telecommunication Co. (STC).
With the support of strong in-country partners, DTK has made a
long-lasting impression on many of the Kingdom's key education
and government decision-makers.
DTK's distributor in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Systems Corporation,
has been integral to the company's development throughout the
Kingdom.
Mamoon Najm, Saudi Systems Corporation's executive president,
explained: 'Saudi Systems Corporation has long been a major
supplier of IT products in the Kingdom. As a result, we have
been able to establish strong and trusting relationships with
a wide variety of influential customers.'
Established in 1990, the Saudi Systems Corporation team has
more than 400 years of combined professional experience. 'Our
commitment to Saudi Arabia is to transfer technology and to do
this we have to build business relationships with the
industry's world leaders. By working with DTK, we are one step
closer to achieving our goal in the Kingdom,' said Ashraf
Serri, DTK and office automation sales manager, Saudi Systems
Corporation.
DTK is making headway in the Kingdom's small and medium size
business and education sectors by offering reasonably priced
e-solutions. The e-solutions from DTK are being promoted in
Saudi Arabia by Saudi Computer Doctor.
'Our team at Saudi Computer Doctor has had great success with
DTK's e-solutions which reduce the total cost of ownership for
the customer,' said Saad Al Saif, general manager, Saudi
Computer Doctors.
With a large portion of DTK's business in Saudi Arabia coming
from leading government and educational organizations, the
company recognizes the importance of investing in training
seminars.
Al Attal added: 'Training is essential in assisting our
customers to realize the full value of new technology,
increase productivity, and accelerate return on investment.
This is why we select our leading experts to conduct training
sessions in Saudi Arabia. Our training program is one way that
we differentiate ourselves in the market.'
About DTK Computer
DTK, a leading global brand, is a registered trademark of DTK
Computer, Inc USA. Founded in 1981 on the principles of
commitment to quality, reliability and product innovation, DTK
has been dedicated to design, develop, manufacture, and market
microcomputer products with cutting-edge technologies. The
consistency of DTK's market orientation has allowed the
company to become one of the leading system manufacturers in
the industry.
Recognizing the need for a flexible, yet practical system
solution for its customers, DTK introduced its pioneering
Barebone? system in 1988, which made DTK one of the largest
manufacturers of motherboards and Barebone? systems in the
world.
DTK Computer has been making headline news in the information
technology industry for almost two decades. It is one of the
leading manufacturers of desktops, notebooks, feature rich NT
workstation, and state of the art NT servers. All of DTK
systems can be custom configured with a wide selection of
quality, high-performing components and peripherals to build
the ideal systems that deliver reliability and
price/performance for the business computing environment or
the home office. #
Ellison launches Oracle enterprise grid computing
Grid computing is the end of the
40-year old "one big computer"
OracleWorld,
September 9, 2003
- Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry
Ellison announced Oracle Database 10g
and
Oracle Application Server 10g.
- Oracle Enterprise Grid computing
runs all applications with capacity on demand, at a lower
cost and higher level of fault tolerance and reliability.
- Ellison portrayed IBM's on demand
as financial engineering in contrast to Oracle on demand
which is software engineering with a price/performance
benefit of 30 to one.
SAN FRANCISCO ? In a keynote before a
standing-room-only crowd, Oracle's CEO launched the era of enterprise
computing with Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Application Server 10g.
After a futuristic laser show, Ellison went back
to 1964--the era of the Beach Boys, Mickey Mantle, and big iron. "Forty
years ago, IBM invented the 360 mainframe. What's happened in enterprise
systems since then? A quest to build bigger and bigger computers," said
Ellison
"Last year, Microsoft got into the race--40 years
late," said Ellison, referring to a recent 64-processor SQL Server Windows
mainframe benchmark. "I think the team Bill sent to IBM to figure out what's
next held their map upside down; instead of turning left into IBM research,
they turned right into the IBM museum."
Ellison announced the Oracle Enterprise Grid, a
smarter alternative to the 40-year-old "one big server." The Oracle grid,
according to Ellison, is without the one big server problems--limited
capacity, high cost, and a single point of failure. Next he outlined four
Oracle Enterprise Grid components--the storage grid, database grid,
application server grid, and grid control. "The beauty of the enterprise
grid is that our software creates the illusion that it's just one great big
computer," said Ellison.
Oracle's grid can tap low-cost Intel blades
running Linux, while avoiding the single point of failure of one big server.
In a comparison slide, before concluding with a brief Q&A, Ellison
highlighted several Oracle grid customers including Electronic Arts, CERN,
Oracle University, and Oracle Outsourcing. #
Workflow tool helps printers provide
automated, fault-free versioning services
Esko-Graphics,
August 6, 2003
Gent, Belgium ? Esko-Graphics is proudly announcing that
its FastVariants suite of workflow tools has been awarded a
2003 Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) InterTech?
Technology Award, recognized industry-wide as a symbol of
technological innovation and excellence.
One of the trends of this year?s awards winners was the presence of
automation combined with productivity and ROI. FastVariants is an automated
workflow solution that fits that description well. It offers a suite of
tools and technologies used within Esko-Graphics? FastLane Next Generation
workflow system to avoid costly mistakes in the production of double-burn
jobs, for which one of the plates, typically the black plate, is replaced
with another one with a different version during a press run.
