Enterprise networks are growing increasingly complex. Over the past five years, the increased focus on unified security, network optimization, and application acceleration has resulted in an explosion of new technologies, specialty devices, and vendors. The proliferation of high-speed connectivity networks and logical overlay networks - all running over the same physical links - have made it all but impossible for network teams to maintain consistent security, access, audit and change control using manual processes and device-specific management tools.

Over the last several years, integration technology has been growing by leaps and bounds. The XML/REST/Web Services/SOA revolution has driven engineers and software firms to create an abundance of protocols, adaptors, transports, containers, standards, best practices...you name it. The bits and bytes that are now available are undeniably sophisticated, diverse, and capable of almost anything, but many of the packages are built from the technology up and leave the job of how to use the capabilities effectively as an exercise for the reader.

I am always being told off by i-technologists for quoting Picasso as having said that computers are useless. But I still love his reasoning: 'Because they can only give you answers.' Picasso, like AJAXWorld Magazine, liked questions. So we thought we would share with you what some of the world's leading rich Internet application pioneers are thinking may be the next questions that we need to see answered. From that, readers can themselves infer: where is AJAX headed next?

Canonical announced the availability of Parallels Workstation for Linux through the Ubuntu Partner Repository -- giving Ubuntu users the ability to quickly find, install and run Parallels software. The Ubuntu Partner Repository and associated services from Canonical allow software providers to make their software readily available to Ubuntu users. The repository supplements the thousands of free and open source applications available through other Ubuntu repositories, and contains both proprietary and open source applications provided by Ubuntu Partners.

Varonis Systems thinks it's solved a 40-year-old Unix problem: the chronic lack of visibility into file share data use and poor access control. The three-year-old New York start-up says it solved it - at least for Solaris servers and NetApp filers - by taking its agent-based DatAdvantage 3.5 actionable data governance software, the stuff of permissions and audits, and extending it from Windows to Unix, an unusual direction these days.

Microsoft today attempted to exorcize the interoperability bogeymen that have haunted it since it was first discovered to be using secret APIs 20 years ago, bogeymen that now quote European antitrust law at it and carry writs from the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. To avoid further confrontation with the European Commission, which opened a broad investigation of Microsoft's interoperability last month, the company said it would voluntarily open up all the APIs and communications protocols in its biggest revenue producers now and forever. To be clear, it said that these are the APIs and protocols 'used by other Microsoft products.'

I am glad to introduce you to a new set of resources to help surface scalability and performance issues in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA.) The SOA Knowledge and Performance Kit is a free open-source resource to show you what it really takes to build services using today's leading SOA development platforms. The Kit delivers an SOA use case design, source code to the implementations of the use case on Oracle, IBM, BEA, and TIBCO platforms, developer journals describing our experiences step-by-step, a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator, and performance and scalability tests that leverage the PushToTest test automation platform.

So it's kicking off an 'Enterprise Acceleration' initiative. It means to add products to its middleware portfolio, sponsor new open source projects, grow its partner ecosystem, and offer new enterprise-class performance and interoperability resources. It also means to buck up sales and marketing. It said it would set up facilities for performance tuning. testing applications, live certification and migration. JBoss, which cost Red Hat around $325 million a couple of years ago, runs on Red Hat, Windows and other Linuxes.

'Not only will this deal position us to emerge from Chapter 11, but it also marks an exciting future for our business,' said Jeff Hunsaker, President and Chief Operating Officer of SCO Operations. 'This significant financial backing is positive news for SCO's customers, partners and resellers who continue to request upgrades and rely upon SCO's UNIX services to drive their business forward.'

MontaVista Software and DataViz announced the availability of Documents To Go for the MontaVista Mobilinux 5.0 mobile operating system. As a result of the integration of the mobile office suite Documents To Go by DataViz with Mobilinux, mobile device users will be able to open and view Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint email attachments directly on their Linux-based mobile devices.

ACCESS and MontaVista Software reinforced their shared commitment to accelerate the development of smart mobile devices by releasing a pre-integrated software stack combining the ACCESS Linux Platform with the MontaVista Mobilinux operating system. ACCESS Linux Platform enables the creation of world-class mobile phones and wireless devices by providing a commercial-grade Linux platform designed for the worldwide mobile phone and converged device markets. MontaVista Mobilinux is the field-proven mobile operating system used in 90 percent of Linux-based smartphones.

