InfoWorld articles from October 2005

InfoWorld archives from October 2005

Color printers narrow the speed gap - Printers from Lexmark, Oki Printing Solutions, and Xerox approach 36 ppm for color printing.
October 3, 2005... Ah, color printers: they dazzle you with their output, but then they disappoint with slow print speeds -- especially on full-color pages. Little has changed since we reviewed a small army of them last year, but a few new models have...

Microsoft, JBoss unite in unlikely pairing - Companies will work together to align software.(JBoss Group L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... Bowing to market realities, Microsoft will begin working with an ideological foe -- open source development and services company JBoss -- in an effort to optimize interoperability between JBoss' middleware and Microsoft's Windows Server...

Open source software steps into ECM shoes - Alfresco next month will release its open source platform for ECM.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... The former co-founder of Documentum hopes to break new ground by applying lessons learned in commercial ECM (enterprise content management) to open source software. John Newton, CTO and chairman of Alfresco, acknowledges that tackling...

Palm-Microsoft deal sends ripple effects through the enterprise - Third- party developers may be seeing double, but enterprise IT will welcome Windows anything.(Palm)
October 3, 2005... One of the last major rivals to Microsoft's mobile dominance has fallen. Palm, once a formidable competitor to Microsoft Windows on mobile devices, said last week that it will license Windows Mobile for its Treo Smartphone. The fallout of...

Cisco announces new datacenter architecture for utility computing - VFrame combines InfiniBand-based server fabric switches with VFrame virtualization software.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... With an eye toward providing an open utility architecture, Cisco Systems last week unveiled its new compute networking and virtualization architecture, VFrame. The architecture combines a set of InfiniBand- based SFSes (server fabric switches)...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Open source could use a face-lift - Among the factors working against open source in the enterprise, bad PR is high on the list.
October 3, 2005... Recently a reader took offense at a comment I made when I suggested that a well-defended trademark could help win Linux "a seat at the grown-ups' table." "What makes a commercial product inherently more 'grown-up' than its open source...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Microsoft's game plan - Redmond targets the enterprise with a spate of products slated for late 2006.(Editorial)
October 3, 2005... Pardon us for trotting out that hoary old metaphor, big business as sports, for our cover story. But frankly, Microsoft's coordinated launch of products and technologies screams "football" to us. So, this week we offer a caricature of Bill...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Is PLM software IT's new darling? PLM software merges into the fast lane, fueled by global trends.(product lifecycle management)
October 3, 2005... The Economist's quarterly technology issue just came out, and i started flipping through it with the disdain I usually reserve for the dumbed- down technology primers you typically find in an American news magazine. Those Brits, however, do a...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Microsoft org chart redone, Bush drops from No. 1 - Crafty columnist has search and software giants running scared.
October 3, 2005... So now Microsoft has decided to become Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the gates of Hades. Ballmer and friends have done what the DoJ couldn't do, splitting the company into divisions for platforms and services, business apps, and...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Up with people? After a long spell obsessing about servers, Microsoft is thinking about users again.
October 3, 2005... When Microsoft rolled out one client-focused feature after another at Professional Developers Conference 2005, I nodded and said, "Good on ya." I could have sneered because it's taken Redmond so long to notice that keyboards and mice don't...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: The spiral staircase of SOA - As we develop tomorrow's programming best practices, we find ourselves looking to the past.
October 3, 2005... Back in the 1980s, object-oriented programming was a state of mind, not the state of the art. Sure, there were OO languages, tools, and frameworks -- such as Lisp and Smalltalk -- but mainstream developers didn't use them. Mainstream developers...

REALITY CHECK: Can business and ethics coexist? When companies do business with totalitarian regimes, profit shouldn't be the only concern.
October 3, 2005... The Los Angeles Times reported last month that Disney President Robert Iger was in Beijing renewing his bid to bring the Disney Channel to the 340 million homes in China with cable TV, representing a potential market larger than the entire...

