InfoWorld articles from February 2007

InfoWorld archives from February 2007

NAC: How we tested - Enterasys, McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro tackle our user access control scenarios.(network access control)(Editorial)
February 5, 2007... Our test infrastructure for the NAC reviews included an edge switch for the client systems, a core switch with server VLANs for the common and secured servers, and a RADIUS server for authentication. Client systems connected into the edge...

Natural-born IT productivity killers - If one of these characters is your boss, you have our sympathies.(Editorial)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Everybody wants to get more bang for the buck from their workforce. But some common strategies for boosting production may actually lower it in the long run. Managers who adopt these strategies think they're helping, but they're really not. See...

Enemy inside the firewall - ILP software and strategies help ensure information doesn't land in the wrong hands.(information leak prevention)
February 5, 2007... Corporate security lapses are once again sweeping the news hour, but these days the culprit is just as likely to be an inside source -- a paid employee at a reputable company -- as a hacker doing evil somewhere in a Moscow basement. Pity...

AMD not feeling heat of Intel breakthrough - Company also has 45nm chips coming, but won't say when.(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)
February 5, 2007... Advanced Micro Devices is undaunted by rival Intel's recent headline- grabbing announcements of 45-nm (nanometer) processing technology and a deal to supply Xeon chips to Sun Microsystems. Interviewed at the DesignCon 2007 conference in...

DEMO 07 Pushes People Power in Tech - Startups, established firms share stage at Demo.
February 5, 2007... The annual DEMO conferences are always a useful instrument by which to gauge the health and stature of technology innovation; this year was no different, with 16 companies presenting in the first morning session and a recurring theme that might...

RSA: Security firms evolve to tackle new threats - Glimpse of industry adapting to rapid changes, new threats.(Editorial)
February 5, 2007... Evolutionary biologists have long theorized that the pace of evolution quickens when a species faces great environmental stress. This idea, of course, is a tough one to "prove," but we can see examples of it all around us. Just look at the IT...

Microsoft's Zocher talks up Expression - Multimedia experience critical to Microsoft future.(Eric Zocher)(Interview)
February 5, 2007... When you own as much of the world's operating system market as Microsoft does, even small changes to your platform become immensely complicated in practice. For evidence of that, just consider Microsoft Expression, a line of design tools for...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Oracle-branded MySQL seems unlikely - Ellison and company have much to learn before they can take on the open source database market.(Larry Ellison)
February 5, 2007... In October, Oracle sent Red Hat's stock plummeting on the announcement that the database vendor would offer cut-rate support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, under the "Unbreakable Linux" brand. Could Larry Ellison now be planning a repeat with...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Today's end-user: Hardly working - Malware, fraud, and listless workers spell trouble for productivity.(Editorial)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The U.S. workplace is the new dysfunctional family. I've reached that conclusion after stumbling on a string of statistics that make me wonder how American companies ever get anything done, much less show a profit. The first statistic...

STORAGE INSIDER: So long, McData - Brocade completes the elimination of an emulous competitor, but not everybody is celebrating.(Brocade Communications Systems Inc.)
February 5, 2007... Brocade's acquisition of McData has come and gone in what feels like an abrupt change, despite months of elapsed time from start to finish. Brocade spared no effort in presenting the best face of its acquisition to the world....

SECURITY ADVISER: Vulnerability counts do matter - The myth that vulnerability metrics are completely useless is false -- and here's why.
February 5, 2007... It happened again! I got into yet another argument...er...heated discussion over the security of Microsoft Windows versus some other operating system. Usually it starts with some reader's knee-jerk emotional reaction -- saying "Windows sucks!"...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Vista finally debuts, German Google takes a snooze - Ah, the pomp and pageantry of a major operating system rollout.(defects in Dell Inc.'s Inspiron 9200 and 9300 laptops)(Google Inc.'s german site disappeared for few hours)(Column)
February 5, 2007... Consumers have barely smudged the shrink-wrap on Vista, but snafus are already starting to appear. For example, just last week Intuit warned users of QuickBooks 2006 that their software may be "adversely affected" when running under Vista -- so...

