- Pimp my datacenter wrap-up: Photos and words II
- Connecting Vista to MySQL
- Take your pick!
- A service-oriented Test Center Tracker
- Test Center Tracker: Bridging technology and finance
- Test Center Tracker: Sticky sweet Sun storage, plus a hardy Ubuntu beta
- Test Center Tracker: Smart phones, safe VMs and the future of Open Source
- Test Center Tracker: Escape from reality?
- Test Center Tracker: Windows improvements, iPhone app dev, and network security
- Test Center Tracker: From secure VMs to stable desktops
August 12, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Pimp my datacenter wrap-up: Photos and words II
The Pimp My Datacenter project wasn't confined to increasing the cooling in the room. Everything from rack management to the locks on the door was upgraded to the latest and greatest technology. One of the major areas of upgrade was the electrical system. We put together a slide show with narration from Brian Chee to show you the highlights of more power in the datacenter.
Posted by Curt Franklin on August 12, 2008 05:11 PM
April 16, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Geometry quiz: Can we draw a straight that joins together Vista, virtual disks, a new version of Ajax development tools and MySQL? Well, geometry has nothing to do with that but I would bet dollars against pennies that a similar line can be easily drawn in your data center.
Virtual to the core
Depending on who you are talking to, and sometimes you may get different answers at different times, Windows Vista is described as either an embarrassing fiasco or the best OS you can ever load on a desktop or laptop. My personal opinion? Glad you asked. I am somewhere in between those two extremes, but I haven't found yet a compelling reason to migrate my personal machines from XP. Was Microsoft too concerned with compatibility while developing Vista? Were those concerns the reason why Vista looks so much like XP? What should be the target of the next desktop OS from Microsoft? Randall Kennedy is mulling those questions and offers an interesting answer, but you'll have to read it all here.
Open up your vdisks
Virtual disk are the pillars of virtualization and probably the main reason for the success of that technology, but do you really know what's their structure? Probably not. Moreover, from outside of virtual machine you loose access to files and other data stored on its vdisks. If you ever spent a though on that, a new SDK and API combo from VMware should fill that gap, David Marshall reports. Why is this new free tool, dubbed somewhat predictably VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit, important? Please read David's post to find out.
New ways to Ajax
Speaking of development tools, Backbase just released a new version of their Enterprise Ajax platform. What caught my eye is that development and deployment on low end servers is free, but Martin Heller gives a quick and comprehensive round up of what the new version brings to the table in today's Strategic Developer.
The MySQL show goes on
Last but not least, I am glad to carry on the flag for the MySQL show in Santa Clara, still ongoing today and tomorrow. Perhaps if you are in the area it's still possible to find time for a visit? For an overview of what to expect at the show and more teasers here is what Zack Urlocker has to say.
Posted by Mario Apicella on April 16, 2008 08:29 AM
April 09, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Be it Symantec future plans, simplifying the installation of OSS, sharing the pain of nasty updates or piercing one of the latest Microsoft apps stack , whatever your pleasure or your inclination you should find worthwhile reading today's Test Center Daily selection. Enjoy your visit and please come back .
Turning the page on Veritas
Not a moment too soon, after only two years of saber-rattling Microsoft and Symantec decided it was not worth fighting over an even older dispute.
I am tempted to ask what caused this sudden change of heart after so much tough talking and after making an entry or two in a court docket , but frankly why bother? Obviously there wasn't much of a case there, so let's bygones be bygones and focus on the future, on the ongoing Symantec ManageFusion event in Las Vegas, for example. David Marshall is there and is taking notes on what's cooking.
Opening up Open Source
What's your definition of a geek? Let me suggest this one: Someone who thrives dealing with the intricacies of installation requirements and applications' prerequisites. If you fit that description BitNami is not for you. For the rest of us (and our moms) Savio Rodriguez has an interesting post on how BitNami is making complicated OS applications easier to install on all major platforms.
No more updates for me!
Finding those automatic software updates a bit overwhelming? Well, you are not alone. Randall Kennedy has posted a heartfelt rant on how a couple of well coordinated (not!) updates from Adobe and Microsoft can ruin your day.
Scottie, Groove me up!
If you listen to the marketing hype and to some reviews Groove is Microsoft way of simplifying office collaboration. Well, it gets complicated before getting simpler, which is why you should read Peter Bruzzese comprehensive review. Here is part two of Peter two-pronged stab at Groove, but reading part one first could be a good idea.
Posted by Mario Apicella on April 9, 2008 08:05 AM
April 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)
A service-oriented Test Center Tracker
It's Tuesday in the Test Center, and there's a wealth of blogging on services of one sort or another. There are services from large to small, internal to external -- it's just a service-oriented world out there.
Google leads Salesforce in SaaS: Ephriam Schwartz looks at the SaaS battle between Google and Salesforce.com and sees the advantage in nearly every category going to Google. Google, he says, has the technology, the cash, and (most important) the strategic vision to be the same sort of giant in services that they've been in search. Is this good news? It depends, as so much does, on whether you're a customer or a competitor...
Social services?: David Linthicum has been reading press releases from vendors, and has seen an interesting approach from IBM: SOA as dating service. Big Blue wants to help publishers and builders of different services find one another so they can play nicely together -- ideally, in IBM's SOA sand box. No word, yet, on whether you have to share your favorite band and what you're doing every waking moment in order to be truly popular.
The criminals find services: Criminal minds are unlikely to let any good idea go un-exploited, and Matt Hines is looking at criminal elements who are getting in on software as a service -- for malware. Criminal hackers aren't known for their cooperative mindset, but SaaS lets them build on existing code and turn their real efforts to the creative part of the venture -- the creative part that makes sure life will be difficult for the rest of us.
Posted by Curt Franklin on April 8, 2008 01:25 PM
March 26, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Bridging technology and finance
Today's Test Center Tracker starts from the heart of computing to end up with a mention of IPOs and SEC reports connecting those two extremes in a single jump. Please read on.
More powerful machines or more machines? For the not so young among us this question will bring to memory an old debate between mainframes and minicomputers, or between minicomputers and open systems. Well in today's "Ahead of the curve" Tom Yager is proposing the modern day version of that dilemma that compares two competing architectures from AMD and Intel. Read it all here.
Do you need more "V"? "V" as in Virtualization, server virtualization to be precise. If you do, don't miss this early peek of Parallels Server a new product still in beta that challenges the big names of virtualization as a hosted or self standing solution. In his eval Randall Kennedy finds some promising new features that should make Parallels Servers more competitive and more desirable.
Your IPO dollars at work Speaking of big names of virtualization, VMware has plans to invest $100 million in India David Marshall is reporting , and to increase the number of employees in that area to 1,000 units, or about 20 percent of the total workforce declared in the last SEC 10-K report. Do I see anything wrong with that? No, I am glad for my Indian friends, but I'll follow other investments of the company with much interest. Meanwhile, join me in reading David's report.
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 26, 2008 09:05 AM
March 24, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Sticky sweet Sun storage, plus a hardy Ubuntu beta
Abuzz over Honeycomb: Test Center Analyst and storage guru Mario Apicella has savored a sweet taste of Sun's new StorageTek 5800, aka "Honeycomb," a impressive solution for meeting your company's fixed-content archiving needs. Sun delivers in Honeycomb easy management, strong performance, and extraordinary resilience, says Mario -- plus the company's ties to the open source world mean promise more software features faster than competing proprietary solutions.
Ubuntu 8.04 beta proves hardy: Ubuntu developers have clearly poured a lot of hard work into the latest beta release of the popular desktop OS. While not much has changed in terms of its appearance, writes InfoWorld contributor Neil McAllister, there's plenty to admire beneath the hood, from improved installaion to superior security.
Posted by Ted Samson on March 24, 2008 02:58 PM
March 19, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Smart phones, safe VMs and the future of Open Source
The beauty and the beast. The personal gadgets battle seems to be polarized around the joust between Blackberry and iPhone, while other illustrious players may have lost ground before even starting to be popular, Tom Yager suggests in Ahead of the Curve. Which one should you choose? Well, it depends on where your priorities are. In many ways, comparing these two phones is like making a choice between form and function. The iPhone has much to be liked, but hasn't , and perhaps never will, come even close to the industrial efficiency of the Blackberry, Tom explains.
VM safety, true concern or hype? While many more voices begin to suggest that a virtual environment is open to specific security breaches, others take a more cautious view, David Marshall explains in Virtualization Report. There are good points to be made for each side. Is VM security mostly a vendors driven concern to open yet another target platform for their products? If that's the case, the additional cost of the security products could be an unnecessary burden that slows down the "P" to "v" move. On the other end, customers will hesitate to move applications to a virtual environment if they fear it could be less protected. Read more here about those opposite points of view.
The future of Open Source? I see too many surveys for my own good, but this study on the future of Open Source has got my attention. Perhaps it's because it was launched by a Venture Capital party, which it's newsworthy in itself. Perhaps I am biased because the results of the survey will be disclosed at the upcoming, InfoWorld hosted, Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco. If you are also intrigued by that survey read more here from Zack Urlocker
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 19, 2008 04:59 AM
March 12, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Escape from reality?
Don't you wish sometimes you had a magic wand to free your memory, and perhaps the world, from things like the idiotic behavior of a sleazy politician caught in a scandal? You know who I am referring to, don't you?
Well I have that magic wand. Perhaps it will work only for a few minutes, but enjoy this short vacation in today's Test Center daily pick.
Let the iPhone games begin
Or so we hope. Tom Yager gives a quick overview of what the upcoming SDK could bring to the iPhoners, and games are not a small part of his dream. Think for example, what powerful games developers could build around the exceedingly rich set of gestures of the iPhone. Read this and more in Ahead of the Curve.
Speaking of smartphones...
Zack Urlocker describes his own experience with the Palm Treo Centro. Admittedly the Treo Centro doesn't compete well with the brightest and smartest gadgets in that space but in Zack's own words is a no-brainer upgrade from Treo 650.
Show me the power of the CLI
It may sound ironic, perhaps even a vindication to the *nix folks, but lately Microsoft seems to express its best when a GUI is not in the way. This time the focus is not on the Linux-like ability of Windows Server 2008 to run without a graphic interface but on PowerShell. If you read TechNet PowerShell is an old and indeed powerful friend that now has received a surprising public acknowledgment from VMware, David Marshall reports.
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, SDK, Palm Treo, smartphones, Windows, Microsoft, PowerShell, VMware, TechNet, Windows Server 2008
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 12, 2008 09:17 AM
March 10, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Windows improvements, iPhone app dev, and network security
Longhorn top 10 - Though not as amusing as anything you'll see on "Letterman," Sean McCown and Tom Yager's top 10 list of improvements to Windows Server 2008 provides a useful overview of the key features that earned the server high marks in our recent review.
