InfoWorld articles from January 2006

InfoWorld archives from January 2006

Wanted: Methods for moving mountains of content - Document management fosters compliance while enterprise search cracks silos.(enterprise document management)
January 2, 2006... Regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals and financial services have used EDM (enterprise document management) for years to prove compliance in handling important information such as customer records. Throughout 2005, compliance gaps hit...

End-to-end identity management suites still coming together - CA, HP, and Oracle round out portfolios as identity management suites mature.
January 2, 2006... The identity management market is one that we watch closely. And while it has yet to fully explode into the mainstream, 2005 saw it steadily gaining momentum. Identity is so compelling because it's far more than just a security technology....

Scaled-up hosted services challenge the old collaboration paradigm - Linux-based "Exchange killers" show promise, but WebEx might have the secret sauce.
January 2, 2006... The collaboration landscape saw some improvement last year, as 2005 was the year challengers to Microsoft Exchange made their case, podcasting became a national pastime, and WebEx's management realized that small customers have money, too. ...

Threat landscape and lapses justify security paranoia - Gadgets abounded in 2005; common sense remained AWOL for some.
January 2, 2006... Security remained foremost on the minds of IT leadership in 2005, and with good reason. The year saw a Microsoft research project discover the first so-called zero-day exploit; "identity theft," "phishing," and "spyware" became part of the...

Long-awaited MySQL 5.0 makes its debut - New version of open source database adds features, but management and development tools come up short.
January 2, 2006... MySQL 5.0 has finally been released to much anticipation from the open source community. The new version includes some important enhancements that make an upgrade mandatory for 4.1 users, including improved security and stored procedures. All...

Product Previews.(nGenius Performance Manager Standby Server from NetScout Systems Inc.)(OmniAccess WAN Routers from Compagnie Financiere Alcatel)(FastIron Edge X-Series 424-Power over Ethernet Switch from Foundry Networks Inc.)
January 2, 2006... Foundry drives VoIP with FastIron switch, Alcatel expands WAN options, NetScout gets smart about network performance, MetricStream boosts SOX compliance By InfoWorld staff Foundry drives VoIP with FastIron switch Foundry Networks...

Software as a service interrupted - Salesforce.com, TypePad, and del.ico.us all experience outages in December.(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... The Tuesday before Christmas, a software problem with one of Salesforce.com's database clusters caused the CRM service to be intermittently unreachable by some customers for six hours. That incident was one of several outages in December at...

Vocera brings Star Trek to the enterprise - Once a sci-fi dream, wearable wireless communication devices are being put to use in hospitals, hotels.(Vocera Communications Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Once just a sci-fi fantasy, wireless communicator badges like those from the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" TV series are now being used in the workplace. The crew of the science-fiction show's starship Enterprise wore small devices on...

Windows flaw greets the new year - Windows XP and Server 2003 found open to attack from hackers exploiting the way the OSes handle .WMF files.(Windows Metafile )(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Fully patched systems running Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are open to attack from malicious hackers, various security firms warned last week. And what's the Windows vulnerability this time? A newly discovered flaw in the way those two...

New regulations loom large in 2006 - The compliance juggernaut rolls on, requiring IT to address privacy, data retention, and product lifecycle issues.
January 2, 2006... Compliance deadlines touched almost every business sector and division in 2005. Think the worst is over? Think again: It looks like '06 and '07 will see even more activity, demanding a whole new level of monitoring and record-keeping...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Top technologies of the year - Highlighting the most enterprising products in the enterprise.(Editorial)
January 2, 2006... Welcome to our first issue of the year. For those of you who took a break, re-entry into the heady universe of work may be a bit discombobulating. Fortunately, last Saturday, the world's ever- considerate timekeepers saw fit to give us an extra...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: The Nokia 770: A Linux-based ugly duckling - Despite its shortcomings, Nokia's new "Internet tablet" could raise the bar for consumer-device development.(Column)
January 2, 2006... In my final column of 2005 I said that 2006 would be the year for Linux-powered consumer electronic devices. For the past few weeks I've been enthralled by one early example: the Nokia 770. Though it's small enough to fit comfortably into a...