OFF THE RECORD: Thanks for the help -- now you're fired - From hero to goat in 24 hours.
October 3, 2005... By Anonymous I was a project manager at a small software development house that was trying to promote a lucrative technology-insertion contract with a major electronics company. We had established a good relationship with two of the...

Policy-based access control, no agents - ConSentry's Secure LAN Controllers enforce access control policies from the wiring closet.(ConSentry Networks )(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... Endpoint security solutions from vendors such as Check Point and Sygate protect the company LAN from unauthorized users and infected clients, using a combination of client-side agents and a central management server. Now available from...

Product previews.
October 3, 2005... Enterasys adds intrusion prevention to Dragon Defense, Flashline sheds light on SOA construction; Lockdown enforces switch-level security; ISYS boosts intranet and portal search By InfoWorld staff Enterasys adds intrusion prevention to...

Configuring storage on the wire - Keep iSCSI processing requirements, redundancy, and data protection in mind when building your IP SAN.
October 3, 2005... There are three ways of connecting a server to an iSCSI SAN. You can use a standard gigabit NIC with a software iSCSI initiator, or an iSCSI accelerator such as the Alacritech SES2002 adapter I used with Windows, or a true iSCSI HBA such as the...

Six iSCSI SANs unleashed - Adaptec, Celeros, EqualLogic, Intransa, NetApp, and Rasilient move our megabytes.(Internet Small Computer System Interface)
October 3, 2005... We've all been hearing about the simplicity and low cost of iSCSI for years now -- and how iSCSI would topple FC (Fibre Channel) as the storage networking technology of choice for shops moving from DAS to SAN. Yet entry-level SAN systems, such...

How I tested.(arrays)(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... I took all six arrays and ran them in the lab for several weeks, running performance tests under Linux and Windows using software initiators and iSCSI HBAs from Alacritech and QLogic. In addition, all the arrays were tested for failure...

Interview: Bill Gates looks at Vista - Microsoft chief discusses his confidence in Vista and XAML/E.(Interview)
October 3, 2005... At Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) last month, InfoWorld Senior Analyst Jon Udell sat down with Bill Gates for a surprisingly candid interview. In this excerpt, Gates discusses the new, lightweight version of Windows...

Microsoft's back office blitz - An unprecedented lineup of desktop, server, and developer offerings fuel Microsoft's largest assault ever on the enterprise.
October 3, 2005... Microsoft stunned its customers last month with a swarm of product announcements at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) and first- ever Business Summit. Add a huge company reorganization that consolidated six divisions into three...

Preview: Windows Workflow Foundation - WWF makes client-side workflows accessible.
October 3, 2005... Microsoft's BizTalk server may have been the first business process management system for the broad market. Its simple diagrammatic programming model backed by a rich API made it an essential element of a Windows shop's portfolio of back-end...

Secure office links from anywhere - TCS devices give remote network, phone connections a boost.
October 10, 2005... Most of us think of the enterprise in terms of sterile, air-conditioned, cubicle-ridden office space, yet much of the business world isn't like that at all. Workers in industries such as construction, consulting, and the media frequently find...

IBM unveils first Power5+ servers - New quad core and new 1U rack servers aimed at SMBs.(Brief Article)
October 10, 2005... IBM released the first servers based on its new 64-bit Power5+ processors last week. Aimed at SMBs, the new machines include a quad- core server, the System p5 550Q; and a new 1U rack server, the System p5 505. "We're starting with p5 and...

Mercury heats up software testing - Four integrated product suites aim to allow for application change and performance lifecycles.(Mercury Interactive Corp.)(Mercury IT Governance Center 7.0)(Mercury Quality Center 8.2)(Mercury Performance Center 8.1)(Brief Article)
October 10, 2005... Mercury Interactive on Monday is upgrading its product suites with the aim of helping CIOs run IT like a business. After pouring $500 million into acquisitions and R&D, Mercury will roll out new versions of its software testing, real-time...

