The U.S. Department of Defense's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Microsoft Corp. have agreed to jointly develop updates for Microsoft's Virtual Earth mapping program for military and nonmilitary purposes. The effort will focus on improving the software for use in tasks such as guiding relief efforts for natural disasters. Officials declined to disclose potential military applications.
Thomson to replace RIM with GoodLink
Thomson Inc. plans to put more than 2,000 of its workers on Good Technology Inc.'s new GoodLink wireless messaging service over the next 18 months, replacing Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry service. Thomson said it selected GoodLink because it offered broader functionality than RIM, not because of RIM's patent battle with NTP Inc. So far, about 200 of the users have shifted to GoodLink.
SAP unit to support Siebel CRM products
SAP AG subsidiary Tomorrow-Now Inc., a third-party support services provider, this week plans to begin supporting the Siebel CRM software of rival Oracle Corp. TomorrowNow already supports Oracle's PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards products. Bryan, Texas-based TomorrowNow said a seven-member team in Research Triangle Park, N.C., will handle the Siebel effort.
CA unveils tape encryption tool
CA Inc. today is slated to launch a software program designed to ease tape encryption and key-management functions for mainframe users. The BrightStor Tape Encryption tool can encrypt data as it is written to standard-label z/OS tapes, without requiring changes to job control language or applications, CA said. Pricing starts at $60,000 for encrypting up to 300 data files per month.