SECURITY ADVISER: IT security got better in 2005, but malware and buggy code threaten 2006 - This year, better patch management and network controls made for fewer security crises.
January 2, 2006... An interesting thing happened this year: It appears that 2005 wasn't worse securitywise than the previous years. Sure, malware and hackers were as crazy as ever, but when I asked many of my computer security friends if 2005 was better or worse...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: IT needs to prepare for avian flu disaster - Potential for pandemic should prompt IT shops to beef up remote collaboration infrastructure.
January 2, 2006... What is it about birds and progress? Why are birds always mucking things up and slowing us down? If they're not pooping on our windshields, they're attacking our french fries or flying into our wind generators. And now, just when you thought...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: More tech losers, Dell support snoozes - Geeky gossipmonger seeks consolation after devastating loss.(identity theft at the credit card industries)(Hewlett-Packard Co. shares)(Dell Inc.)
January 2, 2006... I really thought it was going to be my year. But then Time named Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono its men/woman of 2005. Sure, they've done plenty to fight Third World poverty and disease, but have they contributed anything to the world of geek...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: The Microsoft machine churns on - Redmond's elves are hammering on security -- and have the reports to show for it.(Column)
January 2, 2006... I could do it. But we both know you're hoping I don't. It's the very last column of 2005, so tradition says we should either talk about "The Top 10 Microsoft Somethings of 2005," or I should skip straight ahead to "The Top 10 Microsoft New...

STORAGE INSIDER: Will Seagate's acquisition of Maxtor spell trouble for its rivals? The disk drive industry holds its breath for an acquisition rivaling the Hitachi-IBM deal.
January 2, 2006... Three years ago, a January Storage Insider column focused on a big and, at that time, stunning acquisition in the disk drive market segment. The deal essentially translated into IBM selling its disk drive business to Hitachi by way of creating...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: ECMAScript: The Switzerland of development environments? The latest tools from Macromedia show how a programming language can stay neutral to coding practices.(Column)
January 2, 2006... There is a perpetual debate in programming circles about the pros and cons of static vs. dynamic typing. I've always favored dynamically typed languages, such as Lisp, Perl, and Python, because my own coding efforts tend to focus on application...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: 2006 technology in the crosshairs - Thrills! Chills! Or just plain baloney? My hardware-centric prognostications for the new year.(computer capacity management)(Column)
January 2, 2006... What would ahead of the curve be without some journalistically irresponsible predictions to kick off the New Year? It's all part of my contract with you, the reader, which, if you read the fine print, also absolves me of any accountability. ...

OFF THE RECORD: An IT project without a future - When the politics get tough, the tough get outsourced.(Column)
January 2, 2006... By Anonymous A few years back, my associate Paul and I were working as network engineers for a large transportation company when we were assigned to a project supporting a major new intercontinental communications application. Grady and...

REALITY CHECK: Document management systems go to court - New federal rules for 2006 could come down hard on IT.
January 2, 2006... Two proposed amendments to the federal Rules of Civil Procedure, if passed by Congress, will have a major impact on corporations and their IT departments. One expert I spoke with called the situation a legal Chernobyl. The two proposals...

Fast times for industry-standard system hardware - 2006 will bring more cores, lower power requirements, hardware virtualization, and a few surprises.(Advanced Micro Devices Inc. )(Intel Corp.)
January 2, 2006... If 2004 was the year that Advanced Micro Devices' 64-bit x86 technology caught the attention of IT, then 2005 was the year that AMD began reaping the benefits of being noticed. In April 2005, AMD transitioned its Opteron server CPUs from single...

Silver Peak squeezes into the WAN game - NX Series acceleration appliances reduce response time for a broad range of protocols.
January 2, 2006... As the WAN optimization market continues to grow and evolve, new and established vendors are developing systems that accelerate previously ignored varieties of network traffic. One promising newcomer is Silver Peak Systems, whose breadth of...

Cisco delivers 10 Gigabit Ethernet to the closet - Paired with Catalyst 4506, stellar supervisor engine boasts wire-rate speed.(Catalyst 4506 with Supervisor Engine II-Plus- 10GE)
January 2, 2006... Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop isn't for every infrastructure, but it's become a popular push both by switching vendors and network admins. And no wonder: Servers are generally using bonded gigabit links to the network, the cost of Gigabit...