Review: RedSeal delivers the big security picture - Securing your IT assets is a seemingly never-ending task. Figuring out just where to begin can be induce heavy sweating. InfoWorld contributor Steve Hultquist has discovered a powerful solution in RedSeal Security Risk Manager: "Combining device configuration data with vulnerability data and other information, SRM creates a visual map of high-value, high-risk assets, and provides a collection of views and reports that help you zero in on the most effective path to mitigation," he writes.
App licensing and the iPhone - Donning his Enterprise Mac hat, Tom Yager contemplates Apple's $299 enterprise development license that entitles developers to create and distribute custom iPhone software strictly for internal use. Details from Apple are hazy, and Tom has plenty of questions on the subject.
Posted by Ted Samson on March 10, 2008 12:04 PM
March 05, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: From secure VMs to stable desktops
Today's Test Center Tracker touches on three equally important topics: Securing you virtual machines, giving your business associates tools to better monitor performance and why you should hold on the best fitting, more stable Microsoft desktop OS. Please read on.
Virtualizing security? - Or should we say securing virtualization? Regardless of which expression feels more proper, bringing more security to guest VMs could become a tad closer now that VMware has made public VMsafe, a vision and an API to reach that goal.
Providers of security products are jumping at the opportunity but there are good reasons why these new security tools in the make should have the blessing of standards bodies, David Marshall explains.
An obstructed Vista - I would be really surprised if you haven't noticed the "Save XP" campaign on our pages. What are our motivations for keeping XP going? Glad you asked because Galen Gruman has put together a comprehensive laundry list of why we are doing it. Even more important Galen explains what the campaign is not about. Not Microsoft bashing, not an endorsement for Linux or Mac... Please click here for more.
To BI or not to BI? - The name, PerformancePoint Server 2007, can be deceiving but this latest application from Microsoft actually targets the business intelligence space, J. Peter Bruzzese reports.
How does PerformancePoint compare with other applications in the same space? Initial feedbacks from one early user seem to be positive, but read all the details in Enterprise Windows.
Technorati Tags: Business Intelligence, VMware, virtualization, VMsafe, BI, Windows XP, Vista, Linux, Apple, Microsoft
Posted by Mario Apicella on March 5, 2008 06:59 AM
March 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Ajax, Vista troubles, and green lightweights
While politics junkies wait for polls to close in places like Ohio and Texas, IT pros can spend time thinking about serious issues -- like critical differences in open source Ajax toolkits, critical flaws in Windows Vista, and the critical question of which lightweight laptop really has the smallest footprint. InfoWorld writers are all over the critical questions this week, so let the counting begin...
A deep look at Ajax toolkits: Ajax was supposed to smooth over the differences between browsers, but what do you need to know to choose an Ajax toolkit? There are hundreds of options out there, and Peter Wayner looks at eight open source Ajax toolkits to help you figure out which is the best for you. Peter takes a close look, and if you're in the market for a new development tool you'll want to pay special attention to the screencast tours of all the candidates.
Vista knowledge: That Vista and its attending flotilla of drivers didn't really play well together is well known. The question for many users has been whether Microsoft knew about the situation before they released the latest operating system, or were caught by surprise when millions of users started to have problems. According to the latest article by Randall Kennedy, Microsoft knew, and pushed forward with the release. The problem now isn't so much what to do with Vista (with SP1, things are starting to settle down), but how much the lingering memory of Vista will effect adoption of Server 2008. What are your plans?
Light green computers: Apple's MacBook Air and Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 are the standard-bearers in the race for small, light, high-powered computers. The footprint each occupies on the desk is well-defined, but how about the environmental footprint each leaves? Is there a clear winner in the Green Computing Sweepstakes? InfoWorld's Ted Samson evaluates the two lightweight laptops to see which is the most environmentally responsible. Along the way he finds things like Energy Star compliance and the amazing 85-pound battery charger. Which machine won? Go read Ted's post, and find out.
Posted by Curt Franklin on March 4, 2008 12:47 PM
February 27, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Exploring the unknown in Google and Microsoft
My selection for this Test Center Tracker brings together two unlikely bedfellows, two vendors that coming from completely different starts entered a collision course that neither of them, nor many of us, would have predicted only a few years ago.
Is open really open?
Tom Yager tries to shine a light on the recent Microsoft conversion to the Open Source priesthood and the outcome is, well, worrisome. Does Redmond really mean "open" when they say it or are there strings attached that could trap trusting adopters later on? Here is the answer, according to Tom.
Meet the Android Google's Android that is, sorry SCI-FI lovers. With this SDK, which has some futuristic streak beside its name, Google hopes will persuade legions of developers to use it to create application for mobile devices. Rick Grehan took a closer look at what's inside the kit and... but I don't want to spoil the reading of Rick piece, find yourself what's the verdict on Android-1.
Posted by Mario Apicella on February 27, 2008 09:06 AM
February 26, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: How to Vista
Snow is falling, wind is howling, and the Sunshine State is dark. Sounds like a great day to contemplate your Vista migration path. In this Test Center Tracker, we look at how to plan your Vista move, one way to avoid network chaos, and little green switches for green small businesses.
This Way to Vista: If you're going to move to Microsoft Vista, you'd better put in the up-front planning time to increase your odds of a successful journey. InfoWorld's Galen Gruman has rounded up InfoWorld Vista Migration Tips for your consideration. Take a look, follow the links, take notes, and pack a snack: Migrating to Vista isn't to be taken lightly. Fortunately, you're not alone, so plan to take advantage of InfoWorld's experience during the move.
This Little ARP of Mine: Speaking of leaning on our experience, Brian Chee a Very Interesting Experience (that's tech-talk for incredibly frustrating) with routers out in Paradise. Take a lesson in ARP from Brian and save yourself serious trouble when it's time to make changes to a complex network.
Maybe it Is Easy Being Green: It may not be easy, yet, but it's certainly getting easier, with a growing number of vendors releasing products that demonstrate ecological sensitivity as one of their key features. Ted Samson reports on new SMB switches from D-Link as an indication that the trend shows no signs of slowing down. It's not just that these switches are green -- the fact that they're from D-Link shows that another company is taking small-business computing seriously, and keeping it green while doing so.
Posted by Curt Franklin on February 26, 2008 01:48 PM
February 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Windows Server 2008 a "must-upgrade" OS
Server 2008: the host with the most: InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager isn't all about Mac, as evidenced by his fresh new review of Windows Server 2008. Microsoft has made great strides with the latest version of the OS, including the addition of "fine-grained, modular configurability [that] lets you shrink the OS footprint down to virtualization guest-friendly size, and Server Core drops the Windows GUI to dramatically reduce the memory requirements of a virtualized guest," Yager writes. There's plenty more to be said about Windows Server 2008. See for yourself right here.
How to deploy Vista: Like it or not, if you run a Windows shop, you're going to be moving to Vista. If that strikes you as a daunting process, fear not: InfoWorld has compiled plenty of tips and tricks to ease the migration. Of course, if you want to fight for more time to continue running XP, consider getting behind InfoWorld's Save Windows XP campaign.
Windows vs. Windows vs. Windows: Wrapping up this Windows-centric Test Center Tracker, Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy asserts that comparing users' perceptions today of Vista to their initial impressions of XP is illogical: "The introduction of Windows XP was a watershed moment for the PC industry, one that firmly cemented Microsoft's role as the pace-setter for the desktop. Contrast this with Vista, which is basically Windows XP with more 'stuff' heaped on top, and you begin to see why so many users are balking at the upgrade message," he writes.
Posted by Ted Samson on February 25, 2008 11:02 AM
February 20, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Like a pebble in your shoe
Like a pebble in your shoe
Don’t we love technology? Of course we do, only a crazy person would otherwise put up with the persistent roller coaster of excitement and disappointments that comes with the territory when you practice IT on a daily basis.
For example, only moments ago, while I was working on this comment, Internet Explorer crashed a few times blaming an Adobe Flash plug-in.
To add insult to injury, I wasn’t even using IE at crash time; The browser was just sitting there while I typed away in another window.
More frustrating yet, why did IE had to concede defeat like an unmoving presidential candidate only because an add-on goes south?
I am tempted to get on a thousand words tirade about the benefits of task isolation and suggest severe sentences for non compliance, but I won't.
Perhaps a better idea would be to issue a citation to the programmers responsible for the misbehaving code, and force them to take a defensive programming class within 90 days.
I am not holding my breath on that either, but IE repeated crashing this morning is a good stage-setting for today’s Test Center Tracker. Please read on for more pebbles in your shoes.
How hard can that be? This pebble was found by Sean McCown, who began scratching his head while doing some code maintenance. No, Sean didn’t have to challenge new frontiers, nor was he about to enter an uncharted programming universe. His relatively easy task was to do a search and replace on some SQL queries. How hard can that be? Find out from Sean.
Time for a new phone? When was the last time you looked at your cell phone with a critical eye? (iPhone owners need not answer that). Unless you are much more careful than most, my bet is that you’re getting tired of all the blemishes your phone now has.
Perhaps, there are also things you never liked about it and now can’t bear them anymore. Well you are not alone: Find out what Zack Urlocker has to say about his aging Treo 650 and see how that compares with your phone annoyances.
Posted by Mario Apicella on February 20, 2008 07:20 AM
February 19, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Get Your Reports Here
It's been a beautiful Tuesday across much of the land, the sort of day that makes you want to generate a truly comprehensive report. In the Test Center, we have reviews of two different report-generation packages and a Layer-7 switch that just happens to be great at reporting.
Strong Reporting Switch: When simple traffic control isn't enough, your network might be ready to see packets switched on application data, rather than mere source and destination information. If that day is rapidly approaching for your organization, you'll want to check out Steve Hultquist's review of the Consentry LANShield Switch. Steve found that the LANShield performs its switching duties well, but truly shines when it comes to reporting on what it's been doing. Speaking of reports...
Corporate Open Source Reporting: Oh, sure, we've all known about serious enterprise reporting packages forever. Most of us, though, didn't know that open source reporting software was quietly improving through repeated development cycles under the big-business radar. Now, open source reporting is ready for prime time, and Peter Wayner has a review of two top reporting candidates: JasperServer Professional and Pentaho Reporting. Neither retains the open source bones (or the open source price-tag), but Peter reports that each retains the multi-layered functionality and rock-solid code that should meet the needs of the most report-hungry organization.
Posted by Curt Franklin on February 19, 2008 06:59 PM
February 13, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: On the desktop and beyond
On the desktop and beyond
Today's Test Center Tracker pick is on the periphery of corporate IT, and begins by briefly circumnavigating the desktop then sailing toward the unexplored horizons of mobile computing.
SUN courts the desktop The proximity of Valentine days is probably just a coincidence, but SUN's finally revealed attraction for the desktop has all the traits of a love story repressed for long time. With the acquisition of Innotek SUN is also reassuring the millions of people who are already using VirtualBox, but please read David Marshall's story for more.
