From Application Virtualization to Xen, a round-up of the virtualization themes & topics being discussed in NYC June 23-24, 2008 by the world-class speaker faculty at the 3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo being held by SYS-CON Events in The Roosevelt Hotel, in midtown Manhattan.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients has selected SAP to provide enterprise applications to replace its legacy system. The deal includes SAP ERP, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Ballance's existing legacy system had been customized over the years in order to meet increasing business requirements. When it came time to upgrade, the company decided that SAP's packaged approach would be better able to achieve the desired business benefits when compared with competitors' offerings.

SAP and TechniData announced the availability of SAP REACH Compliance, a comprehensive software application for addressing complex tasks required by the European Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) legislation. The first REACH compliance deadline is pre- registration, which runs from June 1, 2008 to November 30, 2008. The remaining three REACH deadlines will occur in 2010, 2013 and 2018, respectively.

Demonstrating ongoing success in providing innovative solutions to insurers worldwide, SAP America, a subsidiary of SAP, announced that ICW Group has selected SAP to support its growth and transformation goals. Rather than work with point solution insurance providers, ICW Group has selected SAP solutions to upgrade its multiple lines of business onto one platform. As more insurers are experiencing the value of consolidation on a single-platform, ICW Group's decision to move away from a siloed information technology (IT) landscape will help to lower its total cost of ownership. ICW Group will implement industry-specific solutions from SAP for claims, payments, billing, financials and corporate performance management.

SAP announced a design and development governance offering for enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA.) The new offering will enable SAP customers to experience tangible business benefits as a result of an enterprise SOA strategy. Growing adoption of the SAP enterprise SOA strategy -- the design and reuse of rich enterprise services to enable efficiencies in business performance -- has led to customer requests for training and education involving SAP's proven design and development governance methodologies to help them speed their path toward enterprise SOA.

AMC Technology announced that seven additional Connectors for its MCIS 5.2 product recently achieved 'Certified for SAP NetWeaver' status from SAP for the interaction center capabilities integrated with the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application. The certified connectors include six connectors that integrate with SAP CRM via the SAP integrated communications interface: AMC Telephony Connector for Cisco ICM 5.2, AMC Telephony Connector for Envox CT Connect 5.2, AMC Telephony Connector for AES 5.2, AMC Telephony Connector for AIC 5.2, AMC Telephony Connector for Nortel CCT 5.2 and AMC MCIS WebChat 5.2. Also certified is the AMC MCIS Telephony Channel 5.2 connector that integrates with SAP CRM via the SAPphone interface.

Mike Neil is general manager for virtualization strategy in the Windows Server Division at Microsoft. Mike is focused on the delivery of the Windows virtualization technology, including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server and Virtual PC 2007. Mike also directs the technical enablement of Microsoft's broader vision for virtualization, to include virtualization management tools and virtualized desktop infrastructure. Prior to this role, Mike was responsible for Microsoft?s server and PC virtualization efforts since 2003.

SoftBrands announced an extension of its partnership with SAP. The companies will jointly pursue opportunities for affiliates and smaller sites of large enterprises. The goal and commitment is to pursue an SAP-centric solution at the plant level for large enterprises. SoftBrands is one of the first partners to work with SAP on a joint market approach and strategy for this market segment.

SAP announced that Oxford Industries will replace its financial information systems with the SAP ERP Financials solution. Oxford selected SAP as its software vendor of choice based on the company's reputation for providing value in the retail industry, its proven platform that supports customers with global operations and the superior functionality of the product.

Brian Stevens, the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering of Red Hat, delivered his Virtualization Keynote 'The Future of the Virtual Enterprise' at SYS-CON's Virtualization Conference & Expo 2007 West in San Francisco. 'Virtualization is the hottest subject today,' said Stevens, an industry luminary, who is credited with having pioneered new technologies that contributed to the rise of Linux as an industry-standard operating platform.

Founded in 2006, SYS-CON Media's 'Virtualization Journal' is the world's first magazine devoted exclusively to what Gartner has earmarked as the single highest-impact IT trend through 2012: virtualization. And now it will be available on newsstands worldwide, as SYS-CON Media seeks to support the world-beating 'International Virtualization Conference & Expo' series produced by SYS-CON Events with top-quality print collateral, available at newsstands wherever fine-quality technical journals are sold.

