China Martens

Salesforce.com Inc. Monday released a new high-end take on its on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) software. The vendor is hoping the product, dubbed Unlimited Edition, will encourage its customers to host more of their non-CRM applications on its AppExchange network.

A group of more than 35 U.S. and international IT vendors, organizations, academic institutions and industry bodies is due to announce the formation of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Alliance Friday.

A group of more than 35 U.S. and international IT vendors, organizations, academic institutions and industry bodies is due to announce the formation of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Alliance.

Oracle Corp. made its low-end, free-of-charge Oracle Database 10g Express Edition database, also known as XE, generally available Tuesday. When the company initially released the beta version of the software in October of last year, Oracle expected to debut the first full release of XE by year-end.

Hewlett-Packard Co. has come up with a new strategy to increase use of its OpenView Business Process Insight (BPI) business process management and optimization software. The vendor is teaming up with integration partners in specific vertical markets to provide combined tools to deal with particular industry issues.

IBM Corp. is drawing closer to releasing a new chassis for its blade servers, with an announcement possible as early as next week when the company is set to stage a major hardware launch in New York Feb. 8.

IBM Corp. launched a new initiative aimed at attracting more Russian developers to use its middleware and hardware. The move is part of the company's continued focus on emerging markets, notably five nations it dubs the BRICK countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Korea.

EMC Corp. is stepping up its activities in the grid technology space via a tie-up with customer information management company Acxiom Corp., the storage giant announced last month. EMC is also making its first significant acquisition of grid technology, paying US$30 million to purchase Acxiom