HP delivers another server workhorse - ProLiant DL380 G4 proves a solid, dependable general-purpose server.(from Hewlett-Packard Inc.)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 2, 2006... You know a product is good when you keep trying to think of ways not to send it back to its maker. Hewlett-Packard's HP ProLiant DL380 G4 is one of those products. It arrived in time for a test of desktop encryption solutions and then stayed...

2006 Technology of the Year Awards: The winners' list - Find all of our Technology of the Year Award winners here, organized by category.(by InfoWorld Publishing Corp.)
January 2, 2006... By InfoWorld Test Center staff SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES Best Enterprise Server IBM eServer OpenPower 710 Multiprocessing powerhouse with excellent fault-tolerance features Best Industry Standard Server HP ProLiant DL585...

2006 Technology of the Year Awards.
January 2, 2006... By InfoWorld Test Center staff In broad strokes, 2005 will be remembered for the emergence of multicore CPUs, the rise of enterprise x86, and even the quiet realization in datacenters throughout the land that CPU virtualization works...

Operating systems vendors prep for next-gen hardware - Windows, Linux, Solaris get ready for a new generation of hardware, leaving the polish to Apple.(Apple Computer Inc.'s OS X v10.4 Tiger)
January 2, 2006... IT organizations usually stay loyal to the OS choices they make, but every once in a while, vendors and projects yield a bumper crop of OSes so compelling that the strength of ties binding IT to their chosen operating systems are tested. ...

Traffic optimization takes center stage in networking show - Despite lack of progress in many areas, 2005 saw networking gains.
January 2, 2006... In many ways, 2005 was a "so what?" year for networking. After all, anyone who expected major breakthroughs on a number of key issues ended the year sorely disappointed. There's been little progress on IPv6 adoption, the United States is still...

Widespread adoption of virtualization awaits help from hardware - Hardware-assisted CPU virtualization will bring big-iron adaptability to x86 enterprises.
January 2, 2006... 2005 was a training year for the x86 virtualization race just around the corner, or rather, the quarter. At present, virtualization is primarily associated with carving one physical computer into multiple independent virtual systems....

Application development tools focus on team process and code quality - Software development tool vendors focus on process and code quality, prepare for multicore CPUs.
January 2, 2006... It was a year that saw the resurgence of old tools and the redesign of new ones. Static code analysis, which was abandoned long ago, became the latest craze in 2005 following concerns about security, code quality, and code ownership. Today,...

Data protection and change control drive database developments - Auditing and encryption products address top concerns, while Microsoft shoots the moon.
January 2, 2006... Most of the major vendors came out with major releases in 2005. Oracle Database 10g went to Release 2, giving customers transparent data encryption, enhanced grid management, and a number of performance and security improvements. MySQL released...

Middleware finds its mojo again - Maturing Web services standards and solutions shift the focus from development to deployment.
January 2, 2006... Few areas of technology underwent greater advances in 2005 than middleware. And 2006 looks as if it'll be no different. Between new architectures, maturing standards, and innovative technologies, the dream of integration within and without the...

Storage vendors move beyond blocks and LUNs - Innovations, acquisitions, and partnerships pave the way to smarter storage.(logical unit numbers)
January 2, 2006... No single storage technology stole the spotlight in 2005, but the year was nonetheless an exciting one that featured new products in areas such as data protection and virtualization as well as important developments in disks, tapes, and...

Lessons from an SOA pioneer - Shipping company Con-Way began its SOA journey eight years ago, providing one illustration of how the new architecture approach can go the distance.(service-oriented architecture)(Con-Way Intermodal Inc.)
January 9, 2006... Today, SOA (service-oriented architecture) is the undisputed champion of IT trends. But IT professionals have seen other megatrends come and go, some successful, some disastrous. Many companies remain skeptical about SOA, in part because most...

EMC Documentum 5 brings mastery to content management - Myriad modules strengthen app with compliance, business processes, and more.(enterprise document management)(enterprise content management)(Column)
January 9, 2006... EMC Documentum is synonymous with enterprise content management. Picking and configuring appropriate components from the company's product set -- over 100 different systems -- takes research and work. But stick with the process and you'll be...