3DLABS Semiconductor announced the availability of its Linux 2.6.21 based Software Development Kit (SDK), bringing the latest open source innovations to developers and device makers using its DMS-02 processor to deliver unrivalled application and media processing performance within low power environments.

Arxan Technologies announced Linux platform coverage for its GuardIT product. Linux has made it a mainstream platform for desktop- and server-based applications as well as software within embedded devices. Fulfilling the need to protect Linux applications against piracy, reverse engineering and malware insertion, Arxan's GuardIT for Linux supports software applications across Linux desktop, server and embedded platforms.

Alfresco announced the availability of its second global survey of trends in the use of open source software in the enterprise. The Alfresco Open Source Barometer survey was conducted throughout 2007 using opt-in data provided by Alfresco's 35,000 community members and shows deployments of Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a market share of 24% and 21% respectively.

Linpus Technologies will be demonstrating its brand new Linux operating system, Linpus Linux Lite, designed to empower the next billion PC customers. Linpus Linux Lite has a unique dual-mode user interface making it an easy way to start enjoying the opportunity of information. It also works on low cost hardware bringing the dream of buying a PC much closer for many people.

STMicroelectronics expanded its Nomadik multimedia application processor ecosystem with the integration of Linux and Trolltech's Qtopia application environment in the STn8815 Nomadik engine. This platform provides equipment manufacturers with a complete reference design that facilitates fast development and customization of the latest generations of multimedia applications including smart phones, wireless PDAs, internet appliances and car entertainment systems.

SYSOPENDIGIA today announced that it will contribute to open-source the software created and modified for the 3G Linux smartphone. The SYSOPENDIGIA 3G Linux smartphone has been created using Linux operating system and other open-source software components, as well as commercially licensed Qtopia application platform and user interface from Trolltech.

Mobile Linux company, Azingo (formerly Celunite), announced an open mobile Linux solution for mobile phones and advanced mobile devices, based on the Samsung application processor S3C2442 and Azingo Mobile, Azingo's comprehensive mobile Linux platform software.

Key opinion-formers in the field of infrastructure and pioneers of virtualization technologies of all types have already begun submitting speaking proposals to Virtualization Conference & Expo 2008 East, being held in New York City, 23-24 June, 2008. Topics covered will range from Server Virtualization, Application Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Network Virtualization, I/O Virtualization and Storage Virtualization, to Virtual Machine Automation, Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migration, Management Applications, Tools and Utilities, and Virtualization Scripts and Procedures.

Levanta announced that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, also known as LA Metro, has successfully deployed Levanta's Intrepid Linux Data Center Automation solution. LA Metro, which runs over 200 Metro Bus lines and four Metro Rail lines in Los Angeles, California, selected Levanta as part of their initiative to enhance the efficiency, agility and operational resiliency of their data center.

'It is very important to me that Acquia has a marketing leader who understands the importance of growing and sustaining a community and who is passionate about the principles of open source software,' said Acquia co-founder and CTO Dries Buytaert as Jeff Whatcott joined the company as vice president of marketing, responsible for all marketing activity. Whatcott arrived from Adobe, where he led marketing for LiveCycle and Flex.

Novell's got a new pre-built installation server that simplifies the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on IBM's mainframes by using z/VM tools natively. It's called the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Starter System for System z and was developed for Novell by Sine Nomine Associates.

One of the most exciting things about the software industry is how fast it moves. Software is constantly optimizing itself around the state-of-the-art. Inherent industry bottlenecks change cyclically every five years or so. Architectures and solutions change too. CPUs too costly? Enter dumb terminals. Network running slow? Build client/servers.

Sun is offering ten grants of US $11,500 - equivalent to several months of pay for developers in some countries - for the best NetBeans projects submitted by open source developers. Conceived as a means of increasing general awareness around the NetBeans project as well as rewarding good work done by the NetBeans Community, the 'Dreams of Reality' contest is described in detail by worldwide NetBeans Community Manager Bruno Souza, the charismatic Brazilian developer, in a special audio webcast currently playing on SYS-CON.TV.

Google, which does not give guidance, missed both Wall Street's top and bottom expectations for its December quarter by a hair and the punters turned vicious pounding it down around 50 bucks after-hours. Consensus demanded non-GAAP earnings of $4.44 on revenues of $3.45 billion. Google came in with $4.43 on revenues $3.39 billion. Those revenues figures are net of what's called TAC, Google's traffic acquisition costs, the money it pays its partners, which it this case amounted $1.44 billion or 30% of its ad revenues.

