Network World articles from May 2001

Network World archives from May 2001

Loudcloud to cut workforce by 19%.(Company Operations)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2001... E-commerce hosting company Loudcloud Tuesday joined the legions of suffering dot-coms and announced plans to lay off 122 workers, or 19% of its workforce, in a bid to break even financially. Once viewed as a company that might revitalize...

Web services hold big promise, MS exec says.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 2, 2001... Microsoft is getting in on the ground floor of Web services that could transform commerce and software but is committed to working within common standards for those services - as much as it can, said Chris Jones, vice president of the Windows...

DeCSS hacker's appeal hinges on what's fair.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 2, 2001... In a David and Goliath case concerning such lofty issues as copyright infringements, fair-use doctrines and First Amendment rights, a hacker magazine squared off against eight powerful Hollywood studios at New York's 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of...

Verizon joins broadband price hike parade.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 2, 2001... The price of high-speed Internet access drifted a little higher into the stratosphere this week, with Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Broadband Inc. both hiking prices. Other companies are expected to follow suit. Verizon is...

Apple revamps iBook.(Product Announcement)
May 2, 2001... Apple Computer Inc. today announced a svelte new version of its consumer laptop, the iBook that shares a name and little else with earlier versions. The new iBook, due in May, does away with the funky colors and shape of previous versions...

Peer-to-peer networking survey.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 2, 2001... Peer-to-peer networking has been around a long time, and technologies such as AppleShare were based on it back in the 1980s. The initial concept was simple: Harness all the unused computing cycles sitting around on desktops and in servers....

Cisco unveils metro optical system for melding storage, data traffic.(Product Announcement)
May 2, 2001... Cisco today broadened its metro optical portfolio with a new dense wavelength division multiplexing platform designed for high-speed integrated transport of storage and data networking applications. The ONS 15540 Extended Services Platform...

Microsoft aims for integration with Identrus' network.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 2, 2001... Microsoft is working to make several of its core products more easily integrated with New York-based Identrus' secure global network for financial services firms. Under an agreement between the two firms, Microsoft will add new hooks and...

Gartner's Dataquest cuts IT services market forecast.(Industry Trend or Event)(Statistical Data Included)
May 2, 2001... Market researcher Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Group, Wednesday cut its projections for the value of the worldwide IT services market. In 2004, the market is expected to reach $1.2 trillion, instead of the $1.3 trillion forecast for 2004 by...

Lucent enhances 3G base station.(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
May 2, 2001... Lucent is enhancing its Flexent OneBTS base station to provide wireless telecommunication operators with expanded network coverage and capacity for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System and cdma2000 networks, the company said Wednesday....

EXTREME TO PUT MPLS IN ETHERNET MANS.(Product Announcement)
May 2, 2001... SANTA CLARA - Extreme Networks this week will roll out a module that adds Multi-protocol Label Switching to its BlackDiamond Ethernet MAN switch. Extreme will debut the blade at the NetWorld+Interop 2001 show in Las Vegas, and will target...

Cisco 10000 supports VPNs.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 2, 2001... Cisco is adding VPN capability to its service provider edge router, the Cisco 10000. The IP Security (IPSec) VPN Service Module is a new hardware blade for the Cisco 10000 chassis that can support network-based VPN services. This new...

Gartner: Goals for enterprise apps are changing.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 2, 2001... NEW YORK - Businesses' reasons for investing in data management infrastructure are shifting from back-office, cost-reduction objectives to customer-oriented, revenue-generating goals, according to a study conducted by the Association for...

Infrastructure providers cut back; An exodus at Exodus; Digital Island cuts staff.(Company Operations)
May 2, 2001... Web hosting and infrastructure providers this week announced streamlining measures that range from layoffs to an executive realignment as they focus on stabilizing in the shaky economy. On Tuesday, Exodus Communications announced the...

NEC will roll out new ultra-thin notebook Monday.(Product Development)(Brief Article)
May 4, 2001... NEC Computers, a U.S. unit of Japan's NEC, Monday will announce a new ultra-thin notebook encased in lightweight silver magnesium, a source familiar with the company's plans said. Thin, light computers with snazzier designs and different...

U.S. Air Force blasts Outlook security patch.(Product Information)
May 4, 2001... Two researchers at the U.S. Air Force Academy Computer Science Department have published a paper that is sharply critical of security measures implemented in a patch for Microsoft's Outlook 2000 e-mail client, issued in the aftermath of the...

