IN ASSOCIATION WITH

For the record 30 April
30-04-2008
by ElectricNews.Net

Government to back FG e-government bill | Technology from Ideas secures new funding

The Government is set to vote in favour of a Fine Gael Private Members' Motion on e-government, following an agreement reached by party Communications spokesman Simon Coveney on a text that will see the Government commit to implementing a comprehensive system of e-government within two years. This includes the provision of a secure online ID system and payments system to allow the development of a series of e-government services and online transactions for government services, including applications for driving licences, grants, birth, marriage and death certificates, planning permission and objections, real time public transport information, and payment of court fines and commercial rates. The Government is also called on to examine the introduction of mobile solutions such as text messaging and the use of interactive digital TV for government services, as well as procedures to guard against data theft.

DataSolutions has announced the Irish launch of the world's first fault-tolerant software for server virtualisation. The EverRun software is designed to help companies virtualise more applications, eliminating the challenge posed by the lack of reliable high availability for virtual servers. Using the software, companies can prevent outages and data loss in their virtual infrastructures, and deploy high availability and disaster recovery protection across the company. It can also help bring the energy and cost saving benefits of server virtualisation to business critical and other production applications. The EverRun software integrates with Citrix XenServer, a software platform that virtualises application workloads across any number of servers in the datacentre.

Cisco and Nokia have teamed up to offer a combined mobile unified communications solution that brings Cisco's Unified Internet Protocol (IP) Phone capabilities to Nokia eSseries smartphones over Cisco Unified Wireless Networks. More than 100 customers are using the product commercially, including Tifco Hotels in Ireland, while a further 600 are trialling the Mobile Business Solution. As part of the deal, Cisco is beginning to deploy Nokia eSeries smartphones for its sales organisations in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, and Nokia is starting to implement Cisco Unified Wireless Network in its offices, labs and manufacturing sites.

Irish technology commercialisation and investment company Technology from Ideas has announced a new round of funding worth EUR1 million, secured from Enterprise Ireland, 4th Level Ventures and a syndicate of private investors from the Business Angel Partnership. Over the next 18 months, the company plans to put the funding to work to increase the number of development projects sourced from Irish and UK universities. Managing Director Dan Richardson said the firm was working on scaling sales activities as it moved to commercialise its first tranche of technologies.

SAP has reported strong first quarter revenues, with software and software-related service sales up 15 percent to EUR1.74 billion year-on-year -- the 17th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in the sector. Total revenues were up 14 percent to EUR2.46 billion. Software revenues rose 11 percent to EUR622 million year-on-year. Operating income, meanwhile, slipped 18 percent to EUR359 million, while earnings per share from continuing operations slipped 19 percent to EUR0.21.

PC maker Asus has launched a new version of its portable "netbook", the Eee PC 900, designed to appeal to more fashion-conscious users. The Eee PC 900 comes in a variety of colours and uses on-board solid-state memory that makes it more robust than traditional laptops, the company says. It comes with a choice of Windows XP or Linux, and has up to 20 GB of storage. It also includes an SD/MMC Card Reader, VGA and 3xUSB 2.0 expansion ports, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for connectivity.