FastVariant prevents press downtime and plate remakes in double-burn
workflows. Regardless of how a job is supplied, either as neutral pages with
separate version pages or as full-color version pages, FastVariants
correctly detects specific problems that make a file unsuitable for
double-burn. Full-color version pages can be quickly and easily split into a
neutral ?full-purpose? part and a version part. Operators can also check
full-color version pages against a reference version to detect problems when
changing the version plate. All these tools run in batch mode so large
amounts of pages can be efficiently handled with little operator
intervention.
FastVariants makes use of three innovative technologies:
- The new technology runs in batch mode and is integrated with
interactive tools.
- The splitter uses a novel approach to the way in which files are
separated correctly without RIPping them. Its very fast one-pass algorithm
turns a page into a neutral page or into a variant page by intelligently
modifying the paint modes in the file. A page that has been split into
neutral and variant parts can be recombined on top of each other when
imposed, and provide the same result as the original page, regardless of
the order and location of the variant objects in the original.
- When a version page is compared to a reference page, the batch process
renders separations and then compares pixels from both pages. This method
accurately detects any difference between the two.
Several judges noted that an increasing number of InterTech nominees were
seeking creative ways to bring new, sophisticated technologies ? and
therefore new services and revenue streams ? within the reach of small and
medium-size printers.
FastVariants contains everything needed to produce versioned print jobs
in less time and with total security, which translates to less man-hours for
error-prone quality checks, less proofs, less plate remakes and less press
downtime. In about 15% of versioning jobs there are mistakes that, when
passed unnoticed, make it necessary to stop the print run, correct the
mistake, make new plates, and start the print run again. It can take several
hours before a double-burn mistake that is caught in the pressroom is
corrected. It is imperative to check every job; a time-consuming operation
because it usually involves visually checking proofs. FastVariants provides
everything a printer needs to turn around a versioned print job in less time
and with total security, which translates to less manhours for error-prone
quality checks, less proofs, less plate remakes and less press downtime.
As a GATF judge observed, ?This application enables relatively modest
printers to offer versioning services by using automated software rather
than paying for custom programming.?
Esko-Graphics will receive its InterTech star at an Industry Awards
Dinner on Saturday, November 15, 2003, at the La Mansión del Rio Hotel, San
Antonio, Texas.
About the InterTech Technology Award
GATF sponsors the award and coordinates the award process, but does not
select the recipients. InterTech Technology Award recipients are chosen by
an anonymous judging committee comprised of industry experts and users who
are independent of GATF.
Companies are not required to be GATF/PIA members to submit technologies
for judging. The InterTech Technology Awards will be presented at the
Industry Awards Reception and Dinner, Saturday, November 15, 2003, at the La
Mansión del Rio Hotel, San Antonio, Texas.
A booklet showcasing all of the current year?s nominated technologies
will be available at Graph Expo, which is being held September 28 through
October 1, 2003, in Chicago. #
Bentley announces Extreme Mapping Seminar series
Bentley Press
Release,
September, 17, 2003
Exton, PA ? Bentley Systems, Incorporated, today announced its
series of Extreme Mapping Seminars.
Mapping professionals in local governments, federal agencies, engineering
firms, and cadastres can learn how they can benefit from capabilities such
as ?fuzzy to focused? methodologies and 3D technology that are only
available in Bentley?s mapping solutions.
Extreme Mapping topics span imaging, document conversion, and production
mapping, all functioning within a managed environment of AEC and GIS
information. Products that are covered during the seminars include Bentley
GeoGraphics, the premier environment for data collection, editing, and
analysis tools, and Bentley PowerMap, a low-cost, 2D geometry creation and
editing environment that allows users to easily create highly accurate,
large-scale maps.
Seminars are scheduled for the following cities:
-
Toronto, October 7, 2003
-
Los Angeles, October 14, 2003
-
Washington D.C., October 16, 2003
-
Chicago, October 23, 2003
Extreme Mapping will also be featured at Bentley?s exhibit
during InterGEO in Hamburg, Germany, from September 17 to 19. During the
show, Bentley will demonstrate the worldwide release of PowerMap, which
recently shipped in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese.
PowerMap includes editing, clean up and thematic
mapping tools, file import for common geo-oriented formats, a flexible
coordinate system, high performance imaging, ODBC connectivity, and querying
of Oracle?/font>
Locator/Spatial data.
Additional Extreme Mapping seminar dates and locations will be scheduled in
North America and Europe in the coming months. Groups and organizations can
also request an on-site Extreme Mapping seminar. For more information, to
view the most recent seminar schedule, or to register for a seminar, visit
www.bentley.com/extremeseminars or call +1 610 458 5000. #
Portal
Software accelerates time to market with new solutions set
Portal Press Release,
August, 14, 2003
CUPERTINO, CA ? Portal Software, Inc. today
announced the availability of new solution sets for the company?s
award-winning convergent billing platform. Designed to further accelerate
time to market for new services, the new solution sets include a
next-generation GSM solution, a new Pricing Center, and the joint Portal and
Siebel TelcoOne? solution. These solution sets demonstrate the momentum that
Portal continues to gain by providing the most advanced, easy-to-use,
product-based billing solution to the market.
