ReadWriteEnterprise

VMware announced today that it will acquire Socialcast, an enterprise microblogging and social network software-as-a-service. The move expands VMware's software-as-a-service portfolio, which also includes Zimbra, Mozy and SlideRocket. VMware is owned by EMC.

Following its acquisition of Terracotta last week, Software AG announced today that it is acquiring mobile development platform company Metismo.

Metismo makes a product called Bedrock that enables developers to build apps that run on multiple mobile platforms, including Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian and many more. Developers write apps in J2E and Bedrock translates the code into C++ and then compiles it into the native language of various platforms.

Earlier this spring, as anticipated, the last of the IPv4 address blocks was given to the regional Internet registries that dole them out to ISPs and other corporations. Unlike many predictions that go back dozens of years, we have run out of room. Yes, it will take several months before the world is completely run out of address space, and you might be able to find an unused Class C range here or there. But for the most part, you need to get cracking on a transition plan for your company to migrate towards IPv6 now.

Microsoft has said that iPad-style tablets, generally referred to as "slates," that run Windows won't arrive until the next version of Windows arrives in 2012. This big beast of a WP7 tablet announced at Computex not withstanding, this rules out Windows Phone 7 based tablets. But will Microsoft get left behind if it can't bring a slate to market before 2012?

As we reported last week, Citi analyst Walter Pritchard believes that it's not too late for Microsoft to have a "meaningful" share of the tablet market. Larry Dignan at ZDNet highlights one particular area where Microsoft could challenge other vendors: Microsoft Office support.

Last week Huddle announced an intriguing guarantee: The Huddle Adoption Guarantee. According to the company's announcement, it now guarantees 100% user adoption across the enterprise or your money back.

That's a bold promise. We've covered the troubles involved in enterprise 2.0 adoption before. And new social and collaborative technologies are not the only ones to have trouble with adoption. CRM has been notoriously problematic in the enterprise as well.

Is it time for vendors to step-up and offer adoption guarantees?

Two new apps are helping improve the online customer experience by tying in advanced communications technologies in interesting ways. The apps, MyCyberTwin and Radish System's ChoiceView, offer to remove some of the misery and tedium involved in getting help and have wide potential applications in customer support, problem resolution, and other situations. Deplolyed properly, they could increase conversion rates and improve the delivery of online customer service. Let's take a closer look at both.

The iPad isn't just a hot new consumer device, it's also an increasingly popular tool for business. Each week we take a look at the new or updated business apps for the iPad, and highlight trends in how tablets are being used in the enterprise.

This week week we look at a new app for doing invoices, new Zendesk features and more.

You probably won't want to replace all your call center PCs with iPads, and doing "real" support work likely requires a full keyboard. But we're betting at least a few of your customer support staff have to either take work home with them or monitor issues outside of the office. Accessing the customer service help desk from the road probably isn't a good justification for buying an iPad, unless you have a lot of reps in the field using help desk software. But help desk access is a good use for iPads that your company or your employees already won.

The help desk for the iPad market seems to be just getting started. Here's a look at what's available so far.

In a well-publicized case, a data analyst employed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) took his laptop home to suburban Maryland. Burglars entered his home and stole the laptop. Suddenly, the personal information of some 26.5 million veterans was at risk. The incident became an international news story raising caution flags about managed security at the VA.

Incidents like this one are not unusual today, and the risk is increasing as the mobile workforce grows. Gartner reports that 83.9 percent of businesses have a remote workforce, and by 2011 an estimated 46 million employees globally will telecommute at least one day per week and 112 million will work from home at least one day per month.

We've written before about how some companies like to keep IEv6 browsers around, whether it is to frustrate them intentionally so they can't really surf or because they have real needs for internal apps that were written back in the dark ages.

But let's say that you really want to support IEv6 and want a solution that you can manage centrally. There are a bunch of products available, including one that we have already covered: UniBrows.