ENTERPRISE INSIGHT: IT should prepare for a crisis - Plus, Great Britain overtakes the United States in online ad sales.
February 5, 2007... The former Soviet Republic of Georgia revealed last week it had foiled an effort by a Russian man to sell 3.5 ounces of weapons-grade uranium on the black market. While not enough material to build a bomb, the incident was a strong reminder...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Ready or not, Vista's here - Features like instant upgrade and deep search warrant close attention from admins.(Microsoft Windows Vista)
February 5, 2007... It's a couple of days after the Vista launch. I would like to say that it's been a non-stop party -- that I have no memory of Wednesday and simply woke up on Thursday in a motel bed filled with Brazilian women and day-old booze, my teeth fuzzy,...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Don't stick a fork in AMD - Everyone say it three times, slowly: "Sun is an AMD customer".(Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc.)(Column)
February 5, 2007... With all the vigor and exactness of stock market analysts explaining a one-point shift in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, pundits are penning obits for AMD in the aftermath of Sun Microsystems' recent decision to buy chips from Intel. Poor...

REALITY CHECK: Debating the merits of user-generated content - Giving users the means to contribute content is all the rage at Demo -- but does it have any value?(Editorial)
February 5, 2007... Creativity is alive and well. Twenty-something years after the PC revolution, new ideas and innovation, huge successes and tremendous flops, are all still part of the excitement. So once again I am off to Demo. This year, 70 companies --...

OFF THE RECORD: Upgrade disasters made easy - We've got a huge number of upgrades to do, so let's do them all at the same time!(Column)
February 5, 2007... By Anonymous I'm the technical administrator at a large medical group in Canada. Among other things, I'm responsible for the LAN, the WAN, all the desktops, laptops, peripherals, and a medical-records application that's at the core of our...

NAC policy management wags the watchdog - Friendly administration is critical to successful network access control.(Editorial)
February 5, 2007... The most critical element of a NAC system is the policy management system. As every administrative interface that an administrator must use requires specialized focus and understanding, the ease with which an administrator can launch the policy...

12 quick IT productivity wins - Already lapsed on your New Year's resolutions? It's not too late. These quick IT fixes will make you and your department look good.
February 5, 2007... Stop us if this story sounds familiar. You've been asked to a) keep your infrastructure humming and b) come up with innovative ways to use technology to boost the bottom line. Meanwhile, your resources are stretched tighter than a $2 string on...

Accelerate your 802.1x rollout - Great Bay and Cloudpath products speed discovery and configuration.(Cloudpath Networks XpressConnect)(Editorial)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... During the course of our NAC reviews, we also tested Cloudpath Networks' XpressConnect. XpressConnect is a small, browser-delivered agent that can reconfigure wireless access profiles and 802.1x supplicants. Placed on a captured portal page for...

NAC smorgasbord: Four ways to police the network - Enterasys, McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro take myriad routes to policy-based access control.(network access control)(Editorial)(Product/service evaluation)
February 5, 2007... In this age of worms, zombies, and botnets, mobile computers themselves are a kind of Trojan horse. Do you know where that computer's been? No, you really don't. In its most basic form, NAC (network access control) enforces organizational...

REALITY CHECK: High tech's consumer envy - Will the enterprise be neglected while vendors court the masses in search of the really big bucks?(Editorial)
February 12, 2007... If anything convinced me that the 20th century ethic of high-tech companies being technology-driven is over, it was a panel discussion held during the recent DEMO 2007 conference. If you're the type who mocks the marketing guys and prefers to...

OFF THE RECORD: The making of an IT professional - It's your first week on the job, the server keeps crashing, and the boss is out of town. Good luck!(Column)
February 12, 2007... By Anonymous They don't call it "lost wages" for nothing. In 2003, after a spectacularly unsuccessful stay in Vegas, I came back to Pittsburgh with no money and no job leads. I had been trying to break into IT, but my job skills were not...

Dell PowerConnect 6248 a perfectly priced performer - Dell's new networking switch packs 10G at just $1,500 a port.(Product/service evaluation)
February 12, 2007... Switches are the umpires of the IT field: They're either invisible, or they're in trouble. Nothing less than 100 percent reliability is acceptable. It's with this mind-set that I unboxed the new Dell PowerConnect 6248, the next generation...

Application and desktop virtualization - Slash desktop management overhead, gain more control, and eliminate application conflicts.
February 12, 2007... Despite rumors to the contrary, virtualization is not just for the datacenter. From the most complex workstation applications to the simplest DLLs, virtualization is leaving an indelible mark on client computing. A good example of this is...

Application and desktop virtualizers - In addition to a handful of blade system and thin client hardware vendors, a number of software providers are working to change the face of desktop computing.
February 12, 2007... With application virtualization, apps no longer need to be installed on desktop PCs. Desktop virtualization delivers entire desktop environments to clients. Also, blade hardware and thin client solution vendors provide VMware VDI (Virtual...

