Sean Michael Kerner

For years, the scourge of the Internet has been ever increasing volumes of spam that clog inboxes around the world. According to a new report from Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), 2010 was the first year on record that spam volumes actually declined. Cisco’s report also points out some counter-intuitive data about which types of technologies are being […]

EnterpriseDB is out this week with Postgres Plus Standard Server version 9, updating their commercially supported version of the open source PostgeSQL database. The open source community version of PostgreSQL 9 debutedin September 2010, adding new database replication and scalability features. In addition to the new PostgreSQL Plus Standard Server release, EnterpriseDB is delivering new […]

The MySQL database is headed to the cloud, thanks to software vendor Xeround. Starting this week the Xeround cloud database is being made available as a public beta. While Xeround leverages components of the open source MySQL database, the cloud solution itself is not open source. Xeround also includes its own proprietary components which exapand […]

Next generation firewall, IPS and anti-malware, anti-virus capabilities could be coming together soon. IPS vendor Sourcefire (NASDAQ:FIRE) announced that it is acquiring privately held anti-malware vendor Immunet for $21 million in cash. Immunet develops cloud-based anti-malware capabilities for consumers. The two companies have been partners for several years with the joint ClamAV for Windows Desktop […]

Cisco is increasing its focus on open source as it continues to build its presence in cloud computing. Sean Michael Kerner reports. The move to cloud-based infrastructure is one that is set to dominate networking discussions in 2011. One of the leaders in the move to cloud is networking giant Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), which provides servers, […]

The worlds of cellular and Wi-Fi communications are about to get a whole lot closer. Mobile silicon technology vendor Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced its intention to acquire Wi-Fi silicon vendor Atheros (NASDAQ:ATHR) in a deal valued at $3.1 billion. Qualcomm will pay $45 for each Atheros share and the deal is expected to close […]

Novell could remain a public company for a bit longer than first anticipated. In November, privately held software vendor Attachmate announced its intention to acquire Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) for $2.2 billion. Part of the Novell acquisition involves another deal with a group called CPTN Holdings, which is set to acquire 882 Novell patents for $450 […]

Oracle is out this week with the Open Office 3.3 and Oracle Cloud Office 1.0 releases, introducing new features and technologies to users. The OpenOffice.org open source office suite is a key piece of technology that Oracle acquired as part of its purchase of Sun Microsystems. Open Office is also an area of controversy for […]

Opera Software is out with a new release of its namesake browser for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. Opera 11 includes new features aimed at improving usability, extensibility and security. The new Opera 11 release comes as rival browser makers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox, continue to push forward […]

One of the biggest hurdles that Oracle faced when acquiring Sun Microsystems was handling the open source MySQL database. There were concerns about how the open source database would fare under Oracle’s leadership, but those concerns are now being put to rest by Oracle with the release of MySQL 5.5 “MySQL 5.5 delivers significant performance […]

The filesystem of choice for many of the top 500 supercomputers is the open source Lustre filesystem. Lustre started off as a Sun Microsystems effort and is now under the stewardship of Oracle. Though Oracle is the leader of the Lustre open source project, other vendors also participate in Lustre development. One such vendor is […]

With its open framework, the Linux Kernel gets contributions from myriad sources. Sean Michael Kerner reports. Linux developers continue to push out new kernels at rapid pace, though over the course of the last year the pace of new code commits has slowed, according to a new report from the Linux Foundation. The report also […]