Network World articles from June 2003

Network World archives from June 2003

Composite apps; Web-services technology transforms staid CRM apps into ad hoc, team-building dynamos.
June 2, 2003... Byline: ANIL GUPTA Traditional CRM applications are fine for simple customer queries, but when a complex problem requires pulling several people into a collaborative session, most CRM applications come up short. Customer service...

This is a test headline.
June 2, 2003... Byline: The Tester T his is only a test article. This is only a test article. This is only a test article. This is only a test article. This is only a test article. This is only a test article. This is only a test article. This is...

Real-time apps; Collaboration is only a click away with presence-based apps.
June 2, 2003... Byline: CHRISTINE PEREY A sales engineer is at a customer site demonstrating a new release of a product. The customer's CTO asks a question the sales engineer can't answer, so he opens the presence-enabled corporate directory on his laptop...

Open source opportunities; As Linux grows, so do certification programs to validate expertise with the operating system.
June 2, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Linux professionals might describe themselves as "certified geeks." But this term is becoming more serious as IT professionals look to organized certification and educational programs to boost their Linux knowledge...

The new world of IT networking.
June 2, 2003... Byline: Frank Dzubeck Recent announcements from HP, IBM and Sun all foretell a new and evolutionary concept in IT. The underpinning of this concept is the remolding of the vertical silos of technology within a company into a horizontal...

Clarifying BSD license.(Letter to the Editor)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Jeremy Reed I was pleased that Network World continued its coverage of open source software in the story "Users take open source databases for a spin" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 6122). Nevertheless, I take issue with the story's...

Novartis telecom director: VoIP is the cure for all ills.(Interview)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Time Greene Pharmaceutical company Novartis recently took the plunge and installed about 600 IP phones at a new research facility in East Hanover, N.J., and about 400 in a new facility in Cambridge, Mass., linking the systems using...

Wireless security not an oxymoron.(Industry Overview)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Ira Brodsky Wireless LANs became the industry's laughingstock when reports surfaced about "parking lot attacks" on corporate networks. Now, WLANs are shaping up as the battleground for enhanced security products that could lead the...

Broadband over power lines closer to reality; PLC: Utilities testing another option to deliver Internet.
June 2, 2003... Byline: JENNIFER MEARS The 16 police officers in Ossining, N.Y., have an always-on connection to the townspeople. In an effort to step up community policing, Chief Kenneth Donato has instituted a program that calls for his officers to...

ESB architecture eases app integration.(enterprise service bus)
June 2, 2003... Byline: GORDON VAN HUIZEN There's a shift under way to tie applications together to create business processes such as online ordering systems. A new category of integration middleware is emerging to help make this a reality - the...

Sourcefire ignites scanning effort.(Realtime Network Awareness appliance)
June 2, 2003... Byline: ELLEN MESSMER In a departure from developing intrusion-detection systems, Sourcefire this week divulged plans to build a network-discovery tool that will let users monitor system resources such as servers, desktop computers and...

Building identity management; Business Layers' software helps gather, clean up user data.(eProvisioning Role Out)
June 2, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA User data is the heart of establishing any identity management system but getting accurate user data might not be as easy as many think. Data about users always is stretched across a number of systems and...

SCO lawsuit: Good summer reading.
June 2, 2003... Byline: dave kearns Everybody's talking about it, not just the usual media outlets, but Forbes, BusinessWeek and even The Washington Post! It's going to be the hottest story of the summer. No, not "The Matrix Reloaded" but "Linux, the Soap...

Web switch vendors evolve.
June 2, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Not long ago, Layer 4 to Layer 7 technology was sought after by dot-coms and service providers for its ability to speed Web traffic. But as these firms started to whither in the souring economy, Layer 4 to Layer 7...

MPLS gaining steam as critics start to lose theirs.
June 2, 2003... Byline: Johna Till Johnson If there were an "ugly duckling" award for technologies most despised by architects and beloved by users, Multi-protocol Label Switching would be a top contender. Derided by IP purists as a wart on the side...

Saved by bad movies?(Column)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Scott Bradner An old dream seems to be resurfacing. CNET had a story on May 23 that said "major U.S. telephone companies have plans to pump video and TV services into homes via their lines, countering recent moves by cable...

ISS hatches 'virtual patching' mgmt. plan.
June 2, 2003... Byline: ELLEN MESSMER Internet Security Systems is readying technology it says could benefit companies fed up with current patch management techniques. ISS would enable its vulnerability-assessment scanner to gang up with its network-...