SAP Public Services announced that Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) has selected SAP's flagship enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP ERP. M-DCPS joins an increasing number of school systems investing in modern information technology to better manage their operations and improve public education.

EnteGreat announced its acquisition of the SAP Consulting Practice of Technology Solutions Company (TSC). The move substantially augments EnteGreat's existing SAP business and positions the company for growth in emerging markets. EnteGreat brings a blend of manufacturing expertise and technology systems integration to the new unit, while TSC's SAP Consulting Practice brings comprehensive consulting services, products, and project management expertise. By adding best-of-breed SAP consulting and project management capabilities to EnteGreat's existing SAP services, the newly expanded company will enable customers to align their enterprise business processes to their manufacturing operations more efficiently and cost effectively.

SAP announced growing market adoption for the company's new support services offering, SAP Enterprise Support. SAP Enterprise Support meets the evolving needs of customers by supporting a company's mission-critical business processes and heterogeneous software environment. The ongoing growth of SAP's robust product offerings and mass adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA) have challenged traditional support models. No longer are bug fixes and maintenance sufficient. SAP Enterprise Support provides companies with a holistic offering that helps to reduce the risk and maximize the value that customers receive from their IT investments.

SAP announced plans for the release of SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management and SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management. The addition of these planned capabilities will further establish SAP NetWeaver as the strategic platform of choice for customers that execute a service-oriented architecture (SOA) strategy. The new tools from SAP are aimed to provide the business process flexibility needed to enable customers to turn strategic business insight into real-world execution. A vital part of SAP's robust platform offering, SAP NetWeaver allows IT organizations to drive more value by providing the agility to respond to requests from the business for new or adapted business processes. The addition of the planned capabilities will enable business process experts to design, model and execute new or adapted business processes without having to develop code. The SAP NetWeaver technology platform and its full set of capabilities allows companies to accelerate the consolidation of their IT landscapes, enabling them to enjoy new levels of the business process flexibility used to drive innovation and competitive advantage.

Infosys and SAP announced that Infosys has signed up to the SAP Global Service Partner Program in order to strengthen its capabilities to deliver enhanced value to customers. This announcement marks an important milestone in the relationship between the two organizations, which have been working together for more than five years to help companies realize information technology (IT) and business results from their investments in SAP applications. Through this newly expanded relationship, customers will benefit from bolstered implementation services, enhanced solution delivery and increased global reach. Progressive companies such as ABB Group have already realized the benefits of the existing partnership.

Optimal Solutions announced that it is a SAP channel partner authorized to resell the SAP Business All-in-One solution to midsize companies in North America. As an SAP Business All-in-One channel partner, Optimal further expands its middle-market offerings to include reselling SAP Business All-in-One solutions to midsize companies in select industries throughout North America. SAP Business All-in-One is a comprehensive, proven solution with preconfigured, industry-specific business processes to enable predictable and affordable implementations. Optimized for midsize companies, SAP Business All-in-One has the flexibility to adapt and extend as a business evolves and grows.

SAP revealed plans to further extend its fast-start program for SAP Business All-in-One solutions by expanding the strategic partnership with IBM that looks back on a long history of close collaboration in the areas of technology, channel and services. The two companies now take their established, reliable and scalable solutions that are for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) to achieve optimal implementation times and total cost of ownership (TCO) for customers. The components will include IBM Power Systems, System x and BladeCenter servers, SAP Business All-in-One and an optimized database and operating system. Midsize companies in the services, trade and manufacturing industries are expected to gain benefits from these comprehensive offerings, as they allow for quick time to deployment of end-to-end business processes at a low TCO.

HCL Technologies introduced HCL's new BW Cockpit Solution. The new offering is a centralized repository of real-time and historical load data combined with a simple user interface that enables customers to predict and avoid SAP Business Information Warehouse slowdowns and failures. Leveraging this solution, customers can reduce monitoring costs by 30 percent, secure better analysis of patterns and trends, and eliminate manual errors.