Easy management makes ShoreTel IP PBX a delight - Modular components, clear configuration impress.(ShoreTel 6, internet protocol private branch exchanges)
January 9, 2006... One thought kept running through my mind while I tested the ShoreTel 6 phone system: "This is too easy." Surely, I thought, there must be a point at which the ShoreTel PBX becomes a pain in the neck. I thought wrong. ShoreTel 6 is a...

Handicapping Macworld Expo - Conference likely to show the first Intel- based Mac.(Brief Article)
January 9, 2006... The media's tendency to portray Steve Jobs as Apple's sole visionary and strategist is woefully short-sighted. Nonetheless, on the eve of another Macworld Conference & Expo, the only thing on people's minds is what Steve Jobs will say on stage...

Eclipse rises victorious - Open source tools platform sheds IBM's shadow to emerge as an independent app dev success.
January 9, 2006... Although it began as an IBM endeavor in 2001, the Eclipse open source tools platform has come into its own, emerging as both an alternative to Microsoft in the application development space and the de facto standard for developing in Java. ...

RIM legal woes jumpstart wireless e-mail alternatives - Deployment warnings and an uncertain legal outcome may force IT to embrace BlackBerry's competitors.(Research in Motion Ltd.)
January 9, 2006... For millions of road warriors, RIM's BlackBerry wireless e-mail service is an essential link to critical corporate data. But with that vital connection almost shut down at the end of 2005 by a lawsuit from NTP, a patent holding company,...

EDITOR'S LETTER: The Romance of HPC - High-performance computing is working its way into the mainstream.(Editorial)
January 9, 2006... How did high-performance computing snag such stunning buzz? After all, until recently, HPC was a niche technology with limited applicability and even fewer practitioners. Yet mainstream IT folks have been salivating over it for years. My...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Wind River sees a Linux future for devices - The open source OS is a natural fit for device software optimization.(VxWorks, real-time operating system)
January 9, 2006... Last week, I wrote about the Nokia 770, the mobile phone maker's Linux- based Internet tablet appliance. Although the device has its rough edges, open source allowed Nokia to bring it to market quickly at an attractive price point. It's a...

SECURITY ADVISER: WMF warnings: I wasn't crying wolf - When a threat is real, warning others is paramount. So why are malware alerting methods so poor?
January 9, 2006... By coincidence, I was checking my e-mail at the exact moment (7:31 p.m. EST, Dec. 27, 2005) when a new Microsoft Windows zero-day exploit (the WMF buffer overflow exploit) was announced in an anonymous e-mail to Bugtraq. Here's the e-mail with...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Resolved: Things go better with IT - The best organizations spend more per user on IT -- and pay their IT staffers better.(Column)
January 9, 2006... I recently got my hands on a PowerPoint deck from a research firm I hadn't heard of, the Atlanta-based Hackett Group. Of course I immediately thought of Buddy Hackett, who would have made a great IT analyst, but this is a different Hackett. ...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Intel makes a leap, Grokster snares Ips - Crotchety columnist staggers home after 40 -- I mean four -- days in the desert.
January 9, 2006... My tongue tastes like I've been sucking on an exhaust pipe, my feet throb like an outboard motor, and my brain feels like Charo has been doing the cuchi-cuchi dance on my forehead. This can only mean one thing: I've just returned from four days...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Wikipedia, competition, and the future - The online encyclopedia must adapt to meet the ongoing challenges of free- form digital collaboration.
January 9, 2006... By the time you read this column, Wikipedia will be celebrating its fifth anniversary. It's been a wilder ride than anybody could have imagined, and it's gotten even more so lately. In a widely cited incident, John Seigenthaler, Sr., a...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Innovation puts the blitz on mediocrity - The most successful IT companies in 2006 will understand that 'good enough' isn't really good enough.
January 9, 2006... Innovation rules. I was stoned in '04 (I mean, stones were thrown at me) for saying that. But in '05, AMD, Apple, RIM, Nokia, and a few others illustrated my case ably. That's why I frequently chose to write about those companies and their...

OFF THE RECORD: When outsourcers have you over a barrel - Pay close attention to a contract's fine print ... or pay the consequences.
January 9, 2006... By Anonymous Some years back I worked for a large legal publisher. Among other things, we published books about contracts and their legal implications. If my boss had read some of those books, this story might have had a different ending....