?Portal has a proven track record of delivering
innovative solutions designed to help our customers meet their business
objectives,? said Shay Mowlem, vice president of product marketing at Portal
Software. ?Portal is continually extending the capabilities of its
product-based solution to provide real customer advantage by developing new
solutions that enhance operational efficiencies and working with our
partners to offer integrated solutions that reduce development time and
costs.?
GSM Manager 2.0 Accelerates Time to Revenue
GSM Manager enables service providers to bring unique
GSM services to market in days or weeks, accelerating time to revenue and
avoiding traditional multi-month development. Portal?s GSM Manager provides
full support for traditional GSM services with an object oriented software
platform, which increases operational efficiencies by enabling service
providers to rapidly leverage existing user interfaces, service logic, and
business logic to rapidly define new services. Enhancements to customer
management, service management, service provisioning, and usage processing
deliver the flexibility needed to directly reduce the time and effort
required to deploy GSM services. With GSM Manager, service providers can
quickly adapt to changing business models and competitive pressures.
In this solution set, Portal also supports the GSM
roaming standard TAP version 3.10 and the CDMA roaming standard CIBER. By
leveraging a product-based solution for roaming, Portal?s customers are able
to support new roaming standards without the time delays and high cost of
customization.
Pricing Center Simplifies Convergent Pricing
Portal?s new Pricing Center is a fully convergent
application with unparalleled flexibility that enables service providers to
create innovative service offerings and react quickly to market and
competitive pricing pressures. With enhanced usability and unified
operational tools designed to expedite new convergent offerings, service
providers are fully equipped to accelerate time-to-market by rapidly
launching, evaluating, and modifying new service offerings without
increasing their cost structure or overburdening IT resources.
As the first billing vendor to provide a GUI pricing
tool, Portal has continued to lead the industry in improving pricing
features, resulting in the latest next-generation convergent GUI tool. The
new Pricing Center GUI defines innovative convergent pricing and billing
offerings that span voice, data, and content services while addressing
multi-national business needs with support for multiple languages,
currencies, taxation rules, and business processes. The new tool also
enables service providers to customize pricing to individual subscribers,
affinity groups, family members, or corporations using any payment type,
including prepaid and postpaid.
The Pricing Center application suite is based on the
next-generation Portal application technology and standards and offers
significant architectural improvements that will reduce the cost of data
administration for service providers. The user-friendly GUI effectively p
resents all configuration modules and utilities required for managing
pricing data from test to production environments in an integrated suite.
TelcoOne Eliminates Integration Costs
The TelcoOne solution integrates Portal?s convergent
billing platform with Siebel Communications to provide an end-to-end
customer relationship management (CRM) and billing solution designed to
dramatically reduce integration costs. TelcoOne builds upon the extensive
functionality contained within each of these best-of-breed applications and
enables service providers to manage, synchronize, and coordinate sales,
marketing, and customer service across all communication channels and points
of customer contact.
TelcoOne addresses the most critical integration
challenges that service providers face when deploying CRM and billing within
a complex OSS/BSS environment. TelcoOne delivers functionality that is
critical to growing market share in today?s competitive market, such as
synchronizing product and pricing catalogs from each application in
real-time, which preserves data integrity and enables service providers to
accelerate the process of launching new products and promotions. Based upon
industry standards and web services, TelcoOne leverages Siebel Business
Integration Applications and Universal Application Network (UAN).
?TelcoOne represents a new breed of total solution
designed to reduce IT environment complexity and overhead while uniting
previously disparate enterprise applications for enhanced customer
satisfaction,? said Kevin Nix, group vice president industry applications,
Siebel Systems. ?Working together, Siebel and Portal are changing the way
carriers and service providers can leverage technology to reduce operational
costs and customer churn.?
The new solution sets are available immediately to
Portal customers who are using the current version of the product. TelcoOne
is supported on Portal Infranet 6.5, Siebel Communications 7.5, and Siebel
UAN 2.0. #
Wholesale and
retail spends the most in IT in Saudi
ITP.net,
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
IT spending in Saudi Arabia is
dominated by the wholesale and retail segments, according to
new research from Madar Research Group. Madar?s figures for
2002 IT expenditure in the Kingdom show that wholesale and
retail accounted for over 23% of Saudi?s $3.7 billion total IT
expenditure.
The wholesale and retail sector has been driven by large
regional and international chain stores, according to Madar,
whose adoption of IT solutions to manage business created a
$860 million market last year. Other sectors that invested
heavily in IT were manufacturing and government, which
accounted for 14.8% and 10.8% of IT spending respectively.
With Saudi Arabia accounting for almost half of all IT
spending in the Gulf, vendors and solutions providers are
positioning themselves to take advantage of the growing market
in the country. Diyaa Zebian, regional manager Middle East and
Egypt for eSolutions BEA said that demand for products such as
BEA?s Weblogic Platform are growing as more and more companies
look to integrate their IT systems.