Embarcadero is introducing a new version of Change Manager that allows developers and database administrators (DBAs) to conduct high-speed data and database configuration comparisons from a Linux workstation. Change Manager for Linux runs on both Red Hat Enterprise 5.0 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10. Embarcadero's Change Manager for Linux supports Oracle, Sybase, DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server databases.

Novell announced the availability of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Starter System for System z, a pre-built installation server that simplifies the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on IBM's System z mainframes. The starter system eliminates the need for IT managers to search for network access to installation media on the mainframe. With the new Starter System for System z, customers can quickly initiate evaluations of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z.

Microsoft and Novell announced that French carmaker Renault SA has joined the growing ranks of customers taking advantage of the two companies' cooperation to deliver greater interoperability between Microsoft Windows and SUSE Linux Enterprise. Under the agreement, Microsoft will deliver to Renault more than 1,000 certificates for priority support subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell, as Renault consolidates existing Linux distributions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with the goal of improving interoperability and taking better advantage of virtualization.

Governance is currently a key topic for many IT functions. Its definition varies, but its key themes are true for all companies: effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability. Business value and risk mitigation are also at its center and represent a significant part of enterprise governance overall.

High-performance databases are optimized for transaction processing and used by several industries around the world, notably financial services and health care. They are more commonly available on 32-bit Unix platforms (Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and Linux). The trend is to 64-bit-enable them and migrate them to the IA-64 architecture.

Red Bend Software and Trolltech announced they have formed a partnership to bring over-the-air software component management to Linux mobile phones that use Trolltech's Qtopia application platform.

CommuniGate Systems announced the addition of CalDAV support to its industry leading Unified Communications platform. The CalDAV standard lets users share scheduling resources and calendar events to boost collaboration and productivity throughout the enterprise. As a standards-based solution, the CommuniGate Pro platform works across multiple calendar standards, such as iCalendar, MAPI, WebCal, and now CalDAV for seamless interoperability of clients and organizational scheduling services.

LynuxWorks announced that it is working with Wabtec Corporation on a technology-based product for the rail industry. Wabtec, which manufactures a wide range of products for the rail and transit industry, selected LynuxWorks' industry-leading real-time operating system (RTOS) products because of the company's strong reputation for providing reliable platforms based on strict adherence to open standards.

Qosmos announced their ability to deliver Qosmos Qoala software suite ready-to-run on Bivio Networks' B2000 Series DPI platforms. Qosmos Qoala is a Software Development Kit (SDK) incorporating advanced Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) features and a comprehensive library of protocol and application signatures, which offers exceptionally high recognition rates for application protocols, to empower the development of new revenue generating services demanding real-time monitoring and extraction of key data traveling over IP networks.

Promise Technology announced that Promise VTrak E-Class RAID subsystems will support Mac OS X Leopard and Final Cut Studio in select configurations to be available at a later date through selected sales channels.

IGEL Technology announced its latest Linux firmware upgrade enhancing the broadest and most powerful range of thin clients on the market. The firmware delivers enhanced security through smartcard authentication of RDP sessions with the inclusion of the new Winconnect RDP client. When combined with the integrated Leostream client already included in IGEL's Linux firmware, organizations can deploy virtual Windows PCs using secure two-factor authentication and single-sign-on security.

For BEA, I was hoping they would succeed at combining the power of JRockit with AquaLogic to build scalable workflow (a la BPM) services. Instead, we users and developers will be waiting for years to see WebLogic and AquaLogic integrated into the Oracle Fusion Middleware stack. For MySQL, I was hoping for an IPO.

Wind River announced that the LiMo Foundation has selected Wind River's commercial Linux technology as the foundation for its Common Integration Environment (CIE). The CIE solution, including Wind River's build and configuration system with layers, mobile-optimized kernel distribution, and tool chain provides the fundamental building blocks that will help LiMo members fulfil the Foundation's goal of reducing fragmentation in the Linux mobile handset market.

CAD Schroer Group (CSG) announced the latest release of its free personal use version of the powerful MEDUSA4 design automation suite, available for Windows and six different Linux distributions. The industry-proven 2D/3D CAD solution now also includes a Sheet Metal Design module, and many additional enhancements.

Efforts to modernize enterprise infrastructure have never been more complex. While the need is certainly there on multiple fronts - competitive edge, cost savings and new business initiatives, to name just a few - new hurdles seem to pop up no matter where an IT administrator might look. That includes not just management issues such as cap/ex costs and user resistance, but also an increasing pancake stack of integration layers within and among applications.