REALITY CHECK: A channel play for SaaS in 2006 - VARs delivering software as services could be good news for SMBs and enterprises alike.(software as a service)
January 9, 2006... Microsoft's competitors are ridiculing what they claim is Redmond's half-hearted entry into the world of SaaS (software as a service) with CRM 3.0. In numerous conversations I've been told, "It shouldn't even be called SaaS. They're not even...

A first look at Windows Compute Cluster Server - Microsoft is pushing high-performance computing aggressively, but just what does it have to offer?
January 9, 2006... It used to be that building a usable compute cluster took plenty of money, skills, and space in the datacenter. Although creating the actual applications that run on the cluster can still be difficult, nowadays building a Linux-based cluster is...

High-performance computing: Supercharging the enterprise - Thanks to lower barriers to entry, compute clusters and grids are moving out of the labs and into the mainstream.
January 9, 2006... Merlin Securities, a new prime brokerage providing trading, financing, portfolio analysis, and reporting for multibillion-dollar hedge funds, needed a competitive edge. Its larger rivals, such as Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, had...

Appliances offer more than spam defense - Proofpoint, Symantec devices protect against directory harvest, phishing attacks.
January 9, 2006... While spam continues to be a problem, consuming network bandwidth and users' time, it is not the only security issue facing e-mail administrators. DHAs (directory harvest attacks) try to find valid e- mail addresses by sending random e-mails to...

Storage virtualization and iSCSI don't mix - Immature products and low market share leave iSCSI SANs in the cold when it comes to virtualization.(Internet SCSI Storage Area Networks)(Small Computer Systems Interface)
January 16, 2006... As more and more products enter the market, iSCSI is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative to FC (Fibre Channel) SAN technology. Not only is iSCSI cheaper than Fibre Channel, but the technology is less complex to implement. Because it...

Virtualized storage, real rewards - Virtualization comes in many guises, but it's here today and can be a valuable part of your storage strategy.(importance of storage virtualization)
January 16, 2006... As senior director of enterprise technology operations at Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a prison management firm that handles more than 60 facilities, Brad Wood faces several challenges. His group manages approximately 100TB of data...

What isn't storage virtualization? Vendors label many products 'virtualization,' but not all of them meet the needs of true storage virtualization.
January 16, 2006... Vendors often use the term "virtualization" to describe myriad products, including global name spaces, virtual storage area networks (VSANs), pooled NAS (network-attached storage), thin-provisioning software, virtual file systems, virtual tape...

Oracle packages middleware as SOA suite - Fusion products feature common install.(service oriented architecture)(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... Providing one-stop shopping for SOA deployments, Oracle is packaging together several of its existing Fusion middleware products as the Oracle SOA Suite. Products will be integrated and have a common install and common management tools....

SOA governance steps into the spotlight - Mercury's Systinet buy illustrates growing requirement for SOA policy planning.(service oriented architecture)(Mercury Interactive Corp. buys Systinet Corp.)
January 16, 2006... Mercury Interactive leapt into SOA governance last week by announcing its intent to acquire Systinet, a leading registry provider. The move signals recognition of SOA's ascendance in the enterprise, for without governance -- the set of policies...

Product previews.(SPI Dynamics AMP 2.0, Assessment Management Platform)(Cyber-Ark Software Enterprise Password Vault )
January 16, 2006... SPI Dynamics consolidates security assessment, SPSS tunes Clementine for business ops, Password Vault tackles service accounts, JotSpot puts the Wiki to Excel By InfoWorld staff SPI Dynamics Consolidates Security Assessment SPI...

Data theft hits the Bahamas - Trouble in paradise, as database break-in exposes resort guests' personal information.(Kerzner International)(Atlantis Resort)(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... Apparently, paradise isn't all that it's cracked up to be. The latest in an unending string of computer database heists has victimized unsuspecting vacationers in Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The upscale Atlantis Resort last week admitted to...

Macs get Intel inside - New computers run three to four times faster than PowerPC models.(Apple Computer Inc. introduced intel-based macintosh computers and laptops)(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... The Macintosh-with-Intel-inside era commenced last week with Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini, appearing on stage at Macworld in the Intel bunny suit. Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced four new models during his keynote address: two iMacs and two...