?Saudi Arabia is a classic case of rapid switchover from a
conventional economy into a sophisticated IT-driven Knowledge
Economy that needs advanced solutions to allow integration
with global applications,? said Zebian.
?Saudi Arabia?s fast-track growth in IT is a tribute to the
vibrancy of the Saudi Arabian economy and the foresight that
is driving businesses to migrate to next generation
technologies, as it continues its push towards the Digital
Economy. In such a scenario, applications like the BEA
Weblogic Platform are equipped to facilitate the migration
towards fully integrated IT systems, as have been proved by
the success of Weblogic at an international level.?
EMC
Announces World's First Automated "Pay As You Go" Billing for
Storage Infrastructure
EMC News Release, July 21,
2003
Extending its lead in simplifying how customers consume,
deploy and manage their storage resources, EMC Corporation
today announced the world's first automated billing capability
for storage infrastructure. An integral component of EMC's
OpenScale storage asset and financial management program, the
new billing capability takes customers a step beyond
traditional "capacity on demand" models and provides automated
billing for their entire networked storage infrastructure
including storage capacity, SAN switch ports, NAS servers and
storage software.
OpenScale streamlines often-lengthy procurement processes and provides
users with access to pre-installed storage capacity and other storage
resources to meet both expected and unexpected needs. Available as a manual
process for a select number of customers since 1999, OpenScale lets
customers allocate additional storage resources on demand, but be billed
only for the resources used. Customers benefit from the ability to quickly
allocate?and now be automatically billed for?those additional resources
without requiring manual, onsite technical assistance. The result is faster
response to business requirements and elimination of labor-intensive manual
processes.
OpenScale automated billing leverages the same underlying "agentless"
collector technologies found within EMC AutoAdvice software, an online
member of the EMC ControlCenter family of open software products. The
collector automatically detects when pre-installed storage capacity, SAN
switch ports, NAS servers and storage software are allocated by the business
and provides that information to EMC's OpenScale billing application. The
process is totally non-disruptive to the customer's environment. All
metering and billing happens automatically, with no additional work required
by EMC or the customer.
Eric Eriksen, Chief Technology Officer, Deloitte Consulting, said, "We're
running very fast here. When we need storage, we don't have the luxury of
waiting around. Prior to OpenScale, we had to navigate a lengthy and serial
process of determining need, placing an order, receiving the storage,
integrating and testing it?then we could go do our work. OpenScale strips
out this entire layer of complexity, significantly improves our ability to
respond and gives us the flexibility of a fully configured environment that
we can tap into on demand. And, through the new automated billing, EMC has
come up with yet another way to greatly simplify our lives."
David Goulden, EMC's Executive Vice President of Global Marketing and
Business Development, said, "For several years, OpenScale has taken the
complexity, uncertainty and much of the cost out of the storage procurement
process while meeting customers' immediate needs for how they buy and deploy
their storage assets. OpenScale and the new automated billing capability
demonstrate EMC's longstanding lead in delivering storage service
automation?automation of the underlying processes and tasks that make
internal storage utility models simple and practical to implement."
Goulden added, "EMC Automated Networked Storage and programs like
OpenScale are prerequisites to enabling customers to achieve the benefits of
utility computing models?such as reduced complexity and variability of
costs?without having to surrender architectural control or best-of-breed
technologies."
EMC's OpenScale storage asset and financial management program comprises
various financing options that align customers' storage budgets with their
actual storage consumption. OpenScale is designed to help large customers
with growing, multi-terabyte installations and complex purchasing processes
to shorten procurement cycles, ensure predictable pricing for storage
capacity and functionality, and reduce the need for buying storage resources
in advance of actual requirements. EMC also offers a wide range of financing
options to help customers of all sizes implement EMC storage infrastructures
in ways that meet their budget requirements.
OpenScale provides automated billing for EMC Symmetrix, EMC CLARiiON, EMC
Connectrix and EMC Celerra systems as well as EMC TimeFinder and SRDF
software.
About EMC
EMC Corporation is the world leader in information storage systems,
software, networks and services, providing automated networked storage
solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to better and more
cost-effectively manage, protect and share their information. More
information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.#
Secure Computing
Sidewinder G2 Firewall Recognized for
VPN Technical Excellence with Highest ICSA Labs' IPSec Certification
Available
Sidewinder G2 One of Only 4 VPN Vendor Products to Receive Most
Comprehensive IPSec Certification
Secure Computing, Press Release, July 22,
2003
SAN JOSE, Calif., - Secure Computing Corporation, the
experts in protecting the most important networks in the world, today
announced that its Sidewinder? G2 Firewall?, just 3 months after
its release, has attained ICSA Labs' most current and most robust IPSec
certification. This latest IPSec certification, along with the previously
announced, industry leading EAL4+ Common Criteria certification, provides
consistent, independent 3rd party verification that the Sidewinder G2
Firewall meets high-level requirements against criteria that are widely
accepted in the industry. Currently, the Sidewinder G2 Firewall
is the only firewall to attain the highest-level certifications from both of
the industry's most respected organizations.