To iPhone or not to iPhone... Can its beauty and slick features gain the iPhone a legitimate place in the corporate world? Security consultant Leon Erlanger has been asking this question and others, but not from the predictable crowd of iPhone zealots. The answers that Leon collected from corporate circles may be surprising.
Mobile applications wanted Are we taking advantage of the millions of smart phones and other mobile gadgets we constantly carry around? Probably not, argues Tom Yager. Read this intriguing chapter of "Ahead of the Curve" to find out what we still can't do with those gadgets and why.
Posted by Mario Apicella on February 13, 2008 08:58 AM
February 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Is MacBook Air all fluff?
Lighter than air: Steve Jobs elicted oohs and ahhs with last month's unveiling of the MacBook Air, the world's thinnest laptop by Apple's estimation. Test Center Contributing Editor Paul Venezia has taken the machine for a test drive to assess just what the trade-offs are for the nifty form factor: "There are sacrifices, to be sure, such as the single USB port and the lack of an internal optical drive, but they're minor when the Air's size and weight are taken into consideration."
Playing with Cobra: Strategic Developer Martin Heller spent part of his weekend dabbling in Cobra, an open-source language that blends Python and Eiffel -- with other influences on top. His advice: Give it a try, and "expect an interesting language for console applications that's on the verge of becoming useful."
5 things SOA vendors are missing: Real World SOA blogger David Linthicum has compiled an insightful list of points that seem to evade many purveyors of services-oriented architecture wares. Among them: Your product has to work (yes, he's picky that way), and you have to know what SOA is.
Posted by Ted Samson on February 11, 2008 10:06 AM
February 06, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Drives, power and politics
Drives, power and politics
What can possibly link small form factor drives, virtual desktops and the power of HPC? Nothing if not your interest, I believe is the correct answer. Today's column is a short but fascinating trip bordering some major technologies. Enjoy.
New Mexico to share HPC power, for a fee? I think you’ll like this story because it’s about a top tier HPC system, the money it will cost, a creative way to lessen the burden on the tax payers and perhaps just a pinch of politics, of the good kind, that is. Read John West intriguing report to find out more.
Getting ready for virtual desktops. I was rather surprised to see my new doctor stopping to type things on a computer keyboard while he visited me. Even more surprising was that his office was filled with HP thin client modules. Well done, doc! Keep apps and data well separated from the human interface gear. If this separation sounds like something you could use too, Citrix has just released the Citrix Provisioning Server 4.5, a new version that offers the tools to do that breakup via software, David Marshall reports.
Small drives are getting big The InfoWorld Test Center tries hard every year, but it’s humanly impossible to review every new product or service that hits the market. That’s why I keep my eyes peeled to catch also reviews done elsewhere: Some are really worth sharing. My pick this time is an extensive round up of 250GB small form factor drives recently published by the X-bit labs.
Posted by Mario Apicella on February 6, 2008 11:26 AM
February 05, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtually Green Blogs
It's a bloggy day in the Test Center, with a look at green features in unexpected places and reports from the InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum.
Unexpected Hints of GreenTed Samson went looking for different shades of green and found them at companies like PeopleCube an BigFix. Increasing the intelligence through which employees reserve assets like conference rooms and audio-visual equipment may not sound green, but Samson found that making the best use of physical plant resources, like PeopleCube is working to do. can have a big impact on overall energy use. BigFix is addressing energy use, as well, with features that bring greater intelligence to the on/off control of servers and application infrastructure pieces. It just goes to show that "sustainable" can start in all sorts of interesting places.
The Virtual Future: Yesterday was Virtual Computing Day here at InfoWorld, and the timing was set to coincide with the Virtualization Executive Forum held in San Francisco. I joined many of my colleagues (and many of our readers) there, and began a series of comments in the SMB IT blog. There will be more my notes at the Forum, but head over now to read the first posts and leave your comments and questions on the virtual future of your IT shop.
Posted by Curt Franklin on February 5, 2008 12:04 PM
January 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtualization rules
Today's Test Center Tracker is all about virtualization and includes news about an upcoming event, new emerging products and an intriguing perspective on what the future of this technology could be.
The "V" forum is coming to town If you are involved in deploying virtualization technologies in your company, the upcoming InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum is a precious source of information and offers an opportunity to compare your own experience with other point of views. If you are not deploying virtualization, attending the forum will probably make you feel a little guilty. Please find more info on this event here
That's Parallels for you The name Parallels probably won't ring a bell but that's the new name adopted by the company that makes Virtuozzo, David Marshall explains. In addition to a new name, the vendor is also announcing a new version of Virtuozzo Containers, an interesting release that you shouldn't miss. Please read David's report to find out why.
No more IT babysitting? Don't let outsiders read this, but in private we can probably agree that most of the IT job is like running a sophisticated kindergarten, requiring attentive supervision of both users and business applications. There is probably not much we can do about users, but Tom Yager believes that combining virtualization and smarter software building tools could bring a certain degree of maturity and self-reliance to applications. It's all in today's Ahead of the Curve.
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 30, 2008 09:48 AM
January 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Turning Green into Gold
Spinning right action into good financial results, looking closely at Microsoft's Unified Messaging Server, and partaking of the Spirit of the Marathon -- Winter storms aren't slowing things down here at InfoWorld.
Green Pays: It's nice to do things for the environment, but for many organizations a greener future just isn't enough justification for action -- they have to make owners, shareholders, and other stake-holders happy. Over in Sustainable IT, Ted Samson is talking about a report showing that the federal government could save $275 million a year through sustainable purchases. While that represents about one good congressional earmark, it's good to see any indication that our government might just be able to do something a little more efficient with our money. Later on, Ted reports that Intel is turning up the volume on green power, becoming one of the most aggressive purchasers of Green-tag electricity. When an acknowledged industry leader moves forward on a sustainable front, it's a very good thing.
One Inbox to Rule Them All: In Enterprise Windows, Peter Bruzzese is looking at a couple of issues; Bill Gates' altruism and Unified Communications Server's needs. The most important point I see about the second is that Unified Communication Server doesn't stand alone -- you'll need to have other components installed to make use of its features. It's obvious that unified communication is going to be a huge issue as we move forward in business networking, and it's important to understand just what's involved before you jump in.
Marathon Effort: OK, I've never been a runner -- I was power-lifter instead. I understand the commitment required to train and compete in marathons, though, so I was taken with Zack Urlocker's Open Sources post on "The Spirit of the Marathon". Success in business requires many of the same qualities found it competitive marathon runners, so the post isn't as off-topic as Zack makes it sound -- and a good analogy can be a very powerful thing when it's time to inspire a team. Read the post, see the documentary, and get ready for that long run.
Posted by Curt Franklin on January 29, 2008 01:28 PM
January 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Visual Studio 2008 a bright IDE
Visual Studio advances with few missteps: InfoWorld Strategic Developer Martin Heller has discovered a wealth of impressive developments in Microsoft's Visual Studio IDE, including expanded support for creating SOA, Web 2.0, Windows Presentation Framework, and Silverlight applications. "With few exceptions, users of every level of Visual Studio will find the 2008 release improved. It's a strong upgrade, and a solid foundation for future development," Heller writes. Read the review in its entirety here.
Waiting for Windows 7: Enterprise Desktop Blogger Randall C. Kennedy has been mulling whether or not we'll see Microsoft crank out Vista's successor earlier than first announced. His prediction? Yep. "It won't take a major engineering effort to turn the ashes of Vista (which, despite its reputation, did incorporate some good ideas) into a solid OS that corporate IT actually wants," he writes. Let him know what you think.
Smaller drives nurture green IT: The Test Center's Storage maven Mario Apicella took at recent peek at storage through a green lens as he reported about Infortrend's new enterprise-class array based on 2.5-inch drives. Turns out that the smaller size translates to significant green benefits over 3.5-inch models: It delivers comparable performance using less energy and less space. " So why aren't more small-drive storage arrays being offered?" asks Apicella. "For the same reason SUVs still mount gas-guzzling engines: Because we didn't ask vendors to do better."
Posted by Ted Samson on January 28, 2008 11:55 AM
January 16, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: SUN mulls the ultimate consolidation
Let's face it, if someone would give us a dime every time we hear, read (or write) the word "virtualization", we would get rich quickly. iPhone is another word that seems to pop-up everywhere. Actually, although much more recent, iPhone is becoming a serious challenger to the popularity of the "V" word, don't you agree?
Read today's TC Tracker and you will add at least two dimes to your hypothetical wealth. As a bonus topic, find out how someone at SUN is dreaming of a future without data centers.
VMware turns to applications The name, Thinstall, is a not exactly a give-away but this tiny company is the first serious step the virtualization giant is taking toward virtualizing applications. Wondering what that is? In a nutshell, think of tools to free applications from their OS shackles, so that they can easily be moved around. Sounds good, but Randall Kennedy has some concerns about this acquisition.
MacWorld anyone? Not to worry if you couldn't make it this time, Tom Yager was there happily reporting about what's new from Apple. And there is plenty. The MacBook is thinner than ever and in great shape to keep running over a long ride. About the iPhone... but wait, read what else is making a splash in Ahead of the Curve
Pushing consolidation a bit too far? What a difference a few years and the wildly growing cost of energy can make. Not long ago having many large and well equipped data centers was cool, almost an indication of how succesful a company was. Today consolidation is in, and large, power-hungry data centers are out. But how far can you push data center consolidation? SUN could get down to zero, yes, no data center at all in less than eight years John West reports
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 16, 2008 09:19 AM
January 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Is Vista Not Green?
We're just getting used to the idea of subjecting new products and techniques to green scrutiny, and taking that very close look can produce some very interesting results. In today's Test Center Tracker, we have some very good corporate behavior, a very interesting technology analysis, and the sort of blue sky questioning that can lead to radical changes in the way things are done.
How Green Was My XP: In Sustainable IT, Ted Samson looks at the end of Windows XP, and is troubled by the ramifications of upgrading all those corporate computers to handle Vista's power requirements. It's not that XP was designed to be more ecologically friendly, but when you add up the environmental impact of surplus-machine disposal and the more power-hungry computers that will replace the last-generation XP workstations, you end up with a non-trivial footprint on the landscape.
Sharing the Green: There's also some good news in Sustainable IT, and Ted gives props to IBM, Nokia, and Sony for sharing patents that involve energy savings and sustainable product use. It's good to see companies show that doing the right thing and being profitable aren't mutually exclusive.
A Big "What if?": Almost all of us have wondered, at one time or another, what would happen if the world ran a bit differently than it does in our current reality. Over in Open Sources, Zack Urlocker ponders the results if Detroit ran more like Silicon Valley. When he gives it some thought, he's not at all sure he likes what he imagines -- particularly when he imagines sitting in the results doing 70 MPH on an Interstate highway. With Tesla looking more and more like a cautionary tale, it's just possible that Silicon Valley isn't the best model for every industry.