Time seen running out on Equipe; Promising young core-switch vendor misread market, analysts say.
June 2, 2003... Byline: JIM DUFFY Observers say the sun is setting on privately held Equipe Communications after a four-year run beset by lack of demand for its ATM/MPLS core switches. Equipe's business proposition - to gradually migrate carrier core...

Microsoft updates Solomon; CRM software still in the works.
June 2, 2003... Byline: STACY COWLEY A new version of Microsoft's Solomon suite of enterprise applications announced last week lets customers better integrate with other Microsoft products and easily manage project administration. Solomon 5.5 includes...

carrier briefs.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2003... n UTStarcom last week said it has completed the acquisition of selected assets of 3Com's CommWorks division. UTStarcom now owns CommWorks' portfolio of carrier-focused voice and data products, customer support, and professional services....

Ask Dr Internet.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Steve Blass Steve Blass We are implementing a media access control address authentication and authorization module for one of our applications. Is there any ready-made code available to get a MAC address from a remote machine...

Symantec adds tools to pcAnywhere.
June 2, 2003... Byline: TIM GREENE The latest upgrade of Symantec's pcAnywhere introduces eight management tools that the company says streamline communication with remote machines so help desk staff can handle more calls per day. Version 11...

Enterprise Applications Short Takes.
June 2, 2003... Adding a twist to the notion of "public private partnerships," a deal between Symantec and the U.S. Department of Defense will provide the government with intelligence gathered from the company's DeepSight threat and vulnerability alert...

IBM enhances Unix server family.
June 2, 2003... Byline: ROBERT MCMILLAN IBM last week increased the speed and reliability of its Unix server system family for customers looking to consolidate servers and those running large, single-system applications. Replacing IBM's aging 1-2...

Cool Tools.(NEC-Mitsubishi LCD3000 30-inch widescreen flat-panel monitor; Gateway 450XL notebook)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Keith Shaw Last week we looked at some cool software - this week it's time for some hardware: NEC 30-inch flat-panel monitor The hands-down winner of equipment that drew "oohs" and "ahhs" from co-workers recently is the...

AT&T enhances business-continuity.(StorageConnect service)
June 2, 2003... Byline: JENNIFER MEARS AT&T is expanding its business-continuity lineup with a storage networking service that lets customers replicate and back up data in remote locations and over unlimited distances. The service provider also is...

inf briefs.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2003... n Computer Associates announced last week a new version of its back-up software, BrightStor Enterprise Backup 10.5, which makes policy-based back-up and snapshot back-up capabilities available to large businesses. BrightStor 10.5 also lets...

Python eats up white space.
June 2, 2003... Byline: Mark Gibbs Last week we looked at the language Python, and this week we'll dig deeper. But first, a letter from reader Greg Martin, who wrote: "You might mention that Python program structure is all based on white space. This is...

SonicWall offering to help firms keep more Web sites off-limits.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2003... Byline: TIM GREENE SonicWall is upgrading its URL filtering service to let businesses block access to millions rather than tens of thousands of sites deemed inappropriate for the workplace. The company's Web-based Content Filtering...

Microsoft, AOL Time Warner settle suit.
June 2, 2003... n Microsoft will pay AOL Time Warner $750 million to settle a private antitrust suit filed on behalf of Netscape by AOL in January 2002, the companies announced last week. As part of the deal, AOL Time Warner's America Online Internet division...

'Net Buzz.(Column)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Paul McNamara Oh, those spam filters Critics of aggressive spam filtering have long argued that losing or seriously delaying even one piece of important business e-mail - the dreaded false positive - is an unacceptable price...

Carriers struggling to cash in on MPLS.(Multi-protocol Label Switching technology)
June 2, 2003... Byline: JIM DUFFY Here are just a few of the drivers behind Coca-Cola Enterprises' decision to roll out what it says - at 600 sites - will be the largest domestic network based on AT&T's Multi-protocol Label Switching technology: *...

Microsoft users applaud licensing incentives.
June 2, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Corporate users are giving a qualified thumbs-up to free training, support and software tools that Microsoft last week made part of a licensing program that has generated much discontent. Along with the freebies,...

Ready to trust software update tools?(BladeLogic's BigFix server )
June 2, 2003... Byline: John Dix One of the banes of the modern enterprise is software upgrades. Because we are saddled with different makes of software at various release levels in a plethora of configurations, distributing updates across a large...

Start-up EqualLogic unveils managed iSCSI storage array.(PeerStorage Array 100E)
June 2, 2003... Byline: DENI CONNOR Start-up EqualLogic is scheduled to roll out an iSCSI storage array this week that the company says will make it easier to migrate from storage directly attached to servers to IP storage-area networks. The...