EDITOR'S LETTER: SQL Server 2005 leaves open source databases in the dust - Microsoft catches up with Oracle, hones value-added features vital to larger deployments.(Editorial)
January 16, 2006... Sean McCown isn't afraid of controversy. He assured me of that when I interviewed him last week in preparation for this column. So when the InfoWorld contributing editor referred to DBAs (database administrators) who favor open source databases...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Homeland Security moves to strengthen open source software - Software analysis tools will identify defects in community- contributed code.(Department of Homeland Security given grants to Coverity, Stanford University and Symantec Corp. for testing defects in open source software)
January 16, 2006... It's no secret that the U.S. government, as most businesses are today, is a big consumer of open source. The question is, as more and more critical projects begin to rely on community-contributed code, how can the government be sure that the...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: ZoneAlarm phones home, Apple throws Intel a bone - Does crabby columnist deserve a raise, or is he just being shellfish?(High technology industry workers salary survey)(ZoneAlarm Security Suite)(Apple Computer Inc. introduced Intel based macintosh computers)
January 16, 2006... Great news for hard-working IT pros. Janco Associates just published its annual salary survey, and average high-tech compensation went up 1/8 of a percent last year -- a whopping $148 annually. Ooh-wee, baby. Time to order that Lexus and put a...

To Congress: Better Internet threat response needed now - The WMF bugs prove that early-warning security systems are sorely lacking.(Windows Meta File)(Column)
January 16, 2006... Thanks to all the readers responding to last week's column who submitted recommendations as to where I could send an early warning threat notification. Unfortunately, none of them would really meet more than 1 percent of the audience I was...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Telcos get hip to the service factor - With prices so similar, it's overall quality that will set providers apart.(internet service providers)(Column)
January 16, 2006... I've got to admit it, whenever I hear the word "wholesale" in a business discussion, I tune out. Wholesale to me conjures up unseen middlemen hauling bulk quantities of undifferentiated stuff -- no innovation, all commodity. The Internet will...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Microsoft generates mild enterprise buzz at CES - CES marks the return of SPOT and the latest battleground in the war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.(Consumer Electronics Show)(Microsoft Corp. inked deal with Verizon Communications Inc.)(Column)
January 16, 2006... I'm still in bandages with several therapy sessions left to go, but I made it back from CES 2006 alive. For those who didn't go (and it seems like most of you did), the show was huge. Think Comdex during its heyday, just bigger. I went on the...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: SQL Server could make 'better together' ring true - Windows Server, Visual Studio, and SQL Server may impress even hardened skeptics.(Microsoft SQL Server 2005)(Column)
January 16, 2006... From the viewpoint of skeptics, SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft's whole "better together" campaign are clever levers for strong-armed upgrades and whole-catalog purchases. It's clear that Microsoft is targeting Unix competitors with an enterprise...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: The tolerance continuum - The SOA community is searching for a balance between openness and strong governance.(Service Oriented Architechture terminology)(Column)
January 16, 2006... I distinctly remember the first time I heard the term AJAX. I was having dinner with a friend who mentioned, in passing, that he'd been interviewed on that topic. "AJAX?" I asked. "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML," he replied. Whew. For a...

OFF THE RECORD: The last IT worker standing - When laid-off knowledge workers hold the key to undocumented data, expect the worst.(effect of laying down of knowledge workers)(Column)
January 16, 2006... By Anonymous For most of the past 10 years I was a computer operations manager for the R&D department at an up-and-coming pharmaceutical company. Initially it was a small operation. But as time passed, we were gobbled up by bigger and...

REALITY CHECK: IT will give up control of the network - As traffic increases, outsourced infrastructure and management will be the only viable solution.
January 16, 2006... As we look at all the changes taking place on the Internet during the past several years, I think we can boil it down to two simple observations. First, the volume of traffic is increasing exponentially: E-mail, IM, and RSS all mean more...

Message your way to mobile apps - ClairMail's ClairAccess taps back-end data sources via e-mail.
January 16, 2006... With mobile devices so universal, organizations can pretty much count on workers and customers having wireless e-mail or SMS (Short Message Service). The same can't be said for accessing enterprise applications; they usually require...