Microsoft security plan starts with anti-virus - Company pushes into anti-virus market with Microsoft Client Protection.(Brief Article)
October 10, 2005... Microsoft sketched its security road map last week, detailing new products while avoiding talk of ship dates. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Mike Nash, vice president of Microsoft's security business and technology unit, held their press...

How Harry met Sally on our identity management test bed - We tasked each solution vendor with a series of test scenarios based on a common business plot revolving around a simulated employee lifecycle.
October 10, 2005... We tested our six identity management solutions -- from Courion, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Sun Microsystems, and Thor Technologies -- at the Advanced Network Computing Lab at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, which always serves us well, both in...

News analysis: The Google and Sun buddy movie preview - Overhyped collaboration bears little fruit, but excitement points to thirst for change in desktop computing.(Sun Microsystems Inc.)
October 10, 2005... What a letdown. When word began circulating that Google and Sun Microsystems were poised to make a joint announcement, speculation abounded that Sun's StarOffice (or its lesser open source sibling, OpenOffice) had been somehow transformed into...

EDITOR'S LETTER: SOA everywhere - Our SOA Executive Forum in November concentrates on the practical.(service oriented architecture)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
October 10, 2005... Even casual readers of InfoWorld, in print or online, know that we're sold on SOA (service-oriented architecture). The concept of creating an extensible framework in which applications and application components are exposed and shared as...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Under Dell's thumb, Novell plays dumb - When happens when the underdog goes overboard?
October 10, 2005... Stop me if you've heard this one. spunky startup uses innovative technology to dominate the market. Fueled by revenues from a virtual monopoly and a successful IPO, it branches out in all directions. Before long it's bloated, arrogant, and out...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: IT's Ever-Shifting Brain Trust - Preserving U.S. jobs demands new ideas and creative investments.
October 10, 2005... Back in the 1970s, the term "brain drain" referred to top talent leaving their native Third World countries to attend prestigious First World schools and then never returning -- depriving developing nations of crucial human capital. These days,...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: What about BizTalk? WWF is great, but what's the catch?
October 10, 2005... I said I wouldn't but I did. I missed the first episode of Alias and now I'm hosed. Sydney's pregnant and she's pissed. The boyfriend is still around, but he's someone else now? And this isn't making her cranky? One week missed and I'm...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: IBM and Apple swap server strategies - The news is bleak, but at least we can still buy affordable, high-powered 1U servers.
October 10, 2005... I recently had two conference calls with two titans. One was with IBM about its brand-new server, the other with Apple about the future of its high-end server business. During one call, I learned about a bold, customer-responsive strategy...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Effective description, discovery, and integration - The internal knowledge record is often far more helpful than formal service catalogs.
October 10, 2005... The Rodney Dangerfield of Web services standards is clearly Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration. UDDI don't get no respect. Its original conception -- a global e-marketplace for services -- looks, for now, like a dot-com-era...

REALITY CHECK: The industry cools down - Partnerships and consolidation mark the end of a turbulent quarter for high tech.
October 10, 2005... Like the pull of gravity on distant stars and planets, which scientists say may someday lead to a reversal of the big bang, the Wintel architecture that spawned a thousand rivals is suddenly pulling everything back into its orbit. So how...

OFF THE RECORD: Keeping end-users happy - News flash: Interfaces matter.(Letter to the Editor)
October 10, 2005... By Anonymous Several years ago, I found myself working as the lead analyst/programmer in charge of maintaining a complex, real-time data-collection system. The end-users fell under an operations division; a separate IT division provided...

Quicker insights into network performance - Network Physics NetSensory OS 5.0 brings easier and deeper analysis to an already powerful tool.
October 10, 2005... When users complain that the network is slow, IT needs a way to look inside the LAN or WAN and find exactly where the problem lies. Network Physics' NetSensory NP-500 and NP-2000 appliances offer an unparalleled view into the health of the...