Posted by Curt Franklin on January 15, 2008 12:17 PM
January 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: BEA WebLogic VE proves half-baked
Bold yet unmanageable: Based on his hands-on testing of WebLogic VE (Virtual Edition), Test Center Contributor Andrew Binstock concludes that it's pretty darn innovative. The appliance leverages server virtualization by delivering an enterprise-ready application server in a preconfigured stack. Less impressive, however, is the system's lack of central management. The system's still in beta, though, so BEA has time to spruce it up.
Sign on to Save Windows XP: InfoWorld has a formally launched a campaign to keep Microsoft from prematurely retiring XP and effectively pushing customers to adopt Vista. The arguments to save XP are numerous (including my own green perspective). Join the cause today!
High hopes for MacWorld: InfoWorld's Chief Technologist and Apple Enthusiast Tom Yager is mighty excited about this year's MacWorld conference in San Francisco. Tom already knows he'll learn more about Mac Pro and Xserve -- but he's quite keen on the possibility of a new iPhone and news about Mac tablets. What juicy fruits will Apple's who bear? Best tune in and see.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 14, 2008 02:33 PM
January 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)
A New Way to Follow the InfoWorld Test Center
The Test Center has a lot of great information (and tons of new reviews, previews, and buyer's guides coming in 2008), but it can be tough to keep up with everything that's coming out. That's why we're going to use Twitter to let folks know what's happening. Head over to our Twitter home page to start following the Test Center. You'll get a "tweet" every times something new is posted here at the Test Center.
Let us know what you think -- and sign up to follow us on Twitter!
Posted by Curt Franklin on January 11, 2008 06:23 PM
January 09, 2008 | Comments: (0)
TC Tracker: An Apple with eight cores
Want an Apple with eight cores? Care to learn about upcoming, fast, air-born data transfers? Would you rather hear the latest buzz on virtualization? It's all here in TC Tracker.
New short, fat pipe from Sony One of my favorites from CES Is Sony's Transfer Jet, a new technology that promises fast wireless data transfers over a short distance. How short? Well, according to our report centimeters, which is less than inches if the metric system is not in your DNA.
Do you understand virtualization? No offense meant, but I had to ask because according to a new study that mantra is misunderstood and underestimated among enterprise users, David Marshall reports.
I have my doubts on that. For example, which technologies is that study referring to? Are all different flavors of virtualization equally misunderstood? With that premise, does the reports see any future for the technology? Read David comments to find out more.
Want an Apple with eight cores? Intel's new 45 nm processors haven't been out for long but Apple has already deployed them in two systems, Tom Yager reports. Apple makes also easy to find out how much energy all that processing power is costing you, Tom explains in this segue.
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 9, 2008 07:59 AM
January 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Layer One Networking and a New Guide
We keep trying to figure out how do networking without a physical layer, but so far we haven't figured that out, yet. Until then, we'll need to worry about things like cables. Brian Chee has looked at the craft and art of cable lacing, as part of the general focus on cables at InfoWorld. We also introduce a new kind of product article here in the Test Center -- one that should make reviews even more useful to you.
Network Beauty: When you have to network more than two or three systems together, cable management becomes a significant issue. Over in the Geeks in Paradise blog, Brian Chee takes on the nearly-lost art of cable lacing, and discusses why it's so important to current network maintenance and performance. In particular, he asks why more network centers aren't using cable harnesses -- a tool that auto and aircraft manufacturers have used for years -- to maintain order and regularity in their infrastructure. When you pair Brian's post with an object lesson in structured cabling in Off the Record, you have the basis for a serious discussion on just how important good cabling installation and management are to your network's continued performance.
A New Buyer's Guide: One of the constant issues we face here in the Test Center is how to make all our reviews useful to our readers. We've decided that one answer is a new kind of article, the Buyer's Guide. These articles will bring together information on the products, technologies,and companies within a product category, and provide a convenient place for us to link to all the reviews and analysis we've done on the products. Each of these guides will evolve as the market and products evolve, and will be updated to reflect new reviews and analysis. The first buyer's guide, our Buyer's Guide to SIMS, is up now. Take a look, and let us know how we can make it better -- there's much more to come.
Posted by Curt Franklin on January 8, 2008 01:16 PM
January 07, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Peek at the top tech of 2007 -- and beyond
And the winners are ... With the Writers Guild of America on strike, it's hard to guess what the next Emmy or Oscar Awards will bring. Fortunately, we're not having any strikes here at InfoWorld, and thus we can bring to you the 2008 InfoWorld Technology of the Year Awards. Once again, we've sifted through the piles of product reviews we did in 2007 and shined spotlights on the cream of the crop in various categories, from app dev to storage.
Scenes from CES: From IM to thumb drives, much of today's ripe enterprise technology took root at previous CES events. Thus, InfoWorld is tracking this year's show in Vegas with great scrutiny. Tune in and place your bets on which CES showings will change the tech landscape.
Symantec scores with SIM: If you're a security admin, perhaps one of your new year resolutions was to bolster further bolster your network security. (The little Chihuahua in the guard uniform wasn't cutting it.) Symantec's SIM (security information manager) appliance might be what you seek. InfoWorld Senior Analyst Curtis Franklin gave the box a test spin and has deemed it "a highly capable system that leverages the power of the Global Information Network to bring significant security intelligence to bear on network security events."
Posted by Ted Samson on January 7, 2008 12:30 PM
January 02, 2008 | Comments: (0)
TC Tracker: It's a promising, wonderful new year!
Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2008!
Want to keep XP? Of the many changes expected for later this year, the end of life of Windows XP is probably a primary concern for many IT departments.
If you're wondering why, welcome from that long trip from Mars: Here on Earth many fear that discontinuing Windows XP will force or at least accelerate a migration to Vista, the new Microsoft OS that like a well groomed but unconvincing politician has failed to win the hearts and minds of the majority.
Are you sharing the same concern? Then, join the Save Windows XP petition and let Microsoft know that you want to keep the OS running for a long (longer?) time.
A Leopard as a server? Speaking of OSes you should not miss the review of the Mac OS X 10.5 Server that the holiday schedule makes easy to overlook.
It's a rose that has its thorns, but Leopard server makes the power of Unix easy to control and deploy, Tom Yager reports.
Scanned on my cell What happens when you put together mobile phones and barcode technology? You could carry a boarding pass on your phone, for starters, and use the built-in camera as a bar code reader. Learn more in this intriguing chapter of Geeks in Paradise where Brian Chee explores the various options brewing around this fascinating topic. And don't forget part two
Posted by Mario Apicella on January 2, 2008 08:23 AM
December 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Red alert for IE
You patched what? Hopefully this reaches you just in time to stop the automatic update rollout of Internet Explorer at your place. Last week's updates could do more harm than good, Sean Gallagher reports. Some unfortunate early adopters have experienced crashes and erratic behavior with IE. If this hits home, Sean has a couple of suggestions to fix the mess. It's all in Enterprise Windows.
A Bluetooth for you Let's face it, you work hard and deserve a personal reward. On the other end, She Who Must Be Obeyed may not be comfortable picking up gadgets for you. So what are you waiting for? Tom Yager has a couple of suggestions that will look good under the Christmas tree and will look even better on your ear. And sound good too, Tom found out.
How big is your screen? If you answered "Not big enough", a new version of VMware Workstation could help reduce some of the clutter, David Marshall explains. VmWare Workstation 6.5 is still in beta but the screen shot posted by David makes me wanting to jump in. On second thoughts, I may need a larger monitor too.
Posted by Mario Apicella on December 19, 2007 08:36 AM
December 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Mu busts vulnerabilities
Secure thanks to you, Mu: There's nothing quite like a vulnerability to expose your organization's confidential data to malicious types. If you're among the IT admins of the world like to plug those security holes, InfoWorld Contributing Editor and Security Adviser Roger Grimes has found an excellent solution: the Mu-4000 appliance. The box "uses intelligent fuzzing logic to expose security weaknesses and performance issues in any device that talks to a network," Grimes writes. We also have a nifty slideshow presentation of the appliance at work.
Open a box of virtualization: If you're in the market for an open-source desktop-virtualization alternative to VMware Workstation, you might check out innotek VirtualBox 1.5.2, just reviewed by InfoWorld Contributing Editor and Enterprise Desktop Blogger Randall Kennedy. While not without its flaws, the product has evolved nicely in recent months, proving an "extensible, modular desktop VM platform" that "shines with unique virtualization features," Kennedy writes.
Mandriva in a flash: Strategic Developer Martin Heller gots his mitts on a nifty gadget aimed at Linux users who like to travel light. Mandriva is offering a bootable 4GB Flash drive containing a portable version of Mandriva Linux 2008. "The general idea is that you can take this little memory stick with you and be able to run Linux from it, do Internet and Office tasks with Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice, and save your files to the free space on the drive," Heller writes.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 17, 2007 11:48 AM
December 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: From VM to the Web, almost
New processors performance, Web based applications and virtual OSes are all elements that can affect how you and your users work. Learn what's happening in those three areas in today's Test center Tracker.
Now let's virtualize those names Paul Venezia shares today what he learned during his initial weeks of exposure to VMware Infrastructure 3.5 - This new version is still in beta but its reliability defies many shipping products, Paul reports. Too bad that the VMware developers seems to be having a mental block finding new names. Can you tell on the spot what's VI3.5 and what's V3I? Oh well, if that's all what's wrong with VMware Infrastructure 3.5 I am ready to install.
Is AMD fighting misfortune? Can a new chip from rival Intel and some unfavorable comments slow down AMD? Well, bad luck is also part of it, and what's happening to AMD is nothing new in the chip industry, Tom Yager explains in Ahead of the Curve.
Keeping one foot on the desktop? That may be considered rude behavior but, figuratively speaking, that's what Microsoft seems to be doing with the release of the beta version of Office Live Workspaces, Sean Gallagher suggests in Enterprise Windows. With the addition of Workspaces, Office Live starts to look a bit more like Google Apps Sean explains. Is Redmond getting ready for a suite of Web based apps completely detached from its established dominion, the desktop? Read what Sean has to say to find out.
Posted by Mario Apicella on December 12, 2007 08:22 AM
December 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: A Little Green, a Lot of Testing, and a Dangerous Component
It's a small win for green computing, a balancing act for software testing, and the acknowledgment that the most dangerous component in any given computer system isn't the fault of either programmers or engineers in today's Test Center Tracker.
Green Gets Small: When you can take a low-power computing option and build it into a tiny package that reduced the need for raw materials and manufacturing energy, then it's a green win from start to finish. That's what Artigo has done with their latest development system, and Ted Samson takes a close look over in Sustainable IT.