Top Layer to unveil hacker-unfriendly software.(Product Announcement)
May 4, 2001... Top Layer Networks is preparing to make life even more difficult for hackers with the launch of its latest security offering next week at the Networld+Interop conference in Las Vegas. The Westborough, Mass.-based security vendor will unveil...

Callouses for handheld makers.(Company Financial Information)
May 4, 2001... The companies that rise together, often fall together. Handheld organizer makers Palm Inc. and Handspring Inc., once high-flying stocks, dipped in unison Thursday as each suffered unpleasant news that weighed on their share prices. An...

Samsung puts Palm, phone in one neat package.(Product Announcement)
May 4, 2001... Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is joining the smart-phone race, introducing the SPH-I300 digital assistant, which combines a Palm OS-based personal digital assistant with a wireless phone. It should be available for about US$500 in August from...

Report: Napster in talks with Microsoft on secure Web.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 4, 2001... File-swapping service Napster is reportedly in talks with Microsoft to use the software maker's music copyright protection technology. The Los Angeles Times Friday reported that Napster hopes to use Microsoft's antipiracy technology to persuade...

Symbol, Proxim patent spat takes another turn.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 4, 2001... Symbol Technologies Tuesday denied that its technology infringes on Proxim wireless LAN patents as alleged in a lawsuit filed in March. In addition, the Holtsville, N.Y., company filed a counter suit against Proxim alleging the Sunnyvale,...

Tight, competitive market forces storage vendors to deal.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 4, 2001... While EMC Corp. denies that rivals in the data storage market such as IBM and Hitachi Data Systems Corp. are gaining ground, analysts say increased competition created by a slumping economy is forcing vendors to be more aggressive deal makers....

Atoga rows TDM waters with OAR.(Product Announcement)
May 4, 2001... Atoga Systems is looking to makes its products capable of delivering time-division multiplexing services directly off carriers' metropolitan fiber networks. The company is introducing TDM customer ports for its Optical Application Router...

Battle of bills.(Government Activity)
May 4, 2001... A pair of bills this week introduced by members of the House Judiciary Committee aim to speed up broadband deployment by promoting competition in the DSL market. The bills run counter to a bill already introduced by House Commerce...

DSL DISAPPOINTMENTS; One systems administrator experienced the ultimate installation impasse when he waited six months for DSL then learned he'll soon lose service from two locations.(Technology Information)
May 7, 2001... James Wack knew there would be complications when it came to setting up a VPN for All-Pak, a Pittsburgh manufacturer of bottles, cans and other containers. But he never imagined quite how complicated it could become. The systems...

Security concerns dominate NW500 survey; Other key findings: storage needs skyrocket, mobile devices become mainstream, e-commerce spending expected to rise.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... Security concerns dominate NW500 survey Other key findings: storage needs skyrocket, mobile devices become mainstream, e-commerce spending expected to rise. By Suzanne Gaspar Security is what keeps you up at night. Security is a...

How we did it.
May 7, 2001... We installed the server portion of our products onto a Dell PowerEdge 2400 server with twin Pentium III, 733-MHz processors, 1G byte of RAM and two 9G-byte SCSI disks. The server ran Microsoft's Windows 2000 Server and Internet Information...

The long arm of the LAN; Extend the reach of your workstation management with mobile administration software.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
May 7, 2001... Imagine if all your computers were running in remote locations. Worse, the locations kept changing. How do you keep track of who has what machine? Who needs an upgrade? How do you get the latest copy of your product catalog to the salesman who...

Study cites 'Net backbone for slowing Web sites.(Technology Information)
May 7, 2001... Glitches in the Internet's backbone routing and switching systems cause more than a third of all Web site performance problems, according to a new study by Web site testing firm Mercury Interactive. The study found that 35% of Web site...

Ethernet grows up - and out; New 10 Gigabit standard will lead to advanced applications.(Technology Information)
May 7, 2001... An IEEE task force is nearing completion of a standard to run Ethernet at a blistering 10 gigabits per second, which will mean an Ethernet that's not only 10 times faster, but also more widespread than ever before. New methods for carrying...

Avaya sets its sights on firms with converged networks; GAINING GROUND.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... Six months after being spun off from Lucent, Avaya has made several moves to shore up product lines where it lacked technologies. Still some nagging questions still remain for Avaya's top executives, such as whether Cisco will run roughshod...

Simplification, not XML, is the key to PKI success.(Technology Information)
May 7, 2001... In this mean season, it's sad to see our fondest e-business visions become stale jokes. Take public-key infrastructure (PKI) technologies. More specifically, let's take another look at yesteryear's promise of interoperable, multivendor PKIs...