Product Previews.(new software released)
October 10, 2005... Plumtree Launches G6 Portal, Borland Bolsters Delphi, iLumin Targets File Server Storage By InfoWorld staff Plumtree Software to launch G6 portal architecture With its $200 million sale to BEA systems still in the works, Plumtree...

Federation takes identity to the next level - Ogilvy & Mather links its identity systems to those of its clients.
October 10, 2005... When clients of advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather want to collaborate on budgets or watch rough cuts of commercials, they're likely to log on to the company's network and do it online. The process speeds delivery and saves on travel costs, but...

Identity management in action - Implementing an identity infrastructure has real rewards, say customers, but it isn't easy.
October 10, 2005... Think you're ready to deploy IDM (identity management) in your organization? John Aisien, vice president of marketing at IDM vendor Thor Technologies, won't kid you about the realities. "Identity management is by definition hard, and anyone...

The identity management challenge - Courion, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Sun, and Thor Technologies put their user provisioning and access management solutions through our wringer.
October 10, 2005... See correction at end of review The benefits of identity management are an easy sell. Of course IT organizations want to automate user provisioning, put an end to "I forgot my password" help desk calls, and bring sanity to access...

Putting AJAX to work - For enterprise apps, asynchronous JavaScript and XML offers more than just UI razzle-dazzle.(asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
October 17, 2005... It's easy to see why AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) has captured the imaginations of so many Web developers. For the first time, browser- based UIs are rich and full-featured enough to do away with so-called thick-client desktop...

JBoss bulks up with rules engine, ESB - Open source company also is upgrading its jBPM workflow and orchestration software.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... Positioning its middleware as an open source SOA platform, JBoss is adding the Drools Java business rules engine to its stable of products. The company also is upgrading its workflow and orchestration software, called jBPM (Java Business...

Liberty Alliance sets stage for circle of trust - Liberty Alliance guidelines aim to knock down legal and privacy hurdles standing in the way of federated identity.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... Federated identity, a scheme that allows customers to log in once and access a swath of related services from multiple providers, has pretty much overcome its technology hurdles. The real obstacle is agreement on legal and privacy rules that...

Torrent of SIP traffic fuels need for security, performance tools - Covergence, CommuniGate Systems unwrap SIP management products.
October 17, 2005... Growing interest in SIP-enabled communications -- from VoIP to SIP-based collaboration apps such as Microsoft's LCS (Live Communications Server) 2005 -- has sparked the need to better secure SIP traffic. SIP, or Session Initiation...

Virtualization roils traditional licensing models - Virtual servers from VMware, Microsoft call old-school server software licensing plans into question.
October 17, 2005... VMware and Microsoft are separately attempting to wipe out two layers of uncertainty clouding server virtualization. VMware this week revealed details of its ESX Server 3, which aims to improve virtual server management and availability....

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Google does IM right - It took a visionary company to realize that open standards are the magic catalyst for messaging.
October 17, 2005... If there's one application that has cried out for open standards and open code from the very beginning, it's IM (instant messaging). Proprietary IM clients from the likes of AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo have always been invasive, garish affairs,...

EDITOR'S LETTER: AJAX cleans up - The enterprise has eyes for Web apps that look and act like desktop software.(Editorial)
October 17, 2005... The answer to the riddle on this week's cover -- which e-mail client is running in the browser? -- may be a little obvious (see below, left). After all, it can't be the one on the right: That's desktop stalwart Microsoft Outlook. But the app on...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Mastering data comes at a price - Evaluating that data and ranking its importance pays off in the long run.
October 17, 2005... It's all about the data. IDC this month is reporting that the market for "master data management" solutions is growing at a fast 13.8 percent annually, and should reach $10.4 billion by 2009. Is that a lot? Well, it turns out that $10 billion...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: ISPs get angry, Oracle still hungry - Cranky columnist finds a worm in every Apple.(Internet service providers)
October 17, 2005... Last week apple announced its much-hyped video iPod at its "One More Thing" show in San Jose. Speculation had been percolating for months, proving that Steve Jobs had once again succeeded in capturing everyone's attention. But he did it with...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: The importance of interaction data - Analyzing the activities of your users is a great tool for continuous software improvement.
October 17, 2005... The twin themes of this year's Accelerating Change conference were AI (artificial intelligence) and IA (intelligence amplification). On the AI track, people talked about making systems smarter. On the IA track, people talked about harnessing...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Hard disks: the autumn years - It makes more sense to keep our data in the same place we use it.
October 17, 2005... I once reviewed a RAM-based storage device, a huge rack-mounted backplane equipped with memory cards and an SCSI interface. It was hot, loud, and expensive, but I was convinced I had the future roaring away in my living room. That was...

