Consulting and outsourcing provider has strengthened its Canberra-based team with two new staff additions.

Oracle appeared to confirm this week what many in the computer industry already suspected: The OpenSolaris project is dead.

Customers are crucial to every business but keeping them loyal can be an onerous task.

Oracle has started up work again on a large data centre in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area, after suspending the project without public explanation last year.

James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language, has resigned from Oracle, he announced in a blog entry on Friday

Oracle's plan to merge the Sun HotSpot Java Virtual Machine with the JRockit JVM is still evolving, but a single JVM based on both technologies is expected in 18 months to two years, an Oracle official said during a Webcast this week.

Oracle plans to broaden its range of virtualization offerings, thanks to a number of applications obtained in the Sun Microsystems acquisition, said Oracle chief architect Edward Screven.

Oracle will pare back Sun Microsystems' server lines and move to a build-to-order model to cut costs and get the hardware company back to profitability, Oracle executives said on Wednesday.

Would the Java community thrive as well under Oracle's control as it did under Sun Microsystems'? Vendors of Java products seem split about the question.

Although the first quarter of 2009 was a nightmare for many server vendors, new advanced products released during the first six months of the year are helping to pick the market back up. TREVOR CLARKE reports.