SQL Server bulks up - Microsoft's beefy remake brings hefty new capabilities and a slew of new tools to master.
January 16, 2006... To call SQL server 2000 a 90-pound weakling because it lacks certain high-end features is a bit like calling Charles Atlas a wimp because he never bench-pressed Steve Reeves. Not every company needs every heavyweight feature. Many enterprises,...

Taking the database beyond SQL - SQL Server 2005's .Net integration helps lay the path for a resilient, real-time enterprise.
January 16, 2006... You needn't be a DBA to understand that all knowledge in a company or organization lives in, or at least passes through, a database manager. The DBMS sees all, knows all, and at any point in time, is the most authoritative source not only for...

Content Sentinel sniffs out sensitive information - Simple and scalable, Sentinel scours desktops, servers, and more.(Tablus)
January 16, 2006... Tablus plans in a few months to release Content Alarm 3.0, the next generation of its full security suite. In defining the specifications for this upgrade, company representatives said customers asked for a simple, scalable, quickly deployed...

Guard your data against insider threats - Oakley, Reconnex, Tablus, and Vontu prevent costly data leaks.
January 16, 2006... U.S. companies exposed the personal information of more than 53 million people in 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Alas, the possibility of serious consequences for leakers doesn't seem to deter insiders from divulging...

Understanding UDDI - A quick reference to UDDI-compatible registries.(Universal Description, Discovery and Integration )(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... The following is a basic step-by-step guide of how companies use a Web services registry such as Infravio X-Registry for their SOA. 1. Architects, in consultation with business users, populate the registry with abstract service...

Exclusive: Infravio brings structure to unwieldy SOA - X-Registry 5 equips users with an impressive level of control.(service oriented architechture)
January 23, 2006... Although you could use e-mail, wikis, and spreadsheets to govern SOA, such tools leave much of the accountability and control necessary for good governance up to manual processes. Automating those governance tasks requires repositories...

Product previews.(Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 email filtering software)(Clearwell Systems Email Intelligence Platform)(Google Mini search appliance)
January 23, 2006... Clearwell extracts smarts from e-mail, Data Domain builds on backup box, Google extends Mini search appliance, Mozilla ships Thunderbird 1.5 e-mail client By InfoWorld staff Clearwell extracts intelligence from e-mail Clearwell...

SaaS providers tap third-party apps - NetSuite, Salesforce.com extend services to verticals.(software as a service)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... SaaS (software as a service) rivals NetSuite and Salesforce.com are tapping third parties to provide vertical applications and services that will result in what Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff called "the business Web." Benioff likened the...

Building a view to Vista - Pieces of Microsoft's forthcoming OS, due late 2006, are falling into place.
January 23, 2006... Key chunks of Vista, Microsoft's next-gen version of Windows, are already landing in finished form, even though the new OS itself won't arrive before the end of 2006. Last Wednesday, the company announced that release versions of WCF (Windows...

Getting a grip on mixed Linux, Windows administration - Centeris aims to smooth wrinkles in managing mixed environments.(Centeris Likewise Agent software )(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... As more companies realize the cost benefits of using open source software, mixed Linux and Windows environments are inevitable. Managing those environments, however, can be difficult for traditional IT shops, especially when it comes to getting...

Silicon Valley employment outlook brightens - After four years of job losses, tech sector sees uptick.(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... For the first time in four years, tech sector jobs in Silicon Valley edged upward, marking a welcome show of strength in the rough-and- tumble employment market. According to a report by Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network, a nonprofit...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Stallman vs. DRM - The new version of the GPL tackles issues much larger than software distribution.(GPL3, General Public License)(Richard Stallman of Free Software Foundation)(digital rights management)
January 23, 2006... The first draft of Version 3.0 of the GNU GPL (General Public License) has arrived, and its authors -- Richard Stallman and Eben Moglen of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) -- predictably aren't shying away from controversy. You can expect...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Reining in SOA - To make governance work, you have to know what makes your organization tick.(Editorial)
January 23, 2006... Want to immerse yourself in tech minutiae? Ask a developer about his company's SOA (service-oriented architecture) plans. After all, service-enabling application components and combining them to make new apps is a complex business. Yet...