REALITY CHECK: Is a Web-based office suite on the way? A one-two punch of open source and on-demand from Google and Sun could knock out Microsoft Office.
October 17, 2005... The Google/Sun press conference on Oct. 3, which announced a deal to jointly "promote and distribute software technologies," is generating a great deal of speculation. Sun's press release described the deal as an agreement to include the...

OFF THE RECORD: The real enemies of IT - Bureaucrats can throttle productivity with a single buzzword.
October 17, 2005... By Anonymous I work as an IT application manager in the financial services industry. My organization faces the typical systems-integration challenges, outsourcing perils, and budget issues -- all this in addition to a surge of mergers and...

Smart switch for smaller SANs - Maxxan MXV250 brings mirroring, replication, and more to mid-range market.(Storage area networks)
October 17, 2005... Most SAN administrators are interested in adding more capabilities -- including replication, mirroring, virtualization, FCoIP (Fibre Channel over IP), iSCSI, NAS, and so forth -- to their networks. You can add each of these to a SAN via...

AppIQ Storage Authority 4.0 bridges storage and business - New release extends support to more critical devices and applications.
October 17, 2005... Excitement and anticipation mount before any review, but those feelings were far more intense when it came time to evaluate SA (Storage Authority) Suite 4.0, AppIQ's flagship storage management software. After all, the suite so enticed several...

HP eyes AppIQ.(Letter to the Editor)
October 17, 2005... After I completed my review of AppIQ's Storage Authority Suite 4.0, I learned that Hewlett-Packard plans to acquire AppIQ. Although neither company had ever hinted at that possibility, I was only slightly surprised. Storage management and...

The long and winding SAN.(Storage area networks)
October 17, 2005... As with any SAN, building one with Xsan is a project measured in days, not hours. The easy part is installing FC (Fibre Channel) cards in the devices that will directly connect to the SAN; connecting them to an appropriate switch; setting up...

X marks the sweet SAN spot - Apple Xsan offers industrial-strength performance and stability at a low, low price.
October 17, 2005... In the mid-1980s, Apple took its first steps into the corporate technology market and stumbled so badly that it was more than a dozen years before the wounds could heal. In the past few years, however, the company has made significant strides...

WebEx One melds meetings and workgroups - WebEx and Intranets.com merge deep asynchronous and real-time communications.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... Technology business mergers often seem to happen with little concern for customer needs. In a refreshing reversal, the WebEx and Intranets.com accord looks like a winner for users of both services, with the newly formed WebEx One division...

AJAX at a glance - The latest buzzword in Web development is a case of "everything old is new again".(asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
October 17, 2005... AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) isn't a new technology. Rather, it's a method of using several existing technologies -- including CSS, JavaScript, XHTML, XML, and XSLT -- to develop Web applications that look and act like desktop...

Product Previews.
October 17, 2005... Akamai Locks Down Media With DRM Support, TippingPoint Trips Phishers, Verity Launches Business Search, Fujitsu, Software AG Team for SOA Integration By InfoWorld staff Akamai locks down media with Windows DRM Akamai Technologies...