Server virtualization specialists - In addition to the systems management heavyweights, you can look to a number of specialists for virtual machine management and automation.
February 12, 2007... The major players -- including BMC, Computer Associates, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Sun, and Unisys -- all have their own virtualization solutions. The vendors listed below have built their companies on server virtualization and, in many cases,...

Virtualization reality check - Virtualization crosses so many boundaries, expect quite a few roadblocks on the way to a successful initiative.
February 12, 2007... Mike Williams considered his virtualization project a success after consolidating 17 U.S. datacenters into three. But then the traffic jams started. As CIO of the U.S. Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), which monitors work on...

SAN and NAS virtualization - Keep pace with ever-increasing storage requirements without skipping a service level.(storage area networks, network attached storage)
February 12, 2007... After some years of false starts and false hopes, storage virtualization, also known as block virtualization, is finally proving its worth. All the major vendors have embraced it, most notably IBM, EMC, and HDS (Hitachi Data Systems); the...

Server virtualization - Get more compute power out of servers while benefiting from a more adaptable datacenter.(Editorial)
February 12, 2007... In today's complex IT environments, server virtualization simply makes sense. Redundant server hardware can rapidly fill enterprise datacenters to capacity; each new purchase drives up power and cooling costs even as it saps the bottom line....

Color MFPs go mainstream - Newest generation of multifunction printers from Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba, Xerox add office-friendly features.(multifunction printers)(Product/service evaluation)
February 12, 2007... When Melissa Riofrio and I reviewed a batch of color multifunction office systems about 18 months ago, we were amused by a large curving plastic sign attached to the Xerox WorkCentre Pro C2636, plastered with instructions on the printer's...

MFPs anti-counterfeiting measures toughen up - New printers feature more subtle markings, security tactics.(multifunction printers)(Editorial)
February 12, 2007... Last time we tested similar MFP systems, we found that they adhered to federal anti-counterfeiting guidelines that recommended overlaying all color jobs with the machine's serial number, encoded in big yellow dots. The dots were almost...

LOLing all the way to the bank - Antepo's founder chats about the future of IM and everything else.(Maxime Seguineau, instant messaging)(Interview)(Editorial)
February 12, 2007... Maxime Seguineau helped found enterprise messaging firm Antepo in February 2000, just as reality was puncturing the hype-filled bubble of the dot-com craze. Back then, IM was mostly for teens and college students, who used free, online chat...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Linux and Vista users share driver pain - Linux kernel developers offer free support to struggling hardware manufacturers.(Microsoft Windows Vista)
February 12, 2007... Customers are getting annoyed. They spent good money on the latest and greatest PC peripherals, only to find out that the hardware is only partially supported on their operating system of choice. Without the kernel drivers necessary to power...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Going virtual - Apologies for the "virtual" quips; I just can't seem to stop myself.(Editorial)
February 12, 2007... It's virtualization week here at InfoWorld Central -- and there's virtually no escape. We kick off with "Virtualization under the hood," a multipart primer to server, storage, app, and desktop virtualization. We've also overhauled our...

STORAGE INSIDER: Hitachi and Archivas tie the knot - Despite a long courtship, the union maintains a certain privacy.(Hitachi Data Systems Corp.)
February 12, 2007... The news of Hitachi Data Systems revealing its intention to buy Archivas probably did not surprise anybody because the two vendors have been partners for quite some time. One of the results of that partnership was HCAP (Hitachi Content...

SECURITY ADVISER: The fight against Internet child exploitation - TV news shows aren't the only ones bringing criminals to justice -- new tech helps police ferret out online predators.
February 12, 2007... I love those Dateline NBC-type programs where they catch potential child sex predators who think they are setting up an intimate meeting with a 13- or 15-year old child via the Internet. How can it be that every sicko in the world hasn't heard...

ENTERPRISE INSIGHT: Memo to AT&T: Get with the times - Fierce competition on the way could mean a welcome attitude adjustment.(Editorial)
February 12, 2007... I don't often use this column to share warnings about companies whose business practices leave me (and others, no doubt) feeling used and abused. But one can only take so much. So, here goes. You see, when I was younger I used to fantasize...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Dell snags a new/old chief; Turner Media promo causes grief - If Bill Gates repeats himself enough times, eventually someone will believe him.(Microsoft Windows vulnerabilities)(hacking of Wikipedia)
February 12, 2007... If being out of touch with reality is a requirement for holding high office, Bill Gates must be running for president. In a recent interview with Newsweek, Gates said, "Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day.... I dare anybody...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: AMD reinvents the x86 - Quad-core Opteron? Nope. Barcelona is the completely redesigned x86, and it's brilliant.(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)
February 12, 2007... AMD's next-generation processor line, code-named Torrenza, has gone from a block diagram to living, breathing silicon. The first incarnation of AMD's redesigned x86 CPU is Barcelona, that which your non-co-readers will call quad-core Opteron....

