Cisco, MS join forces

Microsoft and Cisco Systems are working together to enable a Cisco networking appliance to handle basic Windows Server 2008 functions such as network management and printing, says Computerworld.

Cisco will embed a virtualisation component within its Wide-Area Application Services (WAAS) networking appliances that will allow users to run those Windows Server 2008 services locally rather than through a server in a central data centre.

The appliances will be available by the second half of this year, according to Baruch Deutsch, director of product marketing at Cisco. Designed for corporate branch offices with light server and networking needs, such as bank branches or retail stores, the hardware will offer Domain Name System, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, Active Directory and Print Services functionality, among other features.

Irish users of the popular online e-mail service Hotmail were unable to access their e-mail accounts today due to a major technical fault, reports RT'E Business.

Microsoft Ireland confirmed that many users had been unable to log on to their accounts and engineers were investigating a fault with servers.

There have also been reports that Hotmail users on the US east coast have also been unable to get into their e-mail accounts.

According to a report from Gartner, worldwide server shipments in the fourth quarter of 2007 grew 3.8% over the same quarter in 2006, while server shipments for the year were up 7.4% compared to the previous year, says ServerWatch.

The x86 market continued to grow in units sold, while the RISC market fell in terms of units. It still grew in dollars, however, due to increasingly decked out systems.

"What we're seeing I believe is a rapid and strong growth in server virtualisation, but we're still seeing shipment and revenue growth," Jeffrey Hewitt, research VP at Gartner, told InternetNews.com.