The Testing Touch: When you build any software system, testing is a critical part of the development process. Who, though, should do the testing -- should it fall on the shoulders of those inside the development organization or on those of outside engineers with no "skin in the game" of development? Zack Urlocker looks at the pros and cons of inside and outside testing in Open Sources and reaches a balanced conclusion.
The Most Basic Vulnerability: There's no real disagreement: the most dangerous component of any computer system is the user who sits at the keyboard. How should you patch this critical vulnerability, and what can you do to protect the system if the vulnerability must go unpatched? Matt Hines asks the question in the Zero Day Blog, and finds a long list of suggestions.
Posted by Curt Franklin on December 11, 2007 10:11 PM
December 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Office Live misses the mark
Not quite dead: At long last, the big Redmondian machine has raised the curtains for Office Live Workspaces, its online document-sharing solution. Contributed Editor Randall C. Kennedy has taken a close look at the melding of Microsoft Office and the SaaS (software as a service) model -- and he wasn't overly impressed. "The lack of any real innovation makes it difficult to differentiate OLW from the myriad hosted and non-hosted SaaS productivity solutions," he writes.
Riding the Rails aboard XP: With last week's release of Ruby Rails 2.0, Strategic Developer Martin Heller decided it was time to update his installation. Alas, the process proved trying -- but perhaps other Rails enthusiasts can learn from Heller's suffering.
Borland blends BI and ALM: InfoWorld Editor at Large was busy over the weekend, reporting that Borland intends to roll out products next year marrying business intelligence with application lifecycle management. The solutions "will collect data stored in disparate toolsets for use in reporting metrics in application development projects," he writes.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 10, 2007 11:58 AM
December 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Following evolution
Not all people necessarily agree on Darwin's theory of evolution but when we focus on IT even the strongest advocates of "Intelligent Design" would throw their arms up in despair. It may be tempting to say that there is no intelligent design behind what's on our focus today but nobody can deny that there is an evolutionary streak.
The clock is ticking for Intel - What's your favorite mascotte? Many people would respond to that question naming a cute, lovable animal. Others might go a little out of their way to find that unique species that better epitomizes their marketing plot. For example, a few years ago Quantum named one of their tape libraries after a Mako shark. Well, as unbelievable as it may seem next year we will see two unusual and somewhat related mascottes, with a very different evolution path, battling over desktop domination, Tom Yager reports.
Not quite a Revolution - A propos of evolution, we all know that to be a slow process, which probably explains the name Nokia gave to their new phone, Evolve. The new phone is not much different in features from a previous model but is more environment friendly than its ancestor, Ted Samson explains in Sustainable IT.
Paper will be next - It may come as a surprise to most people that the PDF format has become an ISO standard. . What? Wasn't PDF a standard already? Also surprising is that, as reported by Summer Lemon of the IDG News Service, there was one voting member at ISO that didn't want PDF to become a standard. Oh well, there is always one, but what matters the most is that Adobe won't have the only say in how PDF will evolve in the future. Does this mean that I won't get as many updates to Adobe Reader? I am all for it.
Posted by Mario Apicella on December 5, 2007 08:59 AM
December 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Competition Rules
There's new competition, the word on subscription, and a bright new condition in Vista-land as we dive into a bunch of bloggy goodness in today's Test Center Daily.
More CRM: Ahh, competition. That's what Microsoft is hoping to give Salesforce.com with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, the software as a service that gets launched later this month. Microsoft has a hosted-service version that shares virtually all the features of the software edition, and Sean Gallagher has the story on both.
A Strong Subscription: One of the on-going questions in the open-source software market is how, precisely, companies can thrive while doing business within it. Savio Rodrigues spotlights one model and talks about the critical differences between a software subscription and a service subscription to both customers and vendors.
Common Sense Reigns: It seems that all Vista users have another strong reason to get ready for SP1: The WGA "kill switch" goes away. Randall Kennedy's Enterprise Desktop talks about just how good that is, and provides an update on a desktop benchmark challenge
Posted by Curt Franklin on December 4, 2007 12:52 PM
December 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Center on user identity
Federated identity 101: The allure of federated identity on the Web is enticing for IT admins. It "enables one organization to serve as an identity provider for another frees IT from having to manage the identities of partnering organizations' employees and customers, thereby facilitating the pursuit of competitive-advantage projects," notes Test Center Contributing Editor Phil Windley. Windley not only delivers an overview of federated identity; he hones in on OpenID and CardSpace, which stand proudly at the forefront of user-centric identity. Check out our entire special report one the subject, including podcast interviews, right here.
Microsoft vs. Kennedy: There's nothing like a bit of controversy to kick of the week, and lo, some appears to be brewing between the Redmond giant and InfoWorld Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy. The short of it is, some techies at exo.performance.network ran some benchmarks comparing Vista performance to XP, and they determined that Vista pretty much sucks by comparison. Microsoft fired back by attacking the benchmark used in the analysis, called OfficeBench. Thing is, Kennedy himself developed OfficeBench years ago, and its gained notoriety in the IT world. Kennedy's not taking Microsoft "baseless" criticism lightly and has thrown down the gaunlet: "I hereby formally challenge Microsoft to prove that OfficeBench, as executed by the exo.performance.network research staff, is not a valid measurement of cross-platform, cross-version performance under Windows and Office." Will Redmond bite?
10 techs for a greener datacenter: At the risk of shamelessly promoting my own work, I discovered a great (and free) white paper from Emerson Networks the other day the outlines some interrelated technology strategies to reduce costly energy waste in the datacenter. I wrote about it in my Sustainable IT blog, and I suggest that datacenter operators download the Emerson paper itself.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 3, 2007 11:29 AM
November 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Taking a Spider from BI to Zoho
A powerful new computing platform, more smarts for business and a Web office suite that promises to work offline are all in a day work (or two) at the Test Center.
Say "Hi!" to a Phenom platform What happens when you marry a 64-bit quadcore Phenom processor with ATI graphics? Surprisingly you get Spider, a new platform from AMD that should catch more than just flies. In the words of Tom Yager the new platform is "agile on any terrain" and "has exceptional vision". It's all in today's Ahead of the Curve.
Pervasive BI? To paraphrase the words of Gandhi, BI would be a very good idea. Like Western civilization, BI hasn't exactly won everybody's hearts and minds, which is probably why Microsoft is injecting more BI features in the upcoming SQL Server 2008. Read what Sean Gallagher has to say in Enterprise Windows.
Not just online Q: What's the ultimate challenge for a suite of Web office applications? A: Getting some work done also when a Web connection is not available. On a plane, for example. That's where Randall Kennedy took Zoho Office for a test ride. Find out how Zoho Office performs when airborne in Enterprise Desktop.
Posted by Mario Apicella on November 28, 2007 09:06 AM
November 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Maybe you can take it with you
There are libraries to carry around, green power sources for I.T. centers, and good business in open source for today's Test Center Tracker.
Take it all:If you can take everything you need with you, why wouldn't you? That's the question Brian Chee is asking in Geeks in Paradise after looking at the new Amazon Kindle. It's not so much the idea of grabbing the local newspaper on the electronic reader--what if you could have your entire reference library on a portable, easily searchable tablet that accompanied you to your desk and to jobs in the field? Now you're talking...
A mighty wind: HP is taking big green steps with their newest data centers, powering one with solar power and another with wind. Ted Samson is all over this in Sustainable IT, and it looks like a decent model for other tech firms to follow.
Happy days...: The high-tech sector has been up and down for months, but one segment seems to be on a consistent upward path -- open source businesses are starting to flourish. Zack Urlocker takes a look at the businesses and their business plans and likes what he sees for the long run.
Posted by Curt Franklin on November 27, 2007 01:27 PM
November 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Leopard scores big
A perfect 10: Apple has achieved perfection with the release of Mac OS X, at least in the eyes of InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager. He's given the OS a bottom-line score a 10, a feat no other company has achieved (at least as far back as I can remember). "Leopard will change the way you work with computers, and entirely for the better," Yager writes. Why? Best read his review and find out.
Don't venture toward Vista: While Tom Yager is singing the praises of Mac OX X, Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy has some less-than-favorable assessment of Windows Vista: "For the vast majority of enterprise IT shops, Vista is not -- and likely never will be -- the right choice for their immediate desktop computing needs." Ouch. What's his beef with Vista? Find out right here.
Scrub your Web services: Testing a SOAP-based Web service may seem simple enough -- but simple, it ain't. Tools abound to ease the task, fortunately -- and Test Center Contributing Editor Rick Grehan has taken a close look at five such solutions: AdventNet's QEngine, Crosscheck Networks SOAPSonar, iTKO's LISA, Mindreef's SOAPscope Server, and Parasoft's SOAtest.Readers. He shares some great insight, differentiating the five products and pointing out their respective strengths and shortcomings. Looking to scrub you Web services clean? Then check out his review.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 26, 2007 11:55 AM
November 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Our Thanksgiving menu
Our Thanksgiving menu
It wasn't planned (as far as I know) but our selection of articles for today appropriately brings to mind the abundance of a Thanksgiving banquet.
Getting SOA right David Linthicum proposes an enticing appetizer with thoughts and suggestions on how to get your SOA projects in top shape. Testing, testing and then more testing, of course, but what and how? Read all about it in Real World SOA
Beware of the Orcas Not the whales of course, but the gold version of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 that just became available for download, a fact that didn't escape Tom Yager. Could this new release help developers inject a friendlier behavior in Windows apps? Read on to find out.
Virtually free Speaking of next year and Microsoft, Sean Gallagher shares his thoughts on what could be the impact of Windows Server 2008 Virtualization Component, an add-on to the Windows server license oddly priced $28. Makes you curious to know how did Microsoft come up with that $28 license fee.
Leopard's first roar Our main course, the turkey of our Thanksgiving menu if you wish, is Tom Yager's first installment of his review of the new OS from Apple. Savor it while it's hot, but be sure to leave room for part two of the review, expected next week.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by Mario Apicella on November 21, 2007 09:25 AM
November 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Balanced Loads, Valid Rules, and Limited Open Source
It's the hump day of a very short week for many people, but that doesn't mean a lack of useful stories. In the Test Center, there are reviews of appliances for dealing with unbalanced network loads and unwieldy network rules, and an Open Source Blog entry on possible limits to the open source model.
A Network in Balance: When you're network is large, busy, and critical to your business, it can make sense to balance the overall load across the available network segments. Logan Harbaugh looks at Coyote Point's load balancer and finds an appliance that dispenses with frills in favor of solid performance on its designed task.
Business Rules that Work: It's hard enough trying to figure out what your business processes really are; making sure that your I.T. rules actually implement the rules can be a nightmare. Steven Nunez's review of Blaze Advisor 6.5 finds a system that it powerful and complete, though the power comes at a price. The latest version of the Fair Isaac tool isn't simple or easy to use, so it's not a system to be taken up lightly. If your enterprise needs to be sure that the rules fit the process, though, it can be a life-saver.