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Microsoft cures its connectile dysfunction - Redmond has injected SharePoint with a potent collaboration boost.
February 12, 2007... I don't ask much. If the Pats can't be in the Super Bowl, then the team to beat them out for the big spot needs to lose. I mean, that's practically etched in silicon by Stephen Hawking, right? Was it too much to ask? Apparently. For a while...

Enterprise mashups meet SOA - Lack the bandwidth to build all the services you want? Then mash up services from publicly available APIs and get whizzy new applications for little effort.(service oriented architecture )
February 19, 2007... The line is blurring between the enterprise and the Web. Mashups live on that porous perimeter, offering the reusability of an SOA plus very rapid development using prebuilt services outside the firewall. Soon, we may live in a world where it's...

Mashup platform vendors - Mashup platforms run the gamut from established portal servers to bleeding edge Web pure-plays.
February 19, 2007... This sampling of mashup platforms runs the gamut from established portal servers to bleeding-edge Web pure plays. The list does not include commercial or open source AJAX toolkits. (See also "Enterprise mashups meet SOA.") Above All...

Orchestria 4.7 mitigates data security threats - Scalable, policy-based monitoring oversees e-mail, IM, devices for potential leaks.(Editorial)(Product/service evaluation)
February 19, 2007... Companies often ascribe success to "doing one thing and doing it right." That philosophy is working for Orchestria and its ECC (electronic communication control) solution, which concentrates on preventing sensitive data from leaving...

Thinstall removes barriers to application virtualization - Self- contained virtualization solution makes for clean, quick deployment.(Thinstall Virtualization Suite 3.0)(Product/service evaluation)
February 19, 2007... Have you heard? Thin is "in" again. From VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) to RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) to SVS (Software Virtualization Service), the ghosts of thin client computing are being resurrected like a scene out of "Field of...

Lombardi moving BPM online - Blueprint offers process discovery as a service.(business process management)(Lombardi Software Inc.)
February 19, 2007... The announcement last week from Lombardi Software that it will add a SaaS (software as a service) component dubbed Blueprint to its on- premises BPM suite highlights both the continuing growth of the hosted model and its limitations. In...

Crypto Expert: Moore's Law fuels app obesity epidemic - Chip advances fuel "supersized," insecure applications.(Interview)
February 19, 2007... Cryptography is no mean field. After all, the science was invented by humans for the purpose of concealing information from other humans. That means that the best cryptographers have to be blindingly smart, with a mastery of mathematics but...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Virtualization: Linux's killer app - The proliferation of virtualization options gives Linux an edge over Windows.
February 19, 2007... I came away from InfoWorld's Virtualization Executive Forum last week with two conclusions. First, server virtualization is definitely a big deal. This time last year, customers and ISVs still seemed to be struggling to come to terms with this...

EDITOR'S LETTER: When crazy is OK - Science lesson: Just because a technology idea is bizarre doesn't mean it's wrong.(Editorial)
February 19, 2007... I know a little something about crackpot technology. See, back in the '80s, I worked at Omni, the now-defunct science/science fiction magazine that delighted in all manifestations of crackpottery. We wrote about cryptozoologists armed with...

SECURITY ADVISER: DNS attack puts Web security in perspective - With more business apps running online, it's time to shore up DoS prevention measures.(domain name system, denial of service attacks)(Column)
February 19, 2007... A few years ago, I had the privilege of seeing some root DNS servers in action at VeriSign's main headquarters. It's something I had wanted to do for over a decade, and I was literally slightly shaking with excitement (yes, I am that big of a...

STORAGE INSIDER: Breaking the addiction to large storage vendors - Small vendors get innovative: Revinetix and Yosemite bring new data protection features to SMBs.
February 19, 2007... Covering storage sometimes reminds me of browsing the Internet: Occasionally you may reach an apparent dead-end, but you are always far from having walked into every corner. One of the reasons for this virtually infinite dimension of...

