NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 7 July
07-07-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
O2 Ireland improves mobile broadband upload speeds | Microsoft says it's still interested in buying Yahoo
O2 Ireland has launched an upgrade to its mobile broadband service. The enhancement will allow customers to upload content at speeds of 1.4Mbps. O2, which says it currently has 55,000 mobile broadband customers, claims it is the first mobile broadband provider in the country to offer upload functionality at broadband speeds.
Microsoft said on Monday that it would be willing to re-open talks with Yahoo, but only if a new Yahoo board is elected. This latest move by Microsoft is a boost for billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who is priming a slate of candidates to replace the current Yahoo board. Microsoft, which broke off talks in early May about buying Yahoo for USD47.5 billion, said it would enter into discussions immediately if a new board were elected at Yahoo's 1 August shareholder meeting.
Anglo Irish Bank has selected Software Quality Systems (SQS) as its testing partner to provide a range of testing services over a 12-month period. As part of the deal SQS will provide a team of professional testers to assist Anglo Irish Bank in the implementation of a number of key technology projects that will deliver "market edge banking solutions". Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Sony Ireland has announced the appointment of David Byrne to the position of Channel Development Manager for Video-Conferencing and CCTV within its business division, Sony Professional Solutions. Byrne joins Sony Ireland Limited from Digicom where he held the position of Corporate Sales - Audio Visual Consultant with responsibility for developing the business across a range of corporate and public sector clients.
In more news of appointments, storage giant EMC has appointed Bob Savage as the new Vice President of EMC's International Operations Campus in Cork. Savage joined EMC in Ireland in 1988 and progressed to Director of Manufacturing Engineering in 1996. His role over a ten-year period was to lead and develop many of the technical and engineering functions on campus. In 2006, he was appointed Senior Director of Manufacturing Operations in Cork. Savage's previous experience includes lecturing at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and a test engineer and lecturer at Glanmire Electronics.
The pace of adoption of virtualised servers is "incredibly rapid" among European organisations, according to a study by IDC. Thirty-five percent of servers purchased in 2007 were virtualised and 52 percent of those bought in 2008 are expected to be so. Some 54 percent of respondents not currently using virtualisation expect to do so in the next 18 months. "Virtualisation use has exploded since our last survey of the European market," said Chris Ingle, consulting and research director, IDC's Systems Group. "Both large organisations and smaller businesses are using the technology for a wider range of applications and for business critical projects."
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 