The ICSA Labs' Certification Programs provide assurance to the user
community that its certified products meet industry-accepted product
standards worldwide. Products certified under the latest IPSec 1.1 criteria
must meet all of the requirements for the IPSec 1.0B criteria plus
demonstrate the added capability of employing extended use of digital
certificates in support of VPN services. Lab testing verified the Sidewinder
G2 Firewall's capability to use digital certificates in VPN
sessions including: enrolling certificates securely; using LDAPv3 calls over
the network to interoperate with leading certificate servers like Entrust
and VeriSign; and accurately denying VPN connections to VPN clients or
servers that have revoked or expired certificates. IPSec 1.1 certification
also ensures that Sidewinder G2 is interoperable with the other
vendors' products certified at the version 1.1 level and nearly 20 other
vendors' systems certified at the earlier 1.0B certification level.
"ICSA Labs sets a high standard for assurance and security that all
certified products must meet and maintain, with successive levels of
certification raising the bar a little higher," said George Japak, vice
president of ICSA Labs. "Currently our highest IPSec certification, IPSec
1.1 certification has been achieved by only a handful of vendors, and we are
pleased to add Secure Computing's Sidewinder G2 to that list."
ICSA Labs creates globally accepted security product standards and
testing procedures. As the industry leader in certification, ICSA Labs sets
the standard by performing extensive research as well as tracking and
measuring risks. More information regarding the ICSA Labs' Certification as
well as vendor product, version and build numbers can be found on the ICSA
Labs' Web site at:
http://www.icsalabs.com.
Sidewinder G2 Firewall provides enterprise strong?
protection for the world's most important networks. With simple Power-It-On?
deployment and SecureOS? UNIX operating system, the G2 Firewall
and VPN gateway improves manageability and lets you say "good-bye" to
emergency security patches without sacrificing performance. Sidewinder G2?'s
hybrid, tunable architecture encompasses the entire range of firewall
mechanisms from stateful inspection to application proxies, secured servers,
and Strikeback? intrusion detection and automated response.
"When Secure Computing purchased the Gauntlet product and subsequently
announced our Sidewinder G2 product plans, key deliverables with
those plans were independent validation of the quality and robustness of the
delivered product," said Mike Gallagher, vice president and general manager
of the Network Security Division at Secure Computing. "Our ICSA IPSec
certification completes another step in delivering that product vision to
the marketplace."
About ICSA Labs
ICSA Labs, an independent division of TruSecure Corporation, offers
vendor-agnostic testing and certification of security products. Hundreds of
the world's top security vendors submit their products for testing and
certification at ICSA Labs. The end-users of security technologies rely on
ICSA Labs to authoritatively set and apply objective testing and
certification criteria for measuring product compliance and reliability. The
organization tests 95% of products in key technology categories such as
anti-virus, cryptography, PKI, IPSec, VPN, firewall, PC firewall, intrusion
detection and content security.
About Secure Computing
Secure Computing (Nasdaq: SCUR) has been protecting the most important
networks in the world for over 20 years. With broad expertise in security
technology, we develop network security products that help our customers
create a trusted environment both inside and outside of their organizations.
Our global customers and partners include the majority of the Dow Jones
Global 50 Titans and the most prominent organizations in banking, financial
services, healthcare, telecommunications, manufacturing, public utilities,
and federal and local governments. The company is headquartered in San Jose,
Calif., and has sales offices worldwide. For more information, see
http://www.securecomputing.com.
High quality digital flexo platesetter is
expected to attract additional business for Art LithoCraft
services
Esko-Graphics, News Release, July 10,
2003
Vandalia, OH ? Esko-Graphics announces one of the first U.S.
installations of the new CDI Advance flexographic platesetter at Art
LithoCraft Company (ALC), a Kansas City-based trade shop serving printers
and corporations. The CDI Advance was purchased during the CMM International
Conference and Exposition, held in Chicago from April 14-17.
Since 1949, ALC has provided platemaking, color separating and assembly
services to the advertising, packaging and printing industries. Their staff
of more than 60 dedicated professionals has supported the flexo industry for
over thirty years, making plates for narrow web, wide web and corrugated
applications.
The company, which had previously been producing analog polymer plates
from films, was looking for better quality. ?By producing higher quality
plates with the CDI Advance, we intend to acquire new business,? remarks
Byron Pendleton, ALC vice president. ?There are some new accounts we will be
able to serve effectively because the digital plates will be able to hold
highlight and shadow dots exceptionally well. We also expect our new plates
will reduce makeready time.?
The CDI Advance was chosen because of its speed and ease of use with the
Easy-Clamp drum system. ALC was also looking for a platesetter whose product
line had demonstrated long-term success, along with the ability to produce
sleeves. ?Although other companies are working to produce sleeves on their
platesetters, Esko-Graphics has already demonstrated that the CDI Advance is
capable of doing so in the field,? says Mr. Pendleton.
The CDI Advance is a newly engineered digital flexographic platesetter.
It allows for more ease of operation and dual use of plates and sleeves,
assuring the highest quality level. Available in three productivity levels
from approximately 5 to 13 square feet per hour, the CDI Advance 8-beam
optics guarantees the finest details on the flexo plates. The CDI Advance is
equipped with a loading table that can be mounted either on the front or the
back of the machine, hence creating the best possible accessibility for the
operator, to assist in the loading and unloading of plates and sleeves.