ENTERPRISE INSIGHT: Inventing a better future - Dean Kamen of Segway fame keeps cranking the ideas while paving the way for others.
February 19, 2007... I got inspired last night, the kind of inspiration where after seeing a dinner speaker, instead of wanting dessert, you want to rush home and invent something. The speaker was Dean Kamen, a serial inventor perhaps best known for his...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: iTunes fans out of luck, Dell user shows off burned truck - Being for the benefit of Mr. Jobs, the fifth Beatle.(Microsoft's new site)(Department of Defense attacked by denial of service)
February 19, 2007... The Cupertino crew may have settled its differences with the Fab Four, but apparently not with the Redmond horde. Apple has warned iTunes fans to avoid Vista, and vice versa, if they value their music collections or the iPods they rode in on. A...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Dell's dicey fortune - Investors and the SEC are going after Dell, but it shouldn't have to take the rap alone.(Column)
February 19, 2007... I wrote a column in 2005 called "How will Dell Offset the Loss of Intel's Generosity?". In it, I asserted that Dell needed to overhaul its strategy and focus to make up for the coming loss of Intel's... oh, call it what you like: price...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Wi-Fi and VOIP near full convergence - Don't expect revolutionary apps or cellular-provider cooperation anytime soon, though.
February 19, 2007... Don't know what it is, but nine times out of 10 when I somehow get roped into listening to some four-foot stage star with fiery curls and a voice like a prepubescent foghorn belt out "Tomorrow," I get a headache. Maybe I'm too close to the...

OFF THE RECORD: Curse of the call center - Why was our new call center taking 10 seconds to connect callers? And why didn't anyone care?(Column)
February 19, 2007... By Anonymous I was working for a small chain of electronics retailers in New Orleans when the head office in Memphis decided that we needed to replace our call center. Business had been expanding rapidly, and our home-grown call system was...

REALITY CHECK: The real appeal of SaaS - Enough of the software-as-a- service vendor's hype. What do their customers think?(Editorial)
February 19, 2007... If we are ever to cut through the hype in hopes of determining how good SaaS (software as a service) really is, the best way would be to talk to companies that use SaaS. Of course, each application or service must stand on its own -- SaaS can't...

12 crackpot tech ideas that could transform the enterprise - These technologies straddle the divide between harebrained and brilliant as they promise to shake the pillars of tomorrow's enterprise.
February 19, 2007... By InfoWorld Staff Technologies that push the envelope of the plausible capture our curiosity almost as quickly as the would-be crackpots who dare to concoct them become targets of our derision. Tinkering along the fringe of...

The well connected distributor - Electronic parts distributor Avnet needed simpler connections to its customers -- and among its internal systems. The solution: service orientation and a common data model.
February 26, 2007... Back in 1999, Avnet's senior managers realized things had to change. A series of acquisitions had left the electronic components distributor with a glut of applications and platforms whose lack of interoperability was complicating operations....

New choices in networked storage - Companies such as Agami Systems are taking on Network Appliance in NAS, SAN, and iSCSI.(network attatched storage, storage area networks, Internet Small Computer System Interface)
February 26, 2007... One of the best known names in NAS and iSCSI is Network Appliance, a company that has embraced SANs as well. Aneil Balkaran, manager of Windows on Unix at Consol Energy, runs an iSCSI SAN on a pair of clustered NetApp FAS 960 C boxes. These...

The trends that shape iSCSI's trajectory - Experts debate where iSCSI will find its niche.(Internet Small Computer System Interface)
February 26, 2007... Where is iSCSI headed? Good question. A recent blogstorm with posts from well-known names at EMC, EqualLogic, and NetApp among others leaves the answer in doubt. True, shipments of iSCSI gear continue to climb steadily, but conventional analyst...

iSCSI: The rising enterprise star - iSCSI won't replace Fibre Channel anytime soon. But for SMBs and remote offices, the low price and overhead are just right.(Internet Small Computer System Interface, small and medium business)
February 26, 2007... Fibre Channel was definitely not top of mind when Chris Brown hit the wall on disk space and, in mid-2005, decided to go shopping for a SAN. Brown is IT manager for DeltaValve, a division of Curtiss-Wright Flow Control. "I have an IT staff of...

Future growth demands wireless ISPs - Startups, not incumbents, must drive wireless adoption, says Ruckus CEO.
February 26, 2007... Aspiring entrepreneurs can only dream about a track record like Selina Lo's. First there was Centillion, a networking startup that Lo co- founded, and Bay Networks purchased for $100 million in 1994. Lo's next act was Alteon, a maker of Gigabit...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: At 25, Sun struggles to reinvent itself - In a bid to shape its future, Sun Microsystems must look to its past.
February 26, 2007... Developers by the thousands flocked to the International Convention Center in Hyderabad, India last week as Sun Microsystems kicked off the second leg of its world-spanning series of Tech Days conferences. The theme of the event was "shape your...

