Test Center: SANs tuned for virtualization pack nice surprises

Compellent, Dell, HP, Pillar Data, and roll-your-own Pillar/DataCore bring strong storage management features to XenServer, VMware, and Hyper-V environments... more

Microsoft's Hyper-V R2 is hot on VMware's heels

The much-improved Hyper-V R2 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 combo smooths the bumps to Windows server virtualization... more

Centralized PC power managers not created equal

Autonomic, BigFix, and Symantec Altiris solutions offer a wealth of potential power savings, but also differences in policy depth, granularity, and ease... more

Test Center: E-mail security services square off

From spam-busting to content management, we test the limits of hosted e-mail security offerings from AppRiver, MessageLabs, Microsoft, MX Logic, SECNAP, and Trend Micro... more

Cut power costs with DC power

Using DC power in the datacenter can reduce wasteful conversions and yield space... more

10 power-saving myths debunked

Is powering a server off and on bad for the system? We disprove this legend and others... more

Always-on virtualization

We examine five products that marry high availability and disaster recovery to your virtual server environment... more

Product review: Barracuda Load Balancer leads with value

Barracuda appliance delivers the load balancing essentials, if few frills, at a terrific price... more

Product review: Kemp Load Master goes beyond the basics

Kemp Technologies puts a shine on load balancing with easy and flexible configuration... more

Test Center guide: Load balancers and Web accelerators

Barracuda, Citrix, Coyote Point, F5, Kemp, and Zeus offerings stretch from no-frills appliances with basic load balancing to kitchen-sink solutions with rule-based traffic management, application security, and application performance optimizations; here's how to pick 'em, based on our tests ... more

Lab test: Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway

Proofpoint offers a high spam catch rate and a plethora of options for protecting corporate data and ensuring regulatory compliance, at a premium price... more

Lab test: Secure Computing IronMail E-Mail Gateway

Secure Computing’s IronMail comes with an excellent spam catch rate, a broad set of strong security features, and a pricing structure favorable to large organizations... more

Lab test: Sendio I.C.E. Box

Sendio's challenge/response mechanism is extremely effective against spam, but not so effective in handling bulk mail users want to receive... more

Lab test: Symantec Mail Security

Symantec scores big with first-rate filtering, superior ease, good enterprise-class features, and a low price compared to top rivals... more

Lab test: Tumbleweed MailGate

Tumbleweed's unique admin features, strong filtering, and good value make it worth a close look... more

Test Center guide: Mail security appliances

Mail security solutions differ in anti-spam techniques, accuracy, false positive rates, and ease of setup and administration. We compare Barracuda, BorderWare, Cisco IronPort, Mirapoint, Proofpoint, Secure Computing IronMail, Sendio, Symantec, and Tumbleweed... more

Lab test: Barracuda Spam Firewall

Barracuda combines solid features and great configurability at a low price, but filtering accuracy lags the field... more

Lab test: BorderWare Security Platform

BorderWare boasts high accuracy and excellent content management features, but is plagued by false positives and difficult LDAP configuration... more

Lab test: Cisco IronPort

Cisco IronPort combines excellent features, easy setup, and high accuracy, with the lowest false positives in our test, but the price is high compared to other top performers... more

Lab test: Mirapoint RazorGate

The RazorGate combines useful filtering accuracy and excellent features at an attractive price, with good tools for compliance, quarantine control, and reporting... more