Furthermore, the CDI Advance can mount EasyClamp drums (50?x80? and 42?x60?)
and has a Sleeve option with mandrel/drum exchange support. The latter two
require minimal effort from the operator and guarantees, when dismantling
and mounting, easy and all ergonomic access to the drum or mandrels.
?A significant reason we looked at the CDI Advance was due to our strong
relationship with Pitman. Although we know that Esko-Graphics has a good
service background and stands behind their products, we felt comfortable
with Pitman as a partner,? adds Byron.
The CDI Advance will become part of ALC?s FlexoSystems prepress
operation, which includes complete workflow and proofing services. The
platesetter will be receiving one-bit TIFF images from a third-party
workflow system. ALC staff is currently training with the platesetter,
allowing their four operators to acquire the knowledge they need to produce
plates efficiently.#
Satyam implements 'Virtual University' portal for leading
global consortium of universities
Satyam Computer Services Ltd., Press Release, July 17,
2003
Hyderabad - Satyam Computer Services
(NYSE: SAY), a leading global provider of IT services, today announced the
successful commencement of a Student Administration System (SAS) solution
implementation for Singapore-based Universitas 21 Global (U21G), a leading
online university initiative, offering on-line higher education to students
all over the world. SAS, developed on the PeopleSoft platform, would enable
U21G to automate the entire process from enrollments to examinations,
graduation and career counseling. At its peak, the online e-learning portal
powered by Broadvision, being developed by Satyam is expected to have
thousands of users.
U21G, the first of its kind initiative outside the US, is
highly focused on offering a range of courses tailored for the global
student community. Complimenting Satyam on the rollout of the SAS
solution, Dr. Mukesh Aghi, CEO of U21G said; "Since we are having a high
level of interactivity between the students and teachers in the virtual
classrooms, we needed a strong technology backbone to support it. In Satyam
we found the right people with the knowledge who could deliver what we
wanted and even more. We are happy with Satyam as our technology partner."
An equally delighted Mr. Virender Aggarwal, Senior VP and
Head of Asia-Pacific, for Satyam, remarked: "SAS is a major
technological milestone for Satyam as it involved creating a robust solution
to manage the back-end processes for such a large online initiative. We are
glad to have been associated with a pioneering organization like U21G. It
has also enriched our domain competency. "
U21G is a joint venture between Universitas 21, an
international consortium of distinguished universities, and Thomson
Learning, a worldwide leader for tailored learning solutions for
individuals, businesses and institutions. Thomson Corporation, the parent of
Thomson Learning, is a US$7.2-billion global leader in providing integrated
information solutions to business and professional customers.
As technology partners with U21G, Satyam has been involved
in the creation of an e-learning integrated solution, including the
development of a learning management system (LMS) which serves as a virtual
classroom for students and acts as a dynamic interface between students and
the faculty. In addition, Satyam has devised a student administration system
to manage the complete cycle from enrollment, graduation and career
counseling. Also built on the Broadvision platform by Satyam is a highly
personalized portal for U21G.
About Universitas 21 Global Pte Ltd.
UNIVERSITAS 21 GLOBAL is a joint venture between Universitas 21, an
international consortium of distinguished universities and Thomson Learning,
a worldwide provider of tailored learning solutions for individuals,
businesses and institutions. Established to become one of the world's
premier e-universities, we offer programs designed to create leaders for the
global economy of the future.
Universitas 21 (www.universitas21.com)
is incorporated in Guernsey, Channel Islands, and is an international
network of research-focused universities in Europe, North America, South
East Asia, and Oceania. It provides the joint venture with experience and
expertise across a range of vital educational functions, a proven quality
assurance capability and high brand value.
The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com),
with 2002 revenues of US$7.8 billion, is a global leader in providing
integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. The
Corporation's common shares are listed on the Toronto and New York stock
exchanges (TSX: TOC; NYSE: TOC). Its learning businesses and brands serve
the needs of individuals, learning institutions, corporations and government
agencies with products and services for both traditional and distributed
learning. For more information on Universitas 21 Global, please visit our
website at: www.u21global.com Or contact Rivai Adidharma (Sr Marketing
Manager) at DID: +65-6410 1311; Fax: +65-6410 1358; Email:
rivai.adidharma@u21global.com #
Showcase for computers, education,
training set
Arab News Compunet, June
24,
2003
JEDDAH, 17 June 2003 ? CommTel, Saudi Arabia?s
international event for computing, computer shopper, Internet,
office equipment and accessories, business communications and
mobile phones, will be held at the Jeddah International
Exhibition and Convention Center from Sept. 14 to 19.
The event will be held alongside MEETES?03 and
?Back-to-School? and ?has been timed when students, parents
and teachers are potential shoppers,? a spokesman for Al-Harithy
Company for Exhibitions, the organizers, said yesterday.
?CommTel will showcase the high technology world of the
personal computer and will also identify shopping and business
opportunities,? he added.
MEETES?03 brings together all aspects of the education
sector, both from within the Kingdom and overseas.