JBoss Leads: The open-source software model has many strengths. Making it easy for a company to thrive in a business built on open-source software really isn't one of them. In a blog post with serious real-world implications, Savio Rodrigues looks at JBoss and finds a company that's had no trouble generating sales leads, but some difficulty converting those leads into paying customers. Why do you care? In the business world, IT products require support, and a company that can't build revenue streams has trouble keeping support staff employed. This isn't an indictment of the open-source system, but it is a serious look at a very real issue for this vitally important branch of the software industry.
Posted by Curt Franklin on November 20, 2007 12:27 PM
November 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Apple updates, Linux failures, fast storage, and cracks for crackers
Apple updates survivor's guide: Tom Yager offers a guide through the flurry of fixes (count em, 23 updates) that Apple released this week. Where else but in Enterprise Mac.
Rock and a hard place: Randall Kennedy tried to love Ubuntu Desktop, but he could not. Read about his week-long adventure on planet Linux in Enterprise Desktop. And now back to Windows... and a fight with Vista SP1.
How fast can storage go? Mario Apicella discusses DataDirect Networks' and SGI's approaches to increasing the G's. See Storage Insider.
Your underwear is showing: Intruders don't always need fancy tools to worm their way into your network; sometimes the door is wide open. Roger Grimes reveals the many ways in, and what you can do to plug the holes in today's Security Advisor.
Posted by Doug Dineley on November 16, 2007 10:44 AM
November 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: More virtualization for you
This edition of Test Center Tracker is all about virtualization with a preview of the new VMware server version, first thoughts on Oracle's just revealed virtualization server, and a preview of Accellion's file transfer virtual appliance.
VMware builds more muscles is probably a good summary of Paul Venezia in depth look at the new VMware Server 2. It's still in beta so nobody should fret learning that not everything runs smooth after install, but don't miss Paul's preview
Accellion cuts the hardware addiction The popularity of VMware has convinced many vendors that offering a virtual machine version of their products could both improve sales and even serve their customers better. The latest to follow that trend is Accellion with a VMware guest version of their file transfer appliance. It's also a shameless self promotion as I did that preview, but I'll try not to blush.
A 900 pound virtual gorilla? No blame meant, but dealing with business rivals Oracle has often shown its tough side, which along with its financial muscles makes the company probably the last one you would want to quarrel with.
If you had a choice, that is, because Oracle announcing, and actually making available for free, its own virtualization server doesn't leave much of a choice to other vendors in that space: It's fight or surrender, but to learn more read what David Marshall has to say.
Posted by Mario Apicella on November 14, 2007 09:11 AM
November 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Penguin buck-passing and Citrix app-speeding
Blame game: Enterprise Desktop Blogger Randall Kennedy has immersed himself in desktop Linux of late. He's been pleasantly surprised by Ubuntu -- but he still sees one key barrier (at least) to widespread Linux adoption: a lack of accountability. When dealing with a recent ACPI bug, for example, he observed plenty of finger-pointing at both nVidia and the Linux kernel team. But a user, or a company, would rather have one place to go for answers, rather than turning to the community for help -- or rolling their own solutions.
Citrix revs Web-app delivery: Waiting is the hardest part, at least according to certain song lyrics. Waiting for a Web page to load can certainly be maddening. Citrix has a solution in NetScaler 8.0, and Test Center contributor Logan Harbaugh recently got his hands on it. He finds that the package offers "a very sophisticated suite of load balancing, Web application acceleration, Web application firewall, security, and logging features, at a good price."
The Android SDK is a Java API: Strategic Developer Martin Heller probes the SDK for the much-hyped Google Android Open Handset. Lo, he discovers that it's essentially a Java API that supports XML-based layout files, and contains a variety of development tools -- such as an emulator, an Eclipse plug-in, a debug monitor, a debug bridge, an asset packaging tool, and much more.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 12, 2007 12:28 PM
November 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Going for LEED Gold: LEED, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, offers a certification for buildings that were constructed with environmentally friendly materials, make efficient use of water and energy, and provide a clean and healthy environment for inhabitants. It's not just for new buildings, and even parts of an old building can qualify -- as demonstrated by Digital Realty Trust's LEED-certified transformation of a 20,000-square-foot datacenter in a 90-year-old Chicago site. Learn more about LEED and the project in yesterday's Sustainable IT, including a Q&A with Digital Realty's VP of Engineering, Jim Smith.
Self-inflicted wounds: End users are always a step ahead of security, thanks to newfangled applications and devices they can't do without. For security managers, resistance to IM, Wi-Fi, and USB sticks was futile, and resistance to YouTube, SMS, and social networking sites will be futile. What can you do about it? The Security Advisor knows.
A grid in every datacenter?: Application grid platforms share some of the head-turning automation capabilities that many shops are looking to server virtualization to provide. Could application grids emerge as a general purpose infrastructure? 3Tera seems to be moving in that direction. Check out today's Storage Insider.
Lunch with the Borg: Database Undergrounder Sean McCown writes this week about his recent visit to the Oracle campus, and the start of his testing of Oracle Database 11g. Turns out that Oracle employees aren't bizarre aliens with tubes and wires sticking out of them, and the new database installs real smooth. It also has some eye-popping new features... even a time machine.
Posted by Doug Dineley on November 9, 2007 10:01 AM
November 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: From Cupertino to Oslo
Cut short on backups What would you do if your laptop would die and there was no quick replacement in sight? That's what Tom Yager had to face when his MacBook Pro suffered a sudden demise.
What can Tom do while waiting for a replacement to arrive? Can he make the Web his own virtual workstation? Can he fall back on smart phones and PDAs at least for e-mail? It's a somewhat different but always captivating Ahead of the Curve this week.
Tip-toe in and enjoy the peace 'n quiet After weeks of a strained relationship Randall Kennedy's tumultuous love-hate affair with Ubuntu Gutsy (that's version 7.10 for the non-initiated) seems to have reached a new apex.
You may not believe your eyes reading that Randall is "actually starting to enjoy" his new digs. It's all here in Enterprise Desktop
Slipping on SOAP? Sean Gallagher takes us on a thoughtful exploration of the state of Windows interoperability, eight years after the company first announced its strategy.
Sean reaches the conclusion that despite some remarkable progress there is room for improvement, a point of view that Microsoft seems to share, while they renew commitment to Oslo. It's well worth reading this week's Enterprise Window to find out more.
Posted by Mario Apicella on November 7, 2007 10:51 AM
November 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Server On, Server Off; The View from 2008
With the writers in Hollywood on strike, we'll look to classic films for the links in today's Test Center Tracker. First, Mr. Miyagi's training advice to the kid can help save data center energy dollars. After earning your green belt, fire up the flux capacitor to head back to 2008 for the latest news on Microsoft's newest operating system. Are you ready for the strike to be over, yet?
Server On, Server Off: In most data centers, there are hours that go by with servers sitting on "idle". Ted Samson reports on new software from Cassatt that monitors applications and servers to intelligently turn hardware off and on as needed. Active Response is a suite of tools that lets system admins set policies and control the way that applications use systems for best efficiency and power. Sometimes a greener future is just a silent server away.
The View from 2008: Microsoft is unveiling Windows Server 2008 to the press, and Geeks in Paradise blogger Brian Chee is there. In his first post from the two-day event, Brian blogs the keynote address and promises posts from coming speeches. You'll want to check Geeks in Paradise often (or, better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed) to make sure you're up to date on the server operating system that will be the big news of 2008.
Posted by Curt Franklin on November 6, 2007 09:32 AM
November 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: SOA, the right way, plus a meeting with Shorty
Another ride on the ESB: Embracing SOA (services-oriented architecture) is a downright complex endeavor -- even with some great real-world examples to serve as a guide. One critical component is an ESB (enterprise service bus). But where to begin choosing there? Well, you might start by reading this head-to-head review of two promising ESBs, one for Cape Clear and the other from Progress Sonic.
Heeeere's Shorty!: What do you get when you combine two servers, an all-in-one storage system with six drives, a tape unit, a DVD reader, and more? Shorty, of course, which is the nickname for HP's new 6U Proliant c3000 Blade System. Why Shorty? Only HP knows for sure. But Test Center Analyst Mario Apicella has a c3000 unit and is taking us on a tour. Read on!
Posted by Ted Samson on November 5, 2007 10:02 AM
November 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Shacking up with Leopard: Apple's OS X Leopard hit the North American market one week ago this evening, prompting Tom Yager to swing by the Apple store, MacBook Pro in hand, then make a beeline for an isolation chamber (the local Holiday Inn) for an intensive evaluation. (Nothing gets between Yager and a new Mac OS.) While we wait for the resulting review, you can track his progress on Enterprise Mac. For the quick-and-dirty on what Leopard will mean to users, the best places to start are two of Tom's recent posts to Ahead of the Curve, "Apple OS X Leopard: A beautiful upgrad" and Tom's "Leopard: Not an OS, but a system you operate".
Small (and cheap) project management: If Microsoft Project is more than enough, free and open source OpenProj might be just enough. Curt "Dr. Gantt" Franklin takes the tidy project manager for a spin in SMB IT.
Help your datacenter help itself: The self-checking and "phone home" features in many server and storage systems use the Axeda ServiceLink service-monitoring system. A new offering from Axeda, called ServiceLink for Datacenters, brings these remote access links under a central management portal -- reducing the risk of data exposure, reports Storage Insider Mario Apicella.
Welcome to Estonia: If you think your business is immune to the kind of massive distributed denial of service attack that shoved Estonia off of the Internet, think again, advises our Security Advisor, Roger Grimes.
Posted by Doug Dineley on November 2, 2007 12:05 PM
November 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Open Sourcery
Apple's delivery of Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) has Mac users all a-tingle, and somehow that success brought to mind Sun's turnaround idea of using open source to sell hardware.
In a story on Sun's open source program, InfoWorld related the plans of Simon Phipps, who holds the intriguingly-titled post of Chief Open Source Officer. I don't expect to find that on a Microsoft business card any time soon, but someone at Apple should have that job, and Steve Jobs should let him or her appear in public now and then. Sun has been an exceptional open source citizen, and that is winning Sun business. Sun has a volunteer skunkworks, and Sun's treatment of OpenSolaris would make an excellent model for Apple's Darwin.
It turns out that you can't milk a GNU without its consent. Monsoon Multimedia drank deeply of some GPL covered software, specifically, BusyBox, a very cool lightweight UNIX utilities bundle for embedded systems. The Software Freedom Law Center--I'm pleased just to know that the SFLC exists--filed suit on behalf of BusyBox's creators. Odd business, though: If the SFLC argues that Monsoon accepted the GPL as a contract or license, then the spoils of victory will be lost revenue. But BusyBox is free.