Worksoft announced the availability of Worksoft Certify version 8.2, providing enhanced support for SAP business process functionality. Worksoft's flagship product, Worksoft Certify, offers a patented 'scriptless' approach to functional and business process validation testing, which allows business analysts and functional users to define, execute, and maintain tests through a menu-driven interface with business language narratives.

Siemens IT Solutions and Services announced that it has achieved gold-level status in the SAP Consulting Partner Program in North America. Siemens is also a global SAP-certified provider of application management services, a SAP global services partner, and a certified SAP global hosting partner. To achieve gold partner status, Siemens met strict SAP conditions for sound internal processes and procedures, internal organization and service quality. Gold partners in the SAP Consulting Partner Program, including Siemens IT Solutions and Services, have SAP consulting capabilities spanning several industries.

Novell announced a platform of identity and security management solutions optimized for use with the SAP NetWeaver platform and SAP business software applications. Targeted to address enterprise needs for end-to-end management solutions, Novell's identity and security management products augment SAP solutions for governance, risk and compliance (SAP solutions for GRC), as well as human resources and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. With Novell identity and security management solutions, SAP customers have access to policy management and enforcement capabilities, allowing them to reduce redundant administrative costs, automate tedious and error-prone manual processes, simplify password management, and adapt to a changing employee structure.

SAP announced growing adoption of its business software among small businesses and midsize companies across all regions, and in particular from growing economies as Brazil, China, India and Russia. The company's portfolio of business software for small businesses and midsize companies -- comprised of SAP Business One, SAP Business ByDesign and SAP Business All-in-One -- continues to attract an increasing number of customers from the small and midsize market. Currently at about 75 percent of the company's overall customer base, the number of small and midsize enterprise (SME) customers grew by 28 percent in the first quarter of 2008 (year-over-year).

Talend announced that Pipeline Software has signed a strategic partnership within the Talend Alliance Program. Under the terms of the agreement, the optimized interoperability between Talend's open source data integration technologies and Pipeline Software's Transporter solution will allow customers to integrate data between SAP and other business-critical applications.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions announced that its parent company, Konica Minolta Business Technologies (President: Akio Kitani), is participating in the new SAP Printer Vendor program, launched by SAP in collaboration with printer manufacturers. Konica Minolta Business Technologies is participating in the program as a gold-level member.

EDS announced the adoption of the Run SAP methodology for use in its application management services and hosting operations. Through this adoption, EDS also plans to incorporate the methodology into its consulting practice, where it will leverage its expertise with SAP applications management, gained through the implementation of SAP solutions by more than 800,000 client users globally.

SAP has run into a nasty little rollout problem with its new on-demand Business ByDesign widgetry, the stuff that's critical to its future growth and competes with, oh, say, Salesforce.com, NetSuite and Microsoft. Seems ByDesign isn't properly automated and so SAP's grand plan to get 10,000 small to mid-sized companies up and running on the stuff and generate $1 billion in revenue by 2010 has fallen by the wayside.

SAP reported its ninth consecutive quarter of share gains. Based on U.S. GAAP first quarter 2008 software and software related service revenues on a rolling four-quarter basis, SAP's worldwide share of Core Enterprise Applications vendors, which account for approximately $37.4 billion in software and software related service revenues as defined by the Company based on industry analyst research, was 32.6% for the four-quarter period ended March 31, 2008 compared to 31.9% for the four-quarter period ended December 31, 2007, and 28.2% for the four-quarter period ended March 31, 2007, representing a year-over-year share gain of 7.6 percentage points, of which approximately 4 percentage points came from organic growth. All prior period share numbers have been adjusted to reflect the acquisition of Business Objects.

SAP announced that Bank of America has selected SAP ERP to further integrate and enhance the bank's internal financial reporting systems. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, based on a scalable platform, will provide Bank of America with a comprehensive global operating system to improve efficiency and support continued growth.