HP's VTL sticks to the basics - No-frills StorageWorks VLS6105 virtual tape library offers speedy restores, backups.
October 17, 2005... I am not going to join the misguided gang cheering the death of tape -- tape is alive and well, as the relentless flow of new products proves. But CTOs have significantly reduced the cartridge's sphere of influence in favor of the more...

VoIP firewalls new line of defense - Flurry of VoIP-aware devices from vendors such SecureLogix and BorderWare monitor traffic and minimize risk.(Network protocols)
October 17, 2005... "Today, every e-mail is scoured and scanned in the enterprise," notes Mark Collier, CEO of SecureLogix. "The same will be true of VoIP." But to get there you'll need a sophisticated firewall that monitors VoIP traffic at the application level....

VoIP may be vulnerable to barrage of threats - Separating voice from data traffic on the LAN ranks high among precautions.
October 17, 2005... Is enterprise VoIP (voice over IP) due for a security wakeup call or are the threats mostly exaggerated? It depends on who's talking. "The security aspects of enterprise VoIP have been overblown," says Irwin Lazar, senior analyst at the...

Itanium: Not dead yet - Despite Intel's renewed focus on the x86 market, its original 64-bit chip won't stay down.
October 24, 2005... Intel's x86 processor architecture may have taken the server world by storm, but it's not the only option available. It's not even the only one from Intel. The much-maligned Itanium, Intel's original 64-bit architecture, keeps soldiering...

Treo 650 scores BlackBerry - Next year Palm will implement the BlackBerry e-mail software in the Treo 650.(Research in Motion Ltd.)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... Palm's Treo 650, one of the hottest smartphones on the market, is poised to become even more enchanting to corporate workers with the addition of Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry push e-mail software. Starting early next year, Palm...

Microsoft updates Windows Vista beta - New iteration improves networking and PC manageability.(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... Microsoft has released a new version of its Windows Vista beta code that sheds some light on how the software giant plans to improve networking and PC manageability in this next major release of its OS. Microsoft released its first beta...

Zend advances open source language PHP - Company also joins Eclipse.(Brief article)
October 24, 2005... The open source scripting language PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) may gain a higher profile in the enterprise thanks to efforts from Zend Technologies. The company later this year plans to launch the Zend PHP Framework, a development...

Product Previews.(RSA Security Inc. introduces RSA Sign-On Manager 4.5)(FileNet Inc. introduces FileNet BAM)(Vordel Inc. introduces Vordel SOAPbox 3.1)
October 24, 2005... RSA Security Expands SSO, FileNet Adds BAM to Lineup, Quantum launches ramped up tape drive for SMBs, Vordel Preaches Web services testing with SOAPbox By InfoWorld staff RSA Security Expands SSO RSA security next month will...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Invincible Intel - The x86 was supposed to be a pushover. These days, it's doing the pushing.(Editorial)
October 24, 2005... This week's cover asks, "Has Intel Won?" That question might as easily be, "Has the x86 chip architecture won?" After all, what's good for x86 is good for Intel -- not to mention archrival AMD. And make no mistake: In the desktop and...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Oracle wins big with its Innobase acquisition - When it comes to competing with MySQL, why beat 'em when you can make 'em join you?(Column)
October 24, 2005... To the faithful, Oracle's acquisition of key MySQL partner Innobase is proof of what they've believed all along: MySQL's success is a threat to Oracle's database business and it's only a matter of time before the two companies collide. On...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Job No. 1: Keep IT simple - In IT, perception trumps reality from the front office to the boardroom.
October 24, 2005... Eeek! Geek! Picture this: the CIO of a huge paper-products company is sitting in the boardroom surrounded by top executives. (True story, as recently told by the CIO.) He's walking through a very complex presentation on the company's latest...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Verizon charges loads, HP batteries implode - Curmudgeonly columnist resists urge to say, 'I told you so'.
October 24, 2005... Remember when America Online and Time Warner merged to create a $350 billion beast that would swallow the Internet? Well, it seems "The Thrill Is Gone," and Time Inc. wants someone to share the pain. So far, the cast of would-be suitors is...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Making a routine of citizen journalism - Web- enabled tools make it easier than ever for anyone to document the events of our world.
October 24, 2005... Compared with New Orleans we've got little to complain about, but last week's torrential rains did flood parts of southwestern New Hampshire pretty badly. The town of Alstead, 15 miles north of my home in Keene, got the worst of it: roads...