The rise of 'Cisco government'.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... What, a century from now, will seem the most important effect of the Internet? The answer, surely, will be its impact on services. The Internet will transform their efficiency and reliability in the way that, in the early 20th century,...

Softswitches enable voice/IP services.(Technology Information)
May 7, 2001... The economic advantages of packet voice are driving access and core voice networks away from circuit switching and toward packet switching. In these next-generation carrier networks, voice traffic will be directed between traditional voice...

Put it in writing; Brush up on the basics to make your project proposals and memos more effective.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... Proposals, budget requests, project updates and employee reviews loom large on your to-do list, and those are just the documents you need to draft this week. There's no end to the writing responsibilities imposed on you, and you're ill-prepared...

net buzz.(Government Activity)
May 7, 2001... You oversee a four-star restaurant, a Broadway theater or a house of worship, and all you're praying for these days is a way to stop ringing cell phones from spoiling the experience that draws people to your establishment. The good news is...

Special delivery.(Technology Information)
May 7, 2001... Regarding "Which standard is better for teleworkers: Wi-Fi or HomeRF?" (www.nwfusion. com, DocFinder: 4122): As I see it, Wayne Caswell is trying to combat the Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) standard by arguing that HomeRF is technologically...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
May 7, 2001... Can the spam Regarding Mark Gibbs' "Backspin" column "Relentless illogical spam" (http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2001/0416gibbs.html): I take exception to Rob Cosgrove's contention that spam "never hurt a tree" and that it consists of...

Stampede puts some zip in Lotus Domino nets; Company's TurboGold update to speed server-to-server mail routing, adds attachment filtering and performance tracking support.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... DAYTON, OHIO - Stampede Technologies has what every Lotus Domino network eventually needs - more speed. The company last week released Version 4.0 of its TurboGold acceleration engine for Lotus Notes and Domino. The software supercharges...

Muttering about voice over IP.(Technology Information)
May 7, 2001... What is it about voice over IP that creates such passionate dogmatism? Far too much of what passes for debate about the future of voice over IP is dominated by assertions of perfect foreknowledge. Considering the track records of most...

Apps briefs.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... Business-to-business marketplace provider FreeMarkets announced it has extended an agreement with Alcoa to offer the aluminum provider access to FreeMarket's B2B Global Marketplace, which Alcoa will use to source a variety of goods and...

Database optimized to handle XML applications.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. - XML is seeping into every nook and cranny of the computing industry, and now there are databases based on the data markup language that IT executives may find a speedy alternative to traditional databases. This week...

LUXN ANNOUNCES CWDM ACCESS PLATFORM.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - LuxN unveiled an addition to its line of optical Ethernet access platforms targeted at low-density networks, including campus interconnections, metropolitan access or smaller metropolitan rings. The WideWav system uses...

carrier briefs.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... AT&T, through its AT&T Wireless Group, and software vendor Siebel Systems have launched a strategic partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will jointly market and provide wireless access to Siebel eBusiness products...

Kmart shines its Blue Light on solid state disks.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... When Kmart relaunched its Blue Light Special this year, the company needed a high-speed storage technology to handle the load of its outbound e-mail and targeted mailing to customers. Kmart chose solid state disk technology from Imperial...

Start-up aims to off-load Web site mgmt. chore.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... MEDFORD, MASS. - Customers looking to outsource their Web site management without having to invest in new network management tools may want to check out InterOPS Management Solutions. InterOPS, a management service provider (MSP), last week...

VERIO, EXODUS BEEF UP RESPECTIVE SECURITY SERVICES.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... ENGLEWOOD, COLO. - Web hosting companies Verio and Exodus have rolled out new managed security services in an effort to quell the fears of businesses reluctant to outsource because of possible network breaches. Exodus is adding managed...

Seeking NDS support.(Product Information)(Column)
May 7, 2001... In an event more rare than Haley's comet, the industry has overwhelmingly agreed on one fact: that directory services are vital to the growth of a network. This being the case, I am constantly amazed that almost no vendors are integrating their...

METRO ETHERNET PROVIDERS TO OFFER VOIP.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... WILMINGTON, N.C. - Customers of metropolitan Ethernet providers Telseon and Cogent could soon be getting voice services in addition to big bandwidth, thanks to separate deals the companies cut with telephony application service provider...

Ask Dr. Intranet.(Questions and Answers)
May 7, 2001... We are putting together a report on best practices in intranet development. What resources on the Web would give me an indication of what constitutes best practices in this area? Searching on the phrase "world's best intranet development...