I'm far from a lawyer, but perhaps the judge can award damages to the authors of BusyBox based on what Monsoon would have had to pay them as consultants to do the job for them. I'd love to see the BusyBox developers hand Monsoon a tally of billable hours, with a note of thanks for Monsoon's support of the project.
Posted by Tom Yager on November 1, 2007 05:05 PM
October 31, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Trick or Treat?
Happy Halloween!
If you have never tried your hand at carving a pumpkin read How Stuff Works step by step instructions on how to make the best, I mean the scariest, Halloween pumpkin. I'm still trying to find instructions on how to make a presidential debate less scary but no luck so far.
Linux as a sidekick? Back to our track, er.. tracker, there is much to choose from and nothing scary in our Halloween-day produce.
Doug Dineley opens the candy bag with the review of an intriguing Linux gizmo with a funny name, Yoggie Pico Pro. However, there is nothing laughable about this USB key sized Linux machine that unloads the burden of virus scanning and firewalling from your laptop and also makes centralized management easier.
Why not use Linux directly on your laptop, you ask? We'll save that question for another day, troublemaker!
Too good to let go? Yes that's what Tom Yager is reporting while taking one of his infrequent breaks from a newly contracted addiction to Leopard.
Of course Tom is not at the zoo, instead he's savoring Apple's latest OS version in every detail. Better read his impressions now, because Tom is so captivated by his Leopard petting that we may not hear from him for a long time.
Watch your backup What a better day than Halloween to evoke the scary ghost of data loss? Sean Gallagher is quick to remind us that the antidote for that poison is plain simple backup. We know this already? Then, pray, why people still loose data, as Sean reports in Enterprise Windows?
That's all the treats I have for today but if you, like me, can't resist gulping "just one more candy" here is a a trick or two that could help keeping your post-Halloween sugar and chocolate intake low.
Posted by Mario Apicella on October 31, 2007 09:13 AM
October 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Go Penguin, Here Comes a Little More Sun, and Next Year in Oslo?
It's a beautiful day in the Test Center, with penguins making their way onto desktops, Big Blue finding a way to go more green, and the possibility of a cold shoulder to open source in Oslo.
Go Penguin: Have you seriously thought about making the desktop switch to Linux? If you've been using Vista lately, the answer is probably "Yes". Even if you haven't been given the gift of Vista, surveys indicate that a healthy percentage of IT professionals have at least considered the option of an open-source desktop. In a special on-line report, InfoWorld has put together a series of articles with all you need to know about living with Linux on the desktop. Whether you're just curious or getting ready to make a serious commitment, you owe it to yourself to read these six articles written by Linux experts on the issues to consider and steps to take when it comes to living the Linux life on your workstations.
Here Comes a Little More Sun: Ted Samson's got the latest on a new IBM process that makes the process of recycling silicon wafers from the chip-fab process a bit more efficient -- and much more friendly to the solar-panel business. It's good to see a winning technology in a critical green area.
Where's the Oslo Love? Microsoft is making noise about Oslo, its planned framework for SOA beyond the Windows boundaries. Savio Rodrigues is looking at Oslo from an open source POV, and he's not at all sure he likes what he sees. It's not that the features and structures are bad, they're just not being set up to play in a standards-based world, and that's a huge limiting factor when it comes to playing nicely with others. Savio lists a few caveats to Microsoft's words (and at least one to his own), for an open source blog post that well worth your time.
Posted by Curt Franklin on October 30, 2007 12:45 PM
October 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Microsoft lands a winning SSL VPN in Whale
Thar she blows! With SSL VPN's increasingly garnering attention from security admins, Microsoft's investment in Whale Communications last year may very well pay off. InfoWorld Contributor Keith Schultz recently got his hands on Microsoft's Internet Application Gateway 2007 SSL VPN, built around Whale's technology, and lo, IAG demonstrated near-perfect end-point inspection (as long as you're running Windows and IE), as well as a robust policy engine and plenty of predefined applications.
Time Machine, Vista-style: Given the hype around Mac OS X 10.5's Time Machine backup feature, Enterprise Desktop Blogger Randall Kennedy decided see how well Vista's tools fare with real-time backups. Unfortunately, it didn't go very well: "Vista Backup had excluded large swaths of my critical data files ... while picking up all sorts of unrelated junk." He didn't give up there on MS tools, but I shan't give it all away. Check out the saga for yourself!
Flipping the script: Down in the Database Underground, Sean McCown has made an exciting discovery: He can use his beloved PrimalScript not only to package scripts as .EXEs for end-users; he can do the same for the database scripts that he sends to the production manager. The approach ensures that scripts are run in the proper order without a hitch. Neat and tidy! DBAs, rejoice.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 29, 2007 03:00 PM
October 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Slippery malware, storage clouds on the horizon, and a guide to getting green
Mutating malware: Roger Grimes gives us a peek inside the network security arms race, where virus and worm authors evade signature-based detection techniques through "server-side polymorphism," and malware fighters seek a better defense. Say what? Server-side polymorphism? See today's Security Advisor.
Hash and stash: In today's Storage Insider, Mario profiles two startups that are rethinking how data is stored: Instead of storing complete data sets in a single bucket, they break the data into fragments and store them in multiple places. Cleversafe uses "dispersed storage" to boost data security, while RevStor applies the technique to disk to disk backup pools.
Green in twelve steps Going green can save you money, spare the air, engender feelings of goodwill in customers, and allow you to shame reprobate competitors. So good, but how do you get started? Forrester Research has a plan, which Ted Samson examines in yesterday's Sustainable IT.
Posted by Doug Dineley on October 26, 2007 10:49 AM
October 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Passionate about IT
Passionate about IT
You would imagine that continued exposure to new IT products would make a person somewhat detached, but only have to read today's stories to realize how passionate our writers are about IT topics.
Is ZFS close to perfection? Like a successful Broadway show the new file system from SUN has collected praise from all quarters. Whether you agree with that accolade or are one of the detractors (do they really exist?) don't miss this week's Ahead of the Curve.
Does Ubuntu suck? Too soon to say, as Ubuntu just opened to the large public version 7.10 last week, but I wouldn't be surprised if this would become the most popular Linux distribution on desktops and laptops.
Which doesn't mean that Ubuntu can't be perfected. Read Randall Kennedy Entreprise Desktop for more.
Jazz up those reports Let's face it, usually there is little to be excited about creating a report, right? May be so, until now, but read Sean McCown preview of Crystal Reports 2008 and you are likely to change your mind.
Normalize SOA! Last but not least (and not less passionate) is Dave Linthicum who explains in his Strategic Developer how SOA vendors may not always facilitate registry integration. Time to put the "service-oriented" back into SOA?
In the interest of full disclosure this column was started using Ubuntu 7.10 and was completed on a Windows XP machine.
Posted by Mario Apicella on October 24, 2007 10:15 AM
October 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Skinny Windows, Cool Servers, and Life Building Tradeshows
Coming to you live from the network operations center at Interop New York, it's the Test Center Daily. Today, we have news of Windows getting slim, servers in India getting cool, and a large network being built in a very few days. It's the kind of report that leaves you wanting to run out and make exciting things happen in your very own data center.
Slim Windows: Zack Urlocker reports on a Microsoft presentation that points to a much slimmer Windows coming down the pike. It's OK to be excited, but don't hold your breath -- it will be 2010, at the earliest, when the MinWin core makes its way to market.
Cool Servers: HP is deploying 7,500 sensors in the Smart Cooling System it's putting into a data center in Bangalore, India. According to Green IT blogger Ted Samson, the completed, optimized data center should save 40% on cooling costs compared to a traditional data center (or set of data centers). When every little bit counts, 40% is a non-trivial step in the right direction.
Interop Rises: It's fascinating watching a large network being installed in a convention center. It's even more interesting watching the network professionals who make it happen. We've been learning some valuable lessons, here. Among the most important:
Wire maps can't be trusted until verified by hand.
When the strength of the signal is below the strength of the noise, wireless networks become very slow.
It's rarely a good sign when the big box of patch cables comes out from under the table.
Packets known to crash systems should be filtered out of the data stream before they reach the system.
There's much more to come, including information not quite so obvious. Keep your eye on Test Center Daily...
Posted by Curt Franklin on October 23, 2007 03:39 PM
October 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Microsoft mashes up, gets hung up, and gets caught in the shadow of a cat
Paul Krill reports that Microsoft showed off a beta of its Popify Web mash-up software at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Popify runs on Microsoft's Silverlight, a would-be contender for the minds and money currently invested in Adobe Flash (and progeny) for leadership in rich Web apps. Microsoft's smart to roll out purpose-specific Web 2.0 apps built on Silverlight rather than just hyping the platform by itself.
Silverlight has more to overcome than Adobe. Six states, plus the District of Columbia, have filed for a five-year extension to Microsoft's anti-trust judgment. The states are worried that Silverlight could be Internet Explorer all over again, made a de facto standard by virtue of being shipped with practically every PC sold worldwide. Maybe they've got a point. Adobe will never have a distribution channel with that kind of penetration.
But who cares what Microsoft is doing given that Apple's OS X Leopard is almost here? Here's an OS that's not just anticipated because it isn't Vista, but because it's the first certified UNIX that's fast, looks great and is productive and fun right out of the box. And when it's time to indulge one's untamed self, pop up a Terminal window and find out what all 1,462 commands do. Don't let the looks fool you: Leopard's real UNIX.
Posted by Tom Yager on October 18, 2007 04:01 PM
October 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Preview the future
Preview the future
Today's TC Tracker is all about the future: a new OS, a new service pack and a new Linux machine with an intriguing storage twist. Enjoy.
Waiting for Baby You may remember "Bringing up Baby" a delightful comedy with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant plus a mischievous leopard, named Baby.
Well, "baby", I mean Leopard, the new version of OS X, should be officially announced in ten days or so, but Tom Yager proposes an interesting matinee in his column.
Service Pack yourself! In my naiveté I associate the expression "service pack" with a bag of gotcha fixes to improve the behavior of a shipping application or OS.
Was I wrong! According to our Hawaiian duo, Chee-Rist, the upcoming SP1 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 not only fixes a few leaks here and there, but brings new controls and even new features to the application. Please read here for more.
Disposable Linux PC Well, not quite but how much would you pay to fix a $99 machine if it ever breaks? Anyway, that's what startup Zombu has come up with, Zack Urlocker reports in Open Sources.
For that price you don't get a disk drive but a subscription to Internet storage that will cost about $13 per month. Not such a good deal after all. Perhaps the future axis of bargain-priced PC, Acer-Gateway-Packard Bell will top that?
Posted by Mario Apicella on October 17, 2007 10:10 AM
October 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: A Marriage of Convenience
Unified communications get a boost from a big backer, your web site is probably at risk, and there's a new iPhone lawsuit that has nothing to do with software updates. All in all, it's an exciting Tuesday here in the Test Center.