OFF THE RECORD: Beware the on-staff backstabber - One of my staffers began whispering to the administration that my abilities were inadequate.(Column)
October 24, 2005... By Anonymous I've worked in IT since the early '80s, but the craziest time I recall was the Y2K era, when almost every business on the block decided it was time to retool their old junk or invest in new systems. I was working for a...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Piracy stings developers most - Criminals stealing Apple's upcoming x86 OS are swiping rent money from Mac developers.
October 24, 2005... There was a time when I railed against the use of rumors as sources for news in respected trade publications. Now I pine for those more innocent days. Blogs are considered news sources now, a practice that, at its worst, should yield what one...

REALITY CHECK: Are CIOs headed for extinction? As CFOs take a greater stake in IT, the chief information officer's days could be numbered.
October 24, 2005... Is the CIO a dinosaur? Will it be an extinct position in a few short years? Merial, a large animal health care enterprise co-owned by Merck and sanofi-aventis, believes so; in fact, it's already buried the title. I spoke with Steve Lerner, IS...

Heroix explores new territory with Longitude - Ambitious agentless management platform is easy to deploy but limited in scope.
October 24, 2005... When it comes to deploying an enterprise-level systems management solution, one of the thorniest details is often maintenance of the ubiquitous data-collection agents. Depending on the size of the organization, maintaining the agent-related...

Qt 4 raises the bar for cross-platform application development tools - Trolltech's comprehensive toolkit simplifies code portability, interoperability.(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 24, 2005... Cross-platform toolkits have always been a market unto themselves. In the heyday of Unix, products such as Galaxy, XVT, and Zinc provided a solution for IT and for ISVs that could not afford to rewrite code for all flavors of OSes. When Java...

Is Intel victorious? From the desktop to the server room, Intel's advance shows no sign of retreat.
October 24, 2005... As far back as the late 1980s, chip pundits have predicted the demise of x86. Intel's CPU architecture was a dead end, they said, and the day was fast approaching when the chipmaker would reach the theoretical performance limit of CISC...

Engineering sets x86 server products apart - They may all be Intel inside, but other factors come into play at purchase time.
October 24, 2005... Customers who build out datacenters using x86 servers typically call it like they see it. They'll say they're saving money by avoiding proprietary platforms in favor of high-performance, low-cost commodity hardware. But don't use the C-word...

IBM snags DataPower for app-level networking - DataPower may help Big Blue disperse XML technology across the network.
October 24, 2005... In case you haven't noticed, IBM's WebSphere group is building a one- stop middleware conglomerate, adding products and acquiring small companies at a furious pace. Today, the WebSphere brand doesn't just refer to IBM's J2EE application server...

NFR brings a new look to IPS - Sentivist 5.0 leverages innovative views and vulnerability data in detecting and preventing security threats.(Editorial)(Brief article)
October 24, 2005... NFR Security's IPS product is largely what you'd expect for an enterprise-class IPS, with some nice touches, but the one thing that sets Sentivist apart from the competition is its presentation of data. The newly released Sentivist 5.0 helps...

HP bests Sun in a dual-core server duel - Enhanced machines take advantage of plug-in Opteron processor replacement.(HP ProLiant DL585, Sun Fire V40z)(Product/service evaluation)
October 24, 2005... See correction at end of review Dual-core technology is here. It's mainstream, and it's now part of the enterprise server ecosystem. IBM and Sun Microsystems led the charge with dual-core versions of their Power5 and UltraSparc processors;...