EDITOR'S LETTER: The greening of IT - Environmentalism in the datacenter is suddenly part of the Zeitgeist.(Editorial)
February 26, 2007... Ever have this experience? One day, you read about something, then suddenly you start noticing references to it everywhere. This happened to me recently with energy-efficient IT, aka the green datacenter. Today, a gentle trickle of attention;...

SECURITY ADVISER: Bots and DDoS attacks: a primer - Knowing the inner workings of botnets and their attack styles can help you formulate a defense -- or outlast an attack.(Distributed Denial of Service attacks)(Editorial)
February 26, 2007... My friends Paul and Robin Laudanski at CastleCops have been under a huge DDoS attack for over a week. The attack has initiated sustained malicious loads over 1GB/s. While that number is incredible in itself, it's just on the high side of...

STORAGE INSIDER: Clariion call - EMC and Dell add another Clariion model to the lineup, but the emphasis this time is on data protection.(EMC Corp. (Hopkinton, Massachusetts))
February 26, 2007... I have this recurring dream where a promising storage start-up whose products I have reviewed or analyzed ends up being purchased by a big guy. Only it's not a dream but a common reality in this ultra- competitive storage market. Vendors are...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Dell seeks a clue, will LG sue? Execs say Apple swiped iPhone design from Korean electronics giant.(EarthLink Wireless's customer Cringeman John M.'s account information lost )
February 26, 2007... Apparently Dell is too big for even Michael D. to run by himself. So the company has created the Digg-like Dell Idea Storm, where would-be CEOs can offer their 2 cents on how to run the show. At press time, more than 800 ideas had been...

ENTERPRISE INSIGHT: Gauging Net consumption - Peel back the energy onion, and you'll find the Internet sucks up a lot of juice.(Editorial)
February 26, 2007... However it is that urban myths get started, it's kind of a bummer when one of them gets dispelled. A couple years ago, for example, a Chinese astronaut went into space and debunked the myth that the Great Wall is visible from up there. Now...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: IBM's Power6 looms large - To see the future of computing, check out IBM's latest rev of its Power chip architecture.(Product/service evaluation)
February 26, 2007... AMD's Barcelona CPU is loaded with "invented here" innovation. It is also inspired by IBM's Power architecture. IBM's newest Power CPU, Power6, is due mid-year, along with quad-core processors from Intel and AMD. And while x86 will get more...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: DiVitas opens up its cell-to-Wi-Fi gateway - Mobile Convergence Appliance makes cellular and VoIP a more viable combo than InfoWorld and swimsuits.(DiVitas Networks MCA)(mobile convergence appliance)
February 26, 2007... A comparative operation: InfoWorld and Sports Illustrated: Sports Illustrated's target audience: sports fans. InfoWorld's target audience: IT workers SI's target content: sports news IW's target content: geek news SI's...

OFF THE RECORD: Danger inside the firewall - That nice, new Linksys wireless router might as well have been a ticking bomb.(Column)
February 26, 2007... By Anonymous Between the latest firewall technology and advanced intrusion detection systems, IT professionals are breathing a little easier. This is a big mistake. It may be easier to protect the network from external attack these days,...

REALITY CHECK: SaaS, not so fast - Software as a Service has its limitations in the enterprise.(Editorial)
February 26, 2007... Last week's column was an upbeat look at SaaS (software as a service) from the point of view of companies that are currently deploying SaaS solutions. This week we'll take a different tack. Last week, Jeffrey Falk, director of product...

EqualLogic's iSCSI SAN hits storage management high notes - PS3800XV is easy to configure, blazingly fast, and manages dissimilar arrays with aplomb.(Internet Small Computer System Interface Storage Area Networks)(Editorial)(Brief article)
February 26, 2007... It seems that every time I configure an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN array in the company of folks who've never seen the process, they ask the same question: "Really? You're already done?" The answer, always, is Yes. The simplicity of EqualLogic's...

LeftHand boosts its SAN/iQ - Powerful, easy-to-use management tames third-party and proprietary hardware.(LeftHand Networks Inc.)
February 26, 2007... Many companies would embrace the superior performance and enhanced reliability of clustered storage were it not for the fear that adoption would cost a fortune and lock them into proprietary hardware. Although that perception is,...