?Last year?s unprecedented success has encouraged the
organizers to hold MEETES?03 ? the 9th international fair for
education, training, human resources, equipment, aids and
services ? alongside CommTel plus Back-to-School.
Visitors can assess opportunities through colleges and
educational institutions from Canada, Australia, Switzerland,
Malaysia and the GCC and Arab countries. Local education
establishments and computer firms will also participate.
To make the event interactive and lively, experts from the
academic field will enlighten students on the education
policy, training and employment. #
PC assembly plant for Riyadh
Arab News, June
24,
2003
JEDDAH, 24 June 2003 ? One of the most important roles of
schools is to prepare the young generation for the future, and
that future is technology-driven. If students fall behind in
their awareness of technology, it will be difficult for them
to adapt and develop their communities.
Recently, an academic debate was held at the Research and
Postgraduate Studies Center of King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah on
traditional and modern learning. Modern learning here means
e-learning (electronic-learning) which incorporates the
Internet in the teaching process.
?We are not computer illiterate but our computer literacy
is not proactive,? said Dr. Maarof Haj Mohideen, the secretary
general of the Internet Society-Saudi Arabian Chapter and the
CEO of International E-learning Consultium. ?Computer literacy
should be a government policy, and I know that Crown Prince
Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard,
is very interested in this issue. But because of the lack of
infrastructure, people?s understanding of the Internet and
access to educational sites, we have not been able to use the
Internet in the best way.? ?We have to change our whole
concept of learning,? said Dr. Mohideen.
?Part of learning is arranging the information you receive,
utilizing it, processing it, applying it and recycling it;
this whole process is learning.? States in the US are already
adopting entire virtual curriculums.
A statewide virtual high school is typically
state-approved, and with a virtual high school, proponents
say, the playing field is leveled. Regardless of geographic or
economic differences, students can get the same quality
education. ?E-learning is not going to teach us everything,
it?s a tool,? said Dr. Mohideen. A teacher?s role is very
important. ?A teacher is a knowledge manager who knows how to
utilize knowledge and helps students learn,? he explained. #
Oracle unveils midmarket ERP app
ITP.net, June
17,
2003
The world?s tier one enterprise software
vendors are beefing up their midmarket offerings in an attempt
to persuade small-to-medium sized business (SMBs) that they
need enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications to
effectively run their businesses.
Locally, Oracle has announced the availability of its
E-Business Suite Special Edition. Designed specifically for
medium sized companies with up to 25 users, the pre-configured
ERP application comes with ten main modules, including general
ledger, accounts, cash management, inventory and order
management.
The solution will be sold exclusively through a select group
of five partners, including Hyperlink and GTS, and costs
around US$100,000, inclusive of deployment, license fees,
hardware, services and training.
Although the vendor is unwilling to reveal its sales
forecasts, Oracle believes the applications suitability for
the local market, plus its affordability, will guarantee it a
warm reception.
?We will continue to take market share from other companies
with Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition because our
product is much more mature than anything else on the market
and locally we also have the best partners working for us,?
says Anthony Peake, director of applications marketing, EMEA,
Oracle.
?Midmarket companies are telling us that they need a pricing
scheme that will scale down to 15-20 users. They also need to
implement software in a much faster way than larger
organisations and they would like to see a much faster ROI.
Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition addresses these
needs,? adds Ayman Abouseif, senior director marketing, Oracle
EMEA.
The vendor says it has been able to reduce the cost of the ERP
suite by delivering it as a fixed package and using Linux. As
such, implementation and customisation costs are unlikely to
spiral out of control and users will know what they are
getting from the start.
?It [the midmarket application] can be implemented in a fixed
time, which is important for midmarket companies. At the same
time, it has a fixed cost, so users know exactly what they are
getting and for how much,? confirms Abouseif. #
Global Knowledge launches training
relationship with Red Hat
Deal Enables Global Knowledge to Provide Hands-On Red Hat?
Linux? Training Courses And RHCE Certification Throughout the
United States
Global Knowledge News Release, June
16,
2003
Cary, N.C. - Global Knowledge Inc., a worldwide leader in
information technology education, and Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHAT), the world's
premier open source and Linux provider, today announced a relationship
enabling Global Knowledge to market and sell Red Hat's complete line of Red
Hat Linux training courses and certifications, including the top-rated Red
Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification.
The relationship will combine Global Knowledge's proven marketing, sales
and administrative infrastructure with Red Hat's course content,
instructors, hands-on training methods and performance-based certifications.
Beginning immediately, the two companies will offer Red Hat Linux training
to Global Knowledge's large existing customer base, with special focus on
courses in the Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) and RHCE certification
tracks.
The addition of the Red Hat Linux product line strengthens Global
Knowledge's already substantial line of branded hands-on IT training
offerings, which includes courses and certifications for Cisco Systems Inc.,
Microsoft Corp., Foundstone Inc., Oracle Corp., Internet Security Systems
and Legato Systems Inc., among others.
Global Knowledge is a recognized leader in delivering superior IT
education solutions to its customers," said Peter Childers, vice president
of Worldwide Learning Services at Red Hat. "This relationship will
significantly expand the distribution of Red Hat's courses and
certifications by leveraging Global Knowledge's sales and marketing
expertise. Through our relationship with Global Knowledge, Red Hat will be
able to deliver its hands-on training and RHCE certification to even more
customers who want proven skills for their technical staff."