Beating online burning.
June 2, 2003... Byline: Mark Gibbs "I'm writing you this mail to intimate you with a business transaction involving the transfer of $29.6 million for safekeeping. It's our hope that as a respectable businessman, you would be capable of handling high...

Ethernet turns 30 gracefully.
June 2, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Everyone probably wishes they looked as good at 30 as Ethernet. Since its invention in 1973, the fabled network technology has evolved from a shared to a dedicated medium and undergone a nearly 1,000-fold speed...

What users want from servers.(icluding standard architectures, virtualization and distributed computing capabilities)
June 2, 2003... Byline: JENNIFER MEARS Performance, reliability and virtualization capabilities top the list of what users want from their servers. They're also looking for an easier way to manage this pool of resources that are the cornerstones of...

DISA fortifying military's IT defenses.(Defense Information Systems Agency to use Symantec's DeepSight Threat Management System)
June 2, 2003... Byline: ELLEN MESSMER The Defense Information Systems Agency, which provides the military with technical help on software and telecom projects around the world, is taking new steps to improve network security at bases and in the field. ...

Microsoft show to lack product pizazz.
June 2, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Microsoft's annual TechEd conference will be longer on the Ed and shorter on the Tech this year: The software giant won't make major product releases at the show. The conference, which is being held this week in...

Siemens, Shoreline tackle converged applications.
June 2, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Siemens and Shoreline Communications this week are scheduled to announce voice-over-IP products with different approaches for expanding converged voice and data applications in corporations. Siemens is merging its...

Show to focus on broadband ROI; Technology is willing but the business case remains suspect heading into SuperComm 2003.
June 2, 2003... Byline: TIM GREENE Amid the din of product announcements this week at SuperComm 2003, you can expect to hear a strong call for more readily available broadband access that will bring less-expensive connections to small corporate offices...

RBOCs push fiber closer to users.
June 2, 2003... Byline: JIM DUFFY Three regional Bell operating companies last week adopted a set of common technical requirements for extending fiber-optic cabling and equipment to homes and businesses. BellSouth, SBC and Verizon say the industry...

Three flavors of presence.
June 2, 2003... Three flavors of presence 1. On-tool presence Next time you attend a live online presentation, take special note of the participant list. The session host is clearly indicated either at the top of the screen or in the participant list...

Cisco touts plan to tame WLANs.
June 2, 2003... Byline: n BY JOHN COX Cisco this week will answer the challenge of a pack of aggressive wireless LAN switch vendors with a plan for managing WLANs across an enterprise network. One big difference: Cisco will do it without introducing a...

Ten common management mistakes; And how to avoid them...
June 9, 2003... Byline: Dirk A.D. Smith Ten common management mistakes And how to avoid them... By Dirk A. D. Smith Your job is to keep the network up and running, so employees can work without interruption and so that you can get home at a...

Microsoft foe: Commoditization.
June 9, 2003... Byline: james kobielus Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently declared that the company will discount its software sharply rather than lose market share to open source alternatives such as Linux. Apparently, Microsoft is willing to sacrifice...

Pay-as-you-go IT.
June 9, 2003... Pay-as-you-go IT Just like gas and electricity, some companies are paying only for the amount of IT resources they use. By Linda Leung Eighteen months ago Fluor, one of the world's largest publicly owned engineering groups, was...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
June 9, 2003... Byline: readers Regarding Johna Till Johnson's column "MCI's back-to-basics plan" (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 6222): The reason everyone inside the industry is concerned about MCI is not the "focus on integration and solution delivery"...

SSL VPNs won't save the world.(Secure Sockets Layer VPN)
June 9, 2003... Byline: joel snyder Recently, a newcomer joined the world of VPN buzzwords: Secure Sockets Layer VPN. In April at NetWorld+Interop and at the Network World security tour I moderated last month, attendees had many questions about this new...

Web services standards march forward; APPLICATIONS: Standards hold key to future.
June 9, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Corporate executives are keeping a sharp eye on new Web services standards development of security, reliable messaging, process workflow, choreography and management specifications. The standards work will help prove...

Singing the same old song?
June 9, 2003... Byline: scott bradner Just what is Sprint up to? With great fanfare, the carrier announced on May 27 that "Sprint once again makes history with technology milestone." But this is an old, and confusing, story, and the announcement did...

