Microsoft, if nothing else, has become a problem for Yahoo's $350 million Zimbra acquisition and Google's rudimentary Sites contribution to the advance of software-as-a-service announced last week by throwing open the more sophisticated Exchange Online and SharePoint Online to any business anywhere that wants to use the software as a service.

CMS Watch released research finding that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) web content management vendors are on the rise in North America. This conclusion stems from the most recent release of The Web CMS Report 2008, in which CMS Watch interviews web content management customers around the globe to evaluate 40 solutions in the marketplace.

Microsoft, if nothing else, became a problem today for Yahoo's $350 million Zimbra acquisition and Google's rudimentary Sites contribution to the advance of software-as-a-service announced last week by throwing open the more sophisticated Exchange Online and SharePoint Online to any business anywhere that wants to use the software as a service.

OpSource and Boomi announced that the companies have expanded their partnership to include an OEM agreement whereby OpSource will embed Boomi On Demand within its software-as-a-service (SaaS) application delivery system. Boomi On Demand will be built directly into Opsource Connect, the newly launched application that helps companies consume and publish Web services and integrate SaaS applications. Within the product, Boomi On Demand will be branded as Boomi for OpSource Connect.

OpSource announced that AVOLENT has selected OpSource On-Demand to deliver its new software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. As a provider of enterprise software, AVOLENT was able to accelerate its transition to SaaS with OpSource, enabling B2B and B2C companies of any size to begin moving to paperless billing and settlement.

For years, the telecom industry has been aggressively expanding into IT services to offset declining revenue from traditional voice and data services. Today telecom's infrastructure-focused IT services such as computer hosting are already commoditized. Telecom companies are trying to figure out how to climb up the IT stack towards application-focused software services where the business value is more direct and the margins higher.

Server virtualization firm, Parallels' offerings, have reached over 100 applications, certified according to the Application Packaging Standard (APS), in a packaging format designed to facilitate hosted application delivery by independent software vendors (ISVs). APS-certified applications can be plugged into hosting platforms that conform to the standard. According to a recent survey of 400 service providers worldwide by Parallels, more than 70 percent plan to offer SaaS applications this year, nearly double the number that currently offer SaaS.

The advent of SOA and standard-base Web services together with Internet based delivery models has provided the essential base for facilitating new software platform innovations. One of these innovations is a breakthrough software componentization technique that we have coined Service Oriented Programming (SOP). While SOA focuses on communication between systems using 'service operations,' SOP provides a new technique to build agile application modules using in-process, native service operations as the 'units of assembly.'

and Service Division that will include the four-year-old start-up EMC just agreed to buy off of him. EMC is paying cash for the Seattle-based Pi Corporation and its 100 engineers. EMC didn?t say how much but Pi was founded using Warburg-Pincus ($$$) money and EMC says the acquisition will likely dilute its EPS this year by a penny.

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.'

Service providers that use Parallels virtualization and automation software now have access to more than 100 applications certified according to the Application Packaging Standard (APS). End-user customers will benefit from a greater variety of software-as- a-service (SaaS) solutions, which can be delivered by service providers with minimal cost and effort.

Symantec announced it is delivering on its vision of easy-to-use, software as a service offerings for small and mid-sized businesses with the general availability of two Symantec Protection Network services. Symantec Online Backup provides customers with secure, reliable, online backup and recovery capabilities based on Symantec's data protection technology, at a cost-effective price point. Symantec Online Storage for Backup Exec is integrated with Backup Exec 12, the industry standard in Windows data protection, creating a hybrid software as a service solution. Backup Exec customers can now immediately protect their critical data both onsite and offsite, for a total disaster recovery solution.

SAVVIS announced a multi-million dollar agreement with Vovici Corporation, the leading provider of Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM). Under terms of the three year agreement, Vovici will relocate and consolidate their U.S. based IT infrastructure into a single SAVVIS data center located near Washington, D.C. Vovici will then expand globally by deploying their software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model, using SAVVIS' managed IT infrastructure in data centers in the UK with future plans for expansion to Singapore.

Boomi announced that MDS Pharma Services has implemented Boomi On DemandSM to integrate its Salesforce CRM application with its legacy on-premise Oracle applications. Boomi's revolutionary software-as-a-service (SaaS) integration application allows MDS Pharma Services to achieve operational efficiencies through more accurate data and reporting.

Dell, still a relative stranger to acquisitions, is buying MessageOne, Adam Dell's enterprise-class, on-demand e-mail services business, a company in which his brother Michael, Dell's founder, had a piece. The going price is $155 million cash. It's earmarked for Dell's SaaS portfolio and provides continuity, archiving and disaster recovery.