"The demand for Red Hat's unique Linux course content far exceeds the
supply," said John Voorhees, group product director for IT Foundations
Products at Global Knowledge. "This relationship strengthens Global
Knowledge's leadership position in IT training and its commitment to
delivering the highest-quality education products and solutions to its
customers. Red Hat is the clear brand and product leader in Linux software
and services, and its complementary line of enterprise Linux networking,
security and development training products demonstrates a proven track
record of success in meeting customer learning objectives and critical
business needs."
Red Hat's line of Linux certifications and courses is now available
through Global Knowledge. To learn more, please visit
http://www.globalknowledge.com/redhat/.
About Red Hat
Red Hat is the world's premier open source
and Linux provider. Red Hat is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., and has
offices worldwide. For more information, visit
http://www.redhat.com/.
About Global Knowledge
Global Knowledge is a worldwide leader in IT education and enterprise
training solutions. Through its training options, the company empowers
customers with choice, allowing corporations and individuals to determine
when, where and how they want their training programs designed and
delivered. Global Knowledge offers over 700 courses in 21 countries and 13
languages every day. Global Knowledge has corporate headquarters in Cary,
N.C., and international headquarters in London, Tokyo and Singapore. Global
Knowledge is the trade name of Global Knowledge Network Inc. For more
information, visit
http://www.globalknowledge.com/. #
Application
of Adobe technology with Esko-Graphics
tools draws considerable attention
Esko-Graphics Press Release, June
11,
2003
Vandalia, OH ? June 11, 2003 ? Attendees of
the Association of Esko-Graphics Users Group (AEG) annual
meeting, held May 1-3 in St. Louis, left with substantial
appreciation of Esko-Graphics? prepress applications and a
greater knowledge of current prepress technologies. The
sessions, which included a full agenda of prepress updates,
provided a helpful platform for users to learn how to maximize
their investment in their Esko-Graphics solutions to solve
prepress challenges.
?The meeting this year was very
informative,? comments Mark Kyner, systems manager at Carey
Color. ?The users came with a lot of good information to share
and good questions for Esko-Graphics product management. It is
such a rich learning environment when you can sit with other
users and have your direct questions answered by Esko-Graphics
product and research and development staff.?
The group was greeted by Kim Graven-Nielsen,
CEO of Esko-Graphics. As is the custom, he provided the
audience a first-hand vision of future product development at
the company. ?The sense of direction from Esko-Graphics Senior
Management, along with the new products update is always
enlightening. It shows a strong foundation and reinforces the
decision we made to go with Esko-Graphics,? remarks Phil
Kispert, art director at Southern Atlantic Label Company.
In particular, the series of Adobe product
and technology presentations met with considerable interest,
along with the synergy with Esko-Graphics DeskPack, released
within the past year. ?One of the highlights for me was the
DeskPack mini session. This session offered users an in-depth
hands-on experience with the product managers right at your
side. Our company hasn?t had a chance to spend the time to
review DeskPack yet. This experience will be helpful when I
explain the merits of the software to my company,? notes Randy
Keyser, Systems & Image Assembly Manager at Beck Graphics
Solutions.
Beyond Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat and Esko-Graphics
DeskPack, the full agenda covered a wide range of prepress
topics and applications, including automated workflow, color
theory, PackEdge 3.0, Internet proofing tools, and alternative
color. "The DeskPack mini-session allowed me to discover tools
such as such as checkX (quality control, preflighting tools
for an Illustrator workflow) and boostX (high-end production
tools for the desktop). This type of interactive learning made
the meeting time well spent. All of us at our facility can
benefit from these tools," says Jeff Dafoe, Mac operator at
Triad Graphics Communications.
Many sessions were aimed at helping users
become more effective with their software solutions. In
addition to the hands-on demo lab, where users could have
questions answered by product developers and professional
service consultants, an extremely popular session was ?Tips
and Tricks?, where users shared some of their product pointers
with others. ?I?m a relatively new user. Any advice helps me
immensely. I found it stimulating being around experienced
users and learning shortcuts about how and what you can do
with Esko-Graphics tools,? comments Ken England, Prepress
Supervisor at Huston Patterson Printers.
Jean Brown, Plant Manager of the Doyle Group
in Oakland, CA, summarizes the meeting well. ?It was
beneficial interfacing with the developers. Building
relationships with those who create the programs for new
products is invaluable. Their discussions were very direct.
They obviously value our (the users) input. It was also
helpful talking with peers and learning about their innovative
solutions. It?s a testament to Esko-Graphics? open
technologies that they allowed users to demonstrate how they
have implemented solutions incorporating some third-party
products. As a result of this meeting I have a good sense of
where the company is headed. In fact, a recent meeting at our
offices with an Esko-Graphics sales rep to expand our presence
with Esko-Graphics technologies was due to the comfort I felt
from the AEG meeting. The Doyle Group feels that Esko-Graphics
is committed to the flexo industry more than any other
manufacturer in packaging prepress.?#
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