Citrix reloaded: The mainframe model morphs on.(MetaFrame)
June 9, 2003... Byline: kevin tolly With more aplomb than any sequel-producing movie studio, Citrix has been tremendously successful at repurposing its singular wares as the market has changed over the past decade. More impressive is the fact that the...

BigFix adds admin, bandwidth controls to patch mgmt.(Patch Manager 3.0)
June 9, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA Focusing on the near-Herculean task network executives face in keeping patches current on their Microsoft, Macintosh and Linux software, BigFix last week introduced tools to help with the heavy lifting. With...

Software looks to fix failures faster.(PowerQuest's V2i Protector 2.0)(Brief Article)
June 9, 2003... Byline: DENI CONNOR Storage management vendor PowerQuest has introduced a new version of its point-in-time back-up and disaster-recovery software for servers and workstations that the company says will let customers quickly recover from...

net buzz.
June 9, 2003... Byline: Paul McNamara A personal beef with MCI If CEO Michael Capellas is serious about fumigating the stench of WorldCom from his reconstituted MCI, he should forget about wooing bankruptcy judges, federal regulators, Wall Street...

Debt, dividends and the postbubble telecom universe.(Column)
June 9, 2003... Byline: johna till johnson Over the years I've had many enlightening and entertaining exchanges with readers, who have inspired some of my favorite columns. Many thanks to reader Jeff Williams for raising some of the issues that appear in...

New software helps retailers grow; Pricing, markdown optimization apps are aimed at increasing retailers' profit margins.(including KhiMetrics for Safeway and ProfitLogic's software for Old Navy)
June 9, 2003... Byline: ANN BEDNARZ At this week's Retail Systems 2003/VICS Collaborative Commerce conference in Chicago, a range of retailers will detail new software implementations that are helping them better manage merchandise pricing and eke out...

Python objects and modules.
June 9, 2003... Last week we looked at the fundamentals of Python so this week we'll examine some of the larger features of the language. The earlier story (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 6232) provided a close brush with Python statements - you saw...

RFID takes stock of supply chain.(radio requency identification devices)
June 9, 2003... Byline: JOHN FOWLER AND DIRK HEYMAN The use of radio frequency identification devices - tags, cards or labels - continues to grow as businesses realize the many advantages of the technology. Organizations such as the Auto-ID Center are...

Server consolidation helps JetBlue soar.(using Unisys ES7000 servers)
June 9, 2003... Byline: JENNIFER MEARS AND PHIL HOCHMUTH JetBlue Airways CIO Jeff Cohen could see a storm waiting to happen. Ever since the discount carrier launched its inaugural flight in 2000, business has been booming and the company's IT...

apps briefs.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2003... n RSA Security and Thor Technologies last week announced a partnership agreement under which they will work to integrate RSA's ClearTrust authentication and access management software with Thor's Xellerate provisioning software by the third...

inf briefs.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2003... n HP last week launched a low-end network-attached storage appliance for small and midsize businesses and remote workgroups in enterprise-size businesses. The StorageWorks NAS 1000s is a Windows-powered appliance that stores Microsoft Common...

Net.Worker briefs.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2003... Byline: staff writers Motorola announced completion of the first chips, software and design guides for Zigbee, the draft specification of IEEE 802.15.4. Zigbee provides low-power, wireless network monitoring and control, transmitting data...

TravelingPC offers remote access alternative; Unique approach provides managed access to corporate applications and data, disaster recovery.
June 9, 2003... Byline: TONI KISTNER Six months ago, Jason Hickock came flush up against the limits of his company's VPN. Remec, a San Diego wireless components manufacturer, had just bought the financial software application Hyperion for its two dozen...

Tablet PCs get rugged.
June 9, 2003... When Microsoft launched the Tablet PC operating system last November, the focus was on the horizontal market. Microsoft coined the term "corridor warrior" to describe the intended user, the office worker who is in meetings all day and could...

Peribit updates compression gear; New features help users boost stability, performance of VPNs.(SRS software, Version 3.1, for its SR-20, SR-50 and SR-55 appliances )
June 9, 2003... Byline: TIM GREENE Peribit has customized its point-to-point compression gear to help customers make IP Security VPN connections faster and more stable. Version 3.1 of SRS software for its SR-20, SR-50 and SR-55 appliances can give VPN...

We are a managed service provider in the pre-launch phase of managing networks and IP telephony environments.
June 9, 2003... Steve Blass We are a managed service provider in the pre-launch phase of managing networks and IP telephony environments. A Web console for one of the monitoring programs lets us connect to our internal network by IP addresss and DNS name....