Parallels and Smart Online announced the Parallels SaaS Development Kit, a suite of software development tools that will help independent software vendors (ISVs) to package software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications for the more than 10,000 service providers worldwide that use Parallels solutions.

Some of the most scared people inside Yahoo right now have got to be the open source Zimbra crowd that Yahoo acquired last September for $350 million for its Microsoft-opposing enterprise-directed e-mail and calendaring, folks who just released their webby AJAX-based Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 5.0 this week - and intend to give it a browser-based document-creating and -sharing Zimbra Desktop, called the 'world's first offline-capable Web 2.0 collaborative experience.' Somehow we suspect Microsoft may not think e-mail is 'broken' like Zimbra, a partner of Red Hat, does, but if Microsoft does acquires Yahoo and you hear a crunch, you can imagine Zimbra's back breaking.

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.

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.

Boomi announced that Revionics is using Boomi On DemandSM for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) integration with Revionics' retail customers. Revionics is the leading provider of price optimization technology services for the retail market. By using Boomi On Demand, Revionics is now able to centrally manage the collection and integration of all its customers' data through the Web without the burden of installing and maintaining software packages or hardware appliances at store locations.

OpSource delivers Rich Internet Applications and a unique Rich Web Technology as a service for on-demand companies, with hundreds of applications, millions of users and billions of transactions supported daily. OpSource On-Demand, the leading platform for Web application delivery, is defining how Web-based software is delivered. By choosing OpSource, companies are freed from investing in and managing the complex and costly infrastructure necessary to deliver applications over the Web. They can instead focus their resources on developing, marketing and selling. For more information about OpSource, visit http://www.opsource.net.

Boomi launched an on-demand integration service with the general availability of Boomi On Demand(SM). After a highly successful beta customer program that included over 100 organizations ranging from small businesses to some of the largest companies in the world, Boomi On Demand is now available to the general market.

Every major enterprise technology vendor has developed its own SOA strategy, supported by innumerable mid-size companies and start-ups offering specific SOA aspects or entire solutions. Submit your speaking proposal today to discuss your SOA strategy at SOA World Conference & Expo on June 23-24, 2008, in New York City. Tracks will include Web 2.0/AJAX and SOA, Interop Standards and Services, Real-World SOA, SOA Technology, Virtualization, and Specially Selected Hot Topics.

Webroot E-mail Security SaaS is the result of Webroot's November 2007 merger with Email Systems, an SaaS security provider in the UK. Email Systems, now Webroot, protects more than 1,500 businesses and 2.5 million e-mail boxes worldwide with this e-mail management, protection, and compliance solution.

Salesforce.com has hired Polly Sumner, one of the old Oracle mafia, as president, platform, alliances and services, responsible for the technology and marketing of the company's Force.com platform. Sumner was recently president of global services for Telcordia, the telecoms outfit, and from 1987-1999 worked at Oracle with Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. Force.com lets third parties access Salesforce's infrastructure and develop software that Salesforce hosts.

Microsoft disclosed late Thursday that Jeff Raikes, the head of its Office operation, second only to Windows in bringing in revenue, was retiring and will be replaced by Stephen Elop, 44, Jupiter Networks' short-term COO. Before Jupiter, Elop was president of worldwide field operations at Adobe by virtue of Adobe's 2005 acquisition of Macromedia, where he was president and CEO. Elop also has experience as a chief information officer. The plan is for Raikes, 49, to hang around until September as a backstop as a member of the senior leadership team for purposes of transition.

You have perhaps heard - given the amount of ink spilled on the story - that Intel quit the One Laptop Per Child board last week rather than get thrown off for badmouthing and competing against the altruistic non-profit and its cute little kid-friendly, customer-shy, AMD Geode-based green-and-white widget, the thing that was supposed to cost $100 and currently costs $188. Intel only took the board seat and promised millions of dollars in financial aid last July after the head of OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte, complained about Intel's interference with his brainchild and its potential third-world buyers on television's '60 Minutes.'

Google's new-year special logo, which went live briefly as 2008 began, celebrated the 25th anniversary of TCP/IP - adopted by Arpanet on January 1st, 1983. While 'invisible' to most users, many of the layers built on top of TCP/IP are well-known even to laymen: HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), FTP (the File Transfer Protocol), SMTP and POP3, and IRC.

The newfangled Holy Grail of software-as-a-service has come to OpenOffice, the freebie challenger of Microsoft Office sent into the wild years ago by Sun Microsystems to wreak what havoc it could. Ulteo, the outfit started by Mandrakesoft, now Mandriva, founder Gaël Duval last year after Mandriva fired him over strategic differences, has webified OpenOffice 2.3. Its new software-as-a-service, called the Ulteo Online Desktop and days into an open beta, is supposed to make it unnecessary to install or update OpenOffice on a client PC, the first of apparently other desktop applications and data management that Ulteo intends to take into the cloud. It is also supposed to let users collaborate, another de rigeur facility, by invitation in real-time.

