Fujitsu And IBM Unveil New Palm Vein Biometric Technology

Fujitsu Frontech Ltd and IBM Corporation have together come out with a solution that promises to take security-based access to computer information to the next level.

The new security technology uses palm vein identification. It has been found that people have uniquely different vein pattern in their palms just as they have uniquely different irises in the eyes. At the time of registering with the system, an individual’s palm vein pattern too is recorded. The next time this individual wishes to log into the system, all they have to do is place their palm over the appropriate device that uses near-infrared light to capture their palm vein pattern. This captured data is then matched against the registered pattern and if found matching, access is provided.

Fujitsu has provided its PalmSecure LOGONDIRECTOR system, which is a piece of hardware. IBM has coupled this system with its Tivoli Access Manager, and offered organizations an alternative to the existing mechanism of user-id/passwords. The combined package complies with regulations such as HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, PCI DDS and the like.

Read more about the latest in security technology unveiled by IT biggies IBM and Fujitsu, here.

Fujitsu Launches Its Very Own SaaS Edition

Tokyo-based sister organizations – Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu System Solutions Limited have jointly entered the SaaS market with their own SaaS edition of “WebSERVER smart e-COMMERCE”. This service is now being offered to customers in Japan, and will assist them in their ordering and procurement functions.

Most customers find the incompatibilities between e-commerce systems and customer ICT systems difficult and inconvenient to surmount. There is often no seamless interaction between the e-commerce set up by one organization vis-a-vis the other. This particular niche requirement is being sought to be addressed by the new SaaS service.

Fujitsu’s offering helps companies at two levels. First, it enables companies to shift to an online commerce system that is secure and seamless, and because their suppliers and customers too will be in the same cloud, transactions will happen without hassles. And second, the two companies will operate the SaaS center and take care of its maintenance. Since customers will pay only when they use its services, a major chunk of the company’s costs is lopped off.

The system will work on the popular Windows OS using IE 6.0 / 7.0 browsers. A start-up service will cost from JPY 1.8 million onwards, while a basic package of 100 IDs will work to around JPY 300,000 per month.

Read more about the entry of one more player in the SaaS market, here.

Fujitsu To Sell Hard Drive Business To Toshiba

Kanagawa, Japan-headquartered Fujitsu Limited has announced that it will hive off its hard-drive business from its operations, and sell it to Minato, Tokyo-based Toshiba Corporation.

The deal will take place through Fujitsu first creating a wholly-owned subsidiary, Toshiba Storage Device Corporation (TSDC). On the first of July, 2009, through a simple absorption-type separation, all assets (amounting to a bookvalue of 34.8 billion yen), liabilities (amounting to a bookvalue of 5.2 billion yen) and accompanying rights and obligations of Fujitsu’s HDD business will be absorbed by TSDC.

Concurrently, on the same day, Fujitsu will sell 80.1% of its shares in TSDC to Toshiba. Six months later, on 31st December 2009, Fujitsu will sell its remaining stake in TSDC, with which TSDC will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toshiba.

The complex deal has been arranged in order to streamline the process of the hiving off of the HDD business. Fujitsu has multiple manufacturing subsidiaries – one in Philippines and another in Thailand – which handle the HDD business. There is a third company belonging to Fujitsu, Yamagata Fujitsu Limited (YFL) that too handles HDD business. The creation of TSDC will act as a single-point receptacle for all the HDD operations of Fujitsu.

The HDD business had achieved net sales of 202.1 billion Yen in the fiscal year 2008.

Read about the latest restructuring in the IT business, from a Japanese behemoth, here.

Fujitsu Announces Foray In Cloud Domain

Tokyo, Japan-headquartered Fujitsu Ltd has announced its foray in the cloud domain.

The new service is called “Trusted-Service Platform”, which will comprise several thousand servers installed within a green datacenter. The company is setting up the server farm at the Fujitsu Tatebayashi System Center located in Gunma Prefecture of central Japan.

The platform will have a dedicated cloud security center that will ensure the safety of information and communications technology resources. This security center is scheduled to be set up by the end of April 2009. In addition, the platform will have an environment conducive to make business processes transparent, so that customer’s existing information and communications systems can be transferred with full reliability.

By its nature, a Cloud environment allows customers to access infrastructure as well as applications without having to make upfront investment of owning them. In the case of Fujitsu, customers will be able to access the company’s cloud remotely through new set of network services called FENICS II Universal Connect.

The company’s press release gives the typical price of System Platform Services at JPY 175,000 and above per month, and the price of Security Services at JPY 250,000 and above per month.

The new service will be showcased at the Fujitsu Forum 2009 which is taking place on May 14 and 15 at the Tokyo International Forum.

Read the latest entry into the cloud domain by yet another IT player, here.

Fujitsu Releases Latest Version Of Its XBRL Software

Minato, Tokyo-based Fujitsu Limited announced the latest version, version 10, of its XBRL software – Interstage XWand.

Interstage XWand is a business software that helps companies present their financial data in the industry-standard eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, format. Using the software makes it easy for any company to create, validate, report, collect and analyze financial data, thus simplifying and speeding-up financial reporting, and improving transparency of its financial reports to its stakeholders, besides complying with SEC regulations. The SEC has now made it mandatory for companies using GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and with market capitalization exceeding USD 5 billion to use XBRL for financial disclosure, beginning fiscal year 2009. This would then be made mandatory for all companies from fiscal year 2011 onwards.

Version 10 of the software has incorporated XBRL Formula 1.0. Formula 1.0 is an extension of the XBRL 2.1 specification, where calculation methods between different data items are defined, besides allowing detection of errors in data values.

The first version of Interstage XWand software was launched by Fujitsu in 2003, and has since been sold to customers in 23 countries.

Read more about the latest XBRL version release from Fujitsu here.