Alti is pleased to announce a joint venture with SAPBUREAU, part of the international ADA Software Group. This collaborative initiative launches a new North American organization called AltiSAP, with the goal of rapidly growing SAP-focused solutions and high-value services, particularly around Business Intelligence (BI) and NetWeaver (SAP's strong technology platform), and to propagate the adoption of SAP enterprise software in medium-sized enterprises.

After a $1.5 million angel round, Desktone, which was started in 2006 by Eric Pulier, who also started SOA Software, US Interactive and IVT, picked up $17 million in first-round funding about a year ago from Highland Capital Partners, SoftBank Capital, Citrix Systems and the China-based Tangee International. SoftBank as well as Deutsche Telekom could become service providers. Ruda says the brains behind the technology is Paul Gaffney, the former CIO of Staples. The company has maybe 40 people, more than half of them in Shanghai doing development, which explains Tangee's involvement.

Crossgate will extend the scope of its collaboration with SAP in the field of business process outsourcing (BPO). The goal is to make life easier for organizations that want to streamline their financial supply chain, thereby saving money and helping the environment. In today's fast-paced global economy, companies are finding it difficult to turn sales into cash. Manually sending paper invoices is slow and expensive, and processes are not integrated among business partners. Audits and other regulatory compliance efforts are often time-consuming and difficult.

The mouse was the original idea of Doug Engelbart who was the head of the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at Stanford Research Institute. Engelbart's philosophy is best embodied, in my opinion, in the design of another device that he invented, the five-finger keyboard - with keys like a piano, used by one hand. The problem was, Engelbart's five-finger keyboard and mouse combination was very difficult to learn.

'Unlocking content to be remixed into new business value' is the driver of Web 2.0 in the enterprise, says Rod Smith, IBM VP of Emerging Internet Technologies, in this Exclusive Q&A with Jeremy Geelan on the occasion of IBM's release of a new technology created by IBM researchers, codenamed 'SMash' - short for Secure Mashup.

Here is a question that I have been pondering on and off for quite a while: Why do 'cool kids' choose Ruby or PHP to build websites instead of Java? I have to admit that I do not have an answer. Why do I even care? Because I am a Java developer. Like many Java developers, I get along with Java well. Not only the language itself, but the development environments (Eclipse for example), step-by-step debugging helper, wide availability of libraries and code snippets, and the readily accessible information on almost any technical question I may have on Java via Google. Last but not least, I go to JavaOne and see 10,000 people that talk and walk just like me.

Conformia announced that its Development Operations Management Solution (DevOps) - a combination of the Conformia Scale Up Management System (SUMS) and Product Conformance Management (PCM) platform - is now an SAP-endorsed business solution. SAP's endorsement marks the culmination of an extensive solution specification, development and testing process by SAP. As a result, Conformia's solution is now integrated with SAP solutions at the platform, application and business scenario levels. The solution builds a bridge between the development and manufacturing functions of product operations in regulated process industries such as life sciences and beverage alcohol.

This session will provide attendees with an overview of the iPhone SDK, including discussion of the App Store, Apple's planned distribution channel for SDK applications. Keep in mind that the contents of the SDK and experiences while using it are covered under NDA, so be prepared for me to talk in generics and leave out specific details that might be covered by the NDA. I am planning on providing a quick introduction to Objective-C for those attendees who may have never seen it and might be worried that it will be difficult to code in (it isn't!).

US-based software firm Novell has extended its partnership with SAP to deliver expanded support options to companies running their business operations on SAP applications and the SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system.

In order to deliver expanded support options to companies running their business operations on SAP applications and the SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system, Novell and SAP announced an extension of their long-standing relationship. In a move that will help meet the growing demand for SUSE Linux Enterprise and provide support for the open source community, Novell and SAP are planning to offer enhanced options for customers who choose to run open source.

SAP announced that Nationwide has selected the SAP for Banking solution portfolio as its new technology platform. Nationwide will implement the new software as part of a business transformation program to provide increased benefits to its customers. By doing so, Nationwide will become the first financial services provider in the UK to adopt the newest version of SAP for Banking, which it will use to service its growing banking, savings and mortgage business. As part of the program, named Voyager, Nationwide will modernize its technology with an integrated, next-generation technology platform, streamlining its core processes while supporting business growth and reducing costs.