Google e-mail, messaging and calendars would run $4.17 per user a month, with no initial set-up fees. A hosted Microsoft Exchange environment would cost $8.58 per user a month besides a $17.65-a-head set-up fee but Microsoft includes Blackberry support, managed collaboration services and IM services. The next step would be to pilot some of the solutions.

The two most powerful forces shaping enterprise software today are software as a service (SaaS) and open source software (OSS). Previously separate, they are now converging into a powerful 'SaaS + OSS' model destined to become the dominant business model for enterprise software. Using case studies, the session will review how vendors can use this model to scale rapidly, use capital efficiently, and acquire customers for a low marginal cost. The presentation will also address how the model delivers unprecedented value to end-customers through lower total cost of ownership, higher quality, faster deployments, improved support, enhanced collaboration, and greater transparency.

In keeping with the longstanding SYS-CON tradition of being at the very forefront of software development with all its online and offline resources, SYS-CON Media & Events jointly today announced a double whammy, launching both 'Open Web Developer's Journal' (htt p://openweb.sys-con.com) and 'Open Web Developer Summit' (http://openweb.s ys-con.com) - to be held for the first time in New York City April 21-22, 2008.

For building applications, BundleWorks includes ant tasks and command line tools to allow developers to build standard bundles for both custom and third-party applications. For testing, BundleWorks allows a developer to create and manage multiple environments to test multiple versions of applications. For deployment, BundleWorks supports local and remote deployment and provides a library of functions to handle common deployment tasks. For maintentance, BundleWorks tracks all bundle actions and configuration changes providing a complete history of activity.

Software virtualization is the ability to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same computer. The basic premise is that for most of the day your server is basically idle and the CPU and memory are not tasked with processes all day long, the server has excess capacity and virtualization allows you to maximize your investment by installing another full version of an operating system on your hardware at the same time.

Red Hat said Monday that the public beta of its operating system on the newfangled Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) was available. Amazon has taken to peddling resizable time, utility-style, on its own data center to other people and Red Hat arranged for its customers to run their certified apps on the thing under the Red Hat Network management service if they had a mind to. One buys whatever capacity one needs for $19 a month per account plus 21-94 cents an hour depending on the size of the instance plus bandwidth and storage fees.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider QED Connect today announced a reseller partnership with Kaspersky Lab, a leading provider of Internet threat management solutions that protect against viruses, spyware, hackers and spam. QED Connect has joined Kaspersky's channel partner program and will offer its full line of award-winning network security products and solutions in the U.S. The partnership provides customers with premium antivirus and anti-malware protection to complement QED's flagship Omni Manager, a SaaS that offers visibility, management and control of activity on all computers, laptops and wireless devices.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has just memorialized the Affero GPLv3, a version of the GPL that was created to cover software that runs over a network such as the Internet, which these days would mean, oh, SaaS stuff and Google Apps, Web Services, game servers, web and e-mail servers, that kinda stuff. It's based on the GPLv3 but adds a codicil that lets users who interact with AGPLv3-licensed software over a network get the source code to that program. It's meant to force more software modifications to be shared by removing the protection of the server. The Affero license started outside the Free Software Foundation - the operation behind the GPL - but it concert with it because the GPL hadn't anticipated protecting works accessed over the Internet. The FSF now maintains the Affero license and published two drafts of AGPLv3 this summer seeking feedback.

I asked what she did for a living. She said she was a software engineer working with SOA. I did not think about my plane ride much until I arrived in San Francisco to attend the SOA World Conference & Expo this past Monday and Tuesday. The first day of the conference as I walked into the hotel, guess who I saw? My friend who I met on the Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul. What a small world, isn't it? Her company was one of the sponsors of the event.

The three-year-old Dojo Foundation has put out version 1.0 of Dojo, an open source JavaScript toolkit for AJAX development meant for building rich Web 2.0 applications without proprietary plug-ins or single-vendor solutions. The widgetry makes use of Google Gears, Google's solution for making applications work both on- and offline. What Dojo calls Dojo Offline is based on it. The toolkit is all of 25K in size and supports progressive enhancement and animations and is supposed to open the door to a wealth of high-quality widgets and extension modules. Dojo also supports the Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and Opera browsers and the OpenAjax Alliance Hub 1.0 to guarantee interoperability with other toolkits IBM, Sun, BEA and AOL are Dojo backers.