ASTRAL POINT ADDS VOICE GROOMING TO MAN SWITCH.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... CHELMSFORD, MASS. - Astral Point last week unveiled an enhancement to its ON 5000 Optical Services Node that adds voice grooming to the metropolitan-area network switch. The firm's STS-1 Transmultiplexer lets the ON 5000 groom voice...

Genuity betting on better SLAs.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... Genuity is upping the service-level agreement ante in a high-stakes guarantee game that experts say is as much about market bragging rights as customer dollars and cents. The ISP announced recently that new and existing dedicated Internet...

Banks explore B2B payment options; Getting businesses to change their behavior, adopt security measures are key.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... In the U.S. and Europe, banks are struggling to find the right approach to processing business-to-business payments on the Web and putting appropriate security checks in place as traditional banking networks, such as the Automated Checking...

Technologies to work in tandem to aid IP telephony.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 7, 2001... Enum, an emerging technology that integrates the public switched telephone network and the Internet's domain name system, is getting a boost from another new Internet capability called SIP, for the Session Initiation Protocol. The Internet...

Storage vendors to bolster security, fault-tolerance; DataCore, Finisar and Nishan packages to improve IP storage quality of service and management.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... LAS VEGAS - Storage vendors will show a slew of management and troubleshooting tools at NetWorld+Interop 2001 this week that will let IT professionals fix, secure and build fault-tolerance into their storage infrastructures. DataCore,...

Andes Networks attempts to scale Web acceleration heights; Secure Sockets Layer appliances aimed at off-loading security processing from Web servers.(Product Development)
May 7, 2001... MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. - Start-up Andes Networks this month will begin beta-testing hardware designed to greatly speed cryptographic processing used to safeguard Web transactions. Observers say the company's A5210 devices, which are designed...

Cisco strengthens remote VoIP options.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... Cisco last week unveiled a voice-over-IP gateway that is designed to keep remote office IP phones online even if the site's WAN link fails. The gateway could appeal to users who may have balked at deploying centrally managed voice over IP...

EARTHLINK ROLLS OUT EXPANDED BROADBAND SERVICES.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... ATLANTA - EarthLink announced last week that it is teaming with DirecPC to offer users across the U.S. high-speed Internet access service. The ISP launched EarthLink Satellite Powered by DirecPC service in a number of cities on the East...

Cisco unveils metro optical system.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... Cisco last week broadened its metropolitan optical portfolio with a new dense wavelength division multiplexing platform designed for high-speed integrated transport of storage and data network applications. The ONS 15540 Extended Services...

The Edge briefs.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... Aura Networks last week announced that Cogent Communications will use Aura Networks' Radiance Optical Ethernet System to deploy managed fiber connections to its facilities-based customers in office buildings across the U.S. Cogent has...

Xora boosts mobile data access.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. - A wireless software vendor has introduced a server application intended to simplify the work of connecting handheld users with corporate data. For users, the Xora application means they can extend vital corporate...

Intel PRO/1000T IP Storage Adapter.(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
May 7, 2001... Intel this week is expected to announce the Intel PRO/1000T IP Storage Adapter, an iSCSI-compatible network card that enables the transport of storage data over Gigabit Ethernet networks. The adapter also offloads the TCP stack from the server...

Service creation switches speed IP services.(Technology Information)
May 7, 2001... Start-ups are vying with big network vendors to offer comprehensive service creation platforms, a new class of edge switch/router that supports network-based, broadband IP services including firewalling and VPNs. Taking a step beyond the...

A click off the old bot.(Gem Software's Click Bot)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
May 7, 2001... We just got back from the National Association of Broadcasters exhibition in Las Vegas, so our wireless coverage will be delayed a couple of weeks. This week we'll indulge in a diversion into the netherworld of Web servers with a neat...

Load balancing, security devices on tap from Avaya.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... LAS VEGAS - Layer 4 and Secure Sockets Layer encryption boxes on tap from Avaya this week could be useful in balancing loads among Web servers or firewalls and speeding up encrypted Web traffic. The company's new modular and stackable LAN...

News briefs.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... Survey confirms VC drought U.S. venture capital investment plummeted to $10.1 billion in the first quarter of 2001, hitting a two-year low, which represents a 40% decline from the previous quarter, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers...

Compaq drops 32-way Microsoft DataCenter server.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... Compaq last week became the second major vendor in a month to scrap the 32-way servers it was selling preloaded with the DataCenter version of Microsoft's Windows 2000. Hewlett-Packard had canceled its plans in April. The decisions,...