The truth mustn't be out there.
June 9, 2003... Byline: mark gibbs You know those guys who should be in the running for the title of world's biggest jerk? Arrogant, loud-mouthed, self-indulgent, opinionated, shallow. Well, one of the contenders for that crown, a guy named Tucker...

Report: Ebbers knew of inflated revenue.(former WorldCom CEO)
June 9, 2003... n A report expected to be released this week will conclude that Bernard Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom (now MCI), played a role in inflating the company's revenue to meet Wall Street expectations, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing...

carrier briefs.(Brief Article)
June 9, 2003... n MCI said last week it is teaming with Nortel to build out its converged IP network, which the carrier announced in April. At that time, MCI said it would consolidate all its data and voice networks over a single IP core in order to achieve a...

Avici pushes 'any service any port'.(Avici Systems programmable Multi-Service Connect modules)
June 9, 2003... Byline: JIM DUFFY Avici Systems last week unveiled a series of line cards for its routers designed to let carriers converge multiple services over their IP/MPLS networks. The programmable Multi-Service Connect (MSC) modules are based...

Nextel extends walkie-talkie feature.(National Direct Connect Service)
June 9, 2003... Byline: DENISE PAPPALARDO Nextel Direct Connect users across the country now will be able to connect with each other instantly, regardless if they are in the same state or talking coast to coast. The wireless service provider launched...

Sprint begins rollout of packet-voice gear.
June 9, 2003... Byline: TIM GREENE Sprint recently installed packet-voice equipment in a local switching office, the start of a highly touted long-term plan to convert its entire network from circuit switching to packet switching. The rollover started...

Revisiting core IT strategies.(Column)
June 9, 2003... Byline: John Dix now you're familiar with the recent Harvard Business Review story "IT doesn't matter," which argues that the commoditization of IT has negated its strategic value. The author labels IT an infrastructure technology and...

Start-up touts better backup.(Data Domain DD200)
June 9, 2003... Byline: DENI CONNOR Start-up Data Domain is rolling out a disk-based appliance this week that it says backs up and recovers data faster than traditional tape-based approaches. The DD200 appliance compresses by as much as 20 times data...

Microsoft aims to master middleware.
June 9, 2003... Byline: JOHN FONTANA DALLAS - Microsoft is busy constructing a common integration platform and workflow engine for its .Net platform that corporations will use to support the rollout of Web services and collaborative applications. The...

Nortel preps Meridian PBX for IP makeover.(with Succession 3.0)
June 9, 2003... Byline: PHIL HOCHMUTH Nortel PBX users who are unclear on the vendor's VoIP strategy could get answers this week with the announcement of software aimed at transforming a Meridian voice switch into an enterprise-scale IP PBX. ...

IT execs share security concerns.(Industry Overview)
June 9, 2003... Byline: ELLEN MESSMER WASHINGTON, D.C. - Insider threats from employees and trading partners, interconnected networks with no clear boundaries, and the potential for terrorist cyberattacks against corporate networks are among the top...

Telecom show features long-lost sight: Optimism.(SuperComm 2003 )
June 9, 2003... Byline: JIM DUFFY AND TIM GREENE ATLANTA - Perhaps it was news of equipment deployments and the promise of new services. Or the expectation of renewed network buildouts. Or hope that current regulations would soon be relaxed. Whatever...

Automated service saves AT&T users plenty.
June 9, 2003... Byline: DENISE PAPPALARDO Financial services company Metavante reports saving at least 500 hours worth of staff time every month - the equivalent of about three full-time positions - since it started using AT&T's Electronic Bonding...

State of the technology union; Six research executives, together controlling billions of development dollars, examine the changing face of R&D and tell us how the network industry has become more innovative than ever.(Industry Overview)
June 9, 2003... Byline: NETWORK WORLD STAFF Mario Mazzola Chief development officer, Cisco Number of researchers in the organization: More than 860 R&D budget: $3.3 billion for 2003. Number of patents issued in 2002: Unspecified number...

Security box vendors set to square off at CeBit show.(Industry Overview)
June 9, 2003... Byline: ellen messmer Security appliances optimized to run one or more applications, such as firewalls/VPNs, intrusion detection and antivirus, are winning praise and popularity. These devices, sold by companies such as Cisco and...

Verizon exec talks up FTTP.(Fiber to the Premises )(Interview)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Jim Duffy A Fiber to the Premises RFP, which seeks equipment for broadband services over fiber, is expected to be issued next week by three regional Bell operating companies. Some say FTTP eventually will overtake DSL as the...