Bowstreet jumps into portals; Company promises customized access to Web-based content.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... LYNNFIELD, MASS. - Bowstreet, which uses XML-based technology to automate the process of managing and creating Web-based applications and services, has joined the list of software vendors that have jumped into the portal market in recent...

WatchGuard introduces high-end box for busy VPN sites; Firebox III device costs the same but is five times faster than previous box.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... LAS VEGAS - WatchGuard is introducing a new high-end appliance that encrypts VPN traffic five times faster - but at the same price - as the company's former flagship equipment. The new Firebox III security appliance will be introduced at...

E-conference options.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... Nothing draws the attention of vendors faster than praising a competitor. Since writing in this column about WebEx, a company that lets you use the Web to collaborate on everything from PowerPoint presentations to PhotoShop images, I've heard...

Bug delays next Win 2000 service pack.(Product Information)
May 7, 2001... REDMOND,WASH.- Despite a serious security vulnerability found last week in Windows 2000 Server, IT executives will have to wait for the second service pack for a fix. Microsoft was set to ship the service pack nearly two weeks ago when...

Infrastructure providers revamp to face tough times.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... Some big Web hosting companies and infrastructure pro-viders are finding some rough going, laying off staff, reducing capital expenditures and announcing other cost-cutting measures, as they position themselves to ride out the shaky economy....

Army thinks big on net mgmt.; Half-dozen companies vie for $1 billion management project.(Government Activity)
May 7, 2001... The United States Army is mounting a campaign to develop the largest, most ambitious network management system ever built, and it's drafting commercial software and Internet standards for the job. As early as this week, the Army will award...

N times Z equals fuzzy logic.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. - Oscar Wilde, "Lady Windemere's Fan" In the current era of shrinking budgets, I've been reading more about the need to cost-justify IT expenditures. Vendors...

F5, CacheFlow bolster content-delivery product lines; Companies stress application availability, streaming media support with upgraded devices.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... LAS VEGAS - F5 Networks this week will announce a new version of its Big-IP Controller that adds content switching as well as quality-of-service and application monitoring to its Internet traffic management box. Separately, CacheFlow will...

Optical Ethernet firms brave stormy industry seas; While some anticipate a rebound, others say Ethernet services won't cut it.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... LAS VEGAS - Despite reduced capital spending from their customers, metropolitan optical Ethernet companies exhibiting at this week's NetWorld+Interop 2001 show say they will not stray from their original business plans in an effort to create or...

Start-up touts better streaming.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 7, 2001... LAS VEGAS - A group of former Bell Labs scientists is looking to overcome the problem of Internet congestion degrading the quality of streaming media. StreamCenter's InCompass Quality is a combination of server software and client-side...

Demise of Pilot seen as blow to outsourcing.(Company Financial Information)
May 7, 2001... ALAMEDA, CALIF. - The abrupt crash of Pilot Network Services recently raises anew questions about outsourcing critical network services - particularly services as sensitive as security. As the shell-shocked survivors of the Pilot implosion...

New portal aims to make searching easy.(Product Announcement)
May 7, 2001... PHOENIX - InfoImage this week will unveil the latest version of its portal software that company executives say lets users more efficiently find, categorize and update the massive amount of information they deal with every day. Enterprise...

InfiniBand products proliferate at Interop.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... LAS VEGAS - InfiniBand companies this week will show switches and network adapters at NetWorld+Interop to IT professionals who are largely unaware of the high-speed interface used in servers to relieve network congestion. Switch start-up...

Besieged CLECs continue to flounder.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... Last week's resignation by Teligent CEO Alex Mandl and the closing of upstart carrier 2nd Century's doors capped another devastating month for the embattled competitive local exchange carrier industry. Those happenings followed on the...

U.S.-China hacker brawl draws few Web combatants.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... Although not exactly a cyberwar, a hacking brawl of sorts erupted last week between Chinese and U.S. combatants. The National Information Protection Center (NIPC) at the FBI had earlier warned that Chinese hackers would attack U.S.-based...

NetWorld+Interop news digest; Here's a sample of the companies introducing products this week in Las Vegas:.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... Cable & Wireless The service provider is launching Managed Hosting Solutions, a service suite that lets customers choose a semicustomized server environment hosted at the service provider's data centers. The standard service is based on a...

Make way for new management tools.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 7, 2001... LAS VEGAS - A slew of vendors will introduce products and services in Las Vegas this week designed to help firms strapped for cash and IT staffers manage their networks more easily and less expensively. Many of the products making their...