New Microsoft OCS: Brian Chee and Oliver Risk took a long, hard look at Microsoft OCS and found that Office Communication Server -- linked to Exchange Server -- make for a formidable communications platform. Unfortunately, the deployment hurdle (in both money and effort) is high, too, but may well be worthwhile if you need to have a single, common in-box for all your corporate communications.
Your Web Site is Open: Matt Hines has been reading again, and this time the story is as scary as anything by Steven King. According to the latest White Hat study, 90% of web sites are open to hacker attacks. You'll want to read Matt's blog, but don't take too long -- your web site probably needs some attention. Now.
Toxic iPhone?: According to Greenpeace, your iPhone may be making you sterile -- not because of how it works, but because of how it's made. It's all in the phthalates, you see. At least, that's the claim of a new lawsuit against Apple. Ted Samson isn't covering all the lawsuits against Apple in Sustainable IT, but the phthinking of phthe phthalate opponents is squarely on his green radar screen.
Posted by Curt Franklin on October 16, 2007 11:33 AM
October 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Security, free, for you and me
Open source meets security: We've all been taught to be wary of free lunches. And IT admins, certainly, know to be cautious when choosing tools to protect their assets. But InfoWorld Contributing Editor Tom Bowers finds that there's an array of free, open source security tools and techniques out there that are well worth the time investment.
Know thy products: Too many SOA vendors fail when it comes to educating would-be customers about their wares, laments Real World SOA blogger David Linthicum. "They do know how to list buzzwords they think will wow their prospects and existing customers; however in many cases the customers become further confused, or worse, don't even get the core concept behind the product, not to mention SOA." Explaining SOA at a high level, as well as what issues your product can, and can't, address, are all critical to the sales pitch, he advises.
Cooking with virtualization: Virtualization is a recipe for potential savings through consolidation -- but it's certainly not an easy-bake effort. To help keep your virtualization efforts from collapsing like an unfortunate souffle, InfoWorld Virtualization Report blogger David Marshall shares an array of virtualization cookbooks from Microsoft. Bon appetit!
Posted by Ted Samson on October 15, 2007 11:45 AM
October 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Green tops Gartner's list, security best practices gone wrong
Green is number one! At least according to Gartner, whose list of ten strategic technologies for 2008 caught the eye of greenalyst Ted Samson. See yesterday's Sustainable IT for Ted's take, and his swift run down the rest of Gartner's list. Hand it to Gartner: It's a fascinating list, a buzz-stirring blend of the real, the improbable, the silly, and the absurd, served with the signature deadpan delivery. Terrific reading. Go Web 2.0!
Guidelines and gridlines: Roger Grimes has spotted a disturbing trend in these times of compliance and governance, wherein best practices guidelines evolve into mandates, and the mandates begin reaching down into systems settings, trapping sensible security managers in a corner. See yesterday's Security Advisor for Roger's tales of good security guidelines gone wrong.
Posted by Doug Dineley on October 12, 2007 10:38 AM
October 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Free software worth paying for
Trialware is a pain. Once you install it, its self-destruct sequence begins. If you don't have time to give trial software a thorough workout before it goes poof, it's unlikely that you'll come away from the experience impressed with that application.
Vendors are getting the message. Several of the InfoWorld Test Center's recent reviews focus on software that vendors offer to customers for free, forever, but with deployment limited to non-commercial use or a small number of users.
What brought this to mind is my recent discussions with CommuniGate Systems, which offers a community edition of its Communigate Pro unified messaging server. Its Flash-based Pronto! client is remarkable, and it's free as well.
InfoWorld contributing editor Randall C. Kennedy wrote up three streaming application virtualization solutions, two of which are free to those who meet the criteria. Symantec's SVS Pro 2.1 is free for non-commercial use, while Microsoft's Softgrid 4.2 is free if you're enrolled in the vendor's Software Assurance Program. Softgrid is also available to Microsoft Developer Network subscribers. This strains the definition of "free" a little, but IT likely meets one criteria or the other.
Mike Heck's roundup of content management systems has a dandy punchline: They're all free, they're all open source and all of them rate 8.3 or better on InfoWorld Test Center's 10 point scale.
Lastly, I've been swimming in the deep end of OpenSolaris 10, a real UNIX with commercial development tools (Sun Studio 12). These are free with no strings attached. Installation and use aren't exactly a walk in the park, but it's stable and supported, definitely not the Solaris you remember.
Posted by Tom Yager on October 11, 2007 03:28 PM
October 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Apple, SUN and virtualization
Apple, SUN and virtualization
As improbable as it may seem those apparently unrelated topics have so much in common. Please read on to find out.
More SPARCs from that SUN
Whatever your preference, rack-mounted or blade architecture, SUN has some news for you, if you are shopping for new servers.
The roaring of these three new Niagara powered machines from SUN has not escaped Tom Yager who does a preliminary exploration of their features in his column.
Freedom Pac Could be one of the entrées in the Capitol Hill cafeteria menu, (do you want Freedom Fries with that?). MojoPac Freedom is instead one of the latest news from RingCube. In fact, the company has just announced this free appetizer for its desktop virtualization suite, explains David Marshall in his podcast
USB is an added bonus to that podcast. What has USB to do with all this? Sorry, you'll have to listen to what David has to say, but here is a clue: Think USB 3.0.
How can I virtualize thee? Hunted by a Leopard to be released at the end of the month, Tom Yager find himself running out of physical machines. To complicate things, in Appleland a virtual machine is not a legitimate cage for that beast. Will Tom cave in and add one more power sucking, fan blowing, noise producing box to his collection? The answer is here.
Posted by Mario Apicella on October 10, 2007 10:24 AM
October 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: A Great Day for Blogs
The weather can't quite seem to decide whether it's Summer or Fall, but no such indecision wracks the ranks of InfoWorld bloggers and columnists. It's solid information and strong opinion all around as we look at the issues and technologies that you need for winning I.T.
Virtually Sustainable: If you weren't able to make it to InfoWorld's Virtualization Forum in New York, Ted Samson gives you a chance to place catch-up in Sustainable IT. Ted has posted a set of interviews with professionals who were on the Green Datacenter panel. You can listen as Lewis Curtis interviews Ted on green information processing. Be sure to follow the other links in the post for an additional audio interview and an exciting video interview on the technologies and practices that will keep your data center green.
Cyber Crimes and Political Maneuvers: If you haven't started thinking about the upcoming presidential primaries in terms of their impact on your network's security, well it's time you started. In the Zero Day blog, Matt Hines has details on cyber security and real-world politics. Let's see Chris Matthews try to get ahead of the Zero Day crew on this issue...
Open Source, Profitable Business: If your open-source software supplier can't stay in business, it's going to be hard for them to offer the kind of support your organization needs. As we pass through the earnings report season, Brad Shimmin looks at business models that can serve the open source community well. Companies spend a lot of time doing due diligence on their suppliers: this primer could help a lot of firms who want to remain in the open source market, or make sure that their open source partners are in business for the long run.
Posted by Curt Franklin on October 9, 2007 04:36 PM
October 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Content management, the open-source way
CMS at an enticing price: free: Discontent with the state of your companies content? If, indeed, your data and documents are in disarray, a CMS (content management system) might warrant consideration -- and there's no reason open-source options should be on your list. That's a key take-away from Contributing Editor Mike Heck's round-up of five (yes, five!) open-source CMSes from Alfresco, DotNetNuke, Drupal, Joomla, and Plone. All fared well, but only one earned a score of Excellent. Click on to find out which.
DreamScene still a nightmare: Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy revisits DreamScene, Microsoft Vista's "motion desktop" technology. When he first looked at it months ago, he declared it a huge resource hog, but critics countered that it was in beta. Well, it's now hit RTM status, and lo, Kennedy reports, it's still a huge resource piggy. Oink.
10 reasons sites get hacked: If you've ever had your Web site hacked and lamented, "Why me?", you might find your answer here. Part of the the problem, according to the experts, is that security is too often viewed as an after-thought when developers are building Web apps. Don't let your site become a statistic. Check out the list.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 8, 2007 11:51 AM
October 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Green storage, converged storage, and rich enterprise apps
Rotating green matter?: So while AMD and Intel have been shouting in our ear about how they are putting money in our pockets by making their processors more power efficient, storage vendors have been eerily silent. Now they're starting to get the green religion too. Green storage starts with management tools like thin provisioning (hey look, we were green already!) but is moving toward power management technologies like MAID (massive arrays of idle disk) and Hitachi Data Systems' PSSS (Power Savings Storage Service). Ted Samson outlines these developments in yesterday's Sustainable IT. And don't miss his video interview on the subject with HDS CTO Hu Yoshida.
Deja vu all over again: In his October 1 blog post, "All the Wood Behind One Arrow," Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz announced that Sun would be combining its Storage and Server product teams to "focus on the evolution and convergence of computing." Does that portend a datacenter without arrays? Mario Apicella says grab a camera and take some souvenir photos, because stand-alone storage has booked an appointment for a makeover.
Server-side mashups: For "rich enterprise application" frameworks JackBe Presto and Nexaweb Enterprise Web 2.0 Suite, rich AJAX clients (and in the case of Nexaweb, also Java clients) live to be windows into back-end data resources. These toolkits shine in exposing server-side resources as data services, and creating business dashboards and other clients for interacting with data. See Peter Wayner's review, "Refining the art of enterprise Web apps."
Posted by Doug Dineley on October 5, 2007 09:38 AM
October 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: California's vision for an accessible Web, Microsoft's blunted run at Flash
Opening the Web to everyone: The state of California has taken the long overdue step of enforcing Web site accessibility requirements. Developers, dev tool vendors, content creators and on-line advertisers should be making accessibility a priority if for no other reason than the substantial market they're turning away. Some software companies, like Apple and Adobe, get it. Apple added support for captions to QuickTime, and Adobe's Web authoring tools check for accessibility standards adherence. Perhaps this judicial nudge will make accessibility core of the next-generation Web.
Sorry, Microsoft, but Flash already has its AIR apparent: Martin Heller's review of Microsoft Silverlight details Microsoft's .net-based rich Web client framework. It's packaged as a rather fat native code plug-in for Windows and OS X browsers. Looked at in a vacuum, Silverlight is nice, and it demos smashingly well, but Microsoft is bringing a plug-in and unfamiliar tools to developers and content creators, while Adobe is expanding its Flash ecosystem with its own Internet run-time framework, AIR. The cross-platform ubiquity of Flash, a worldwide community of skilled developers, a well-established toolsuite and legitimate (read that: beyond lip service) engagement in open source will net Adobe the crown in rich Web apps when AIR debuts in Q1 '08. If Silverlight amounts to little more than a wedge that carries Windows Media Player and .net+HTML to Intel-based Macs, that's a win for Microsoft and for Mac users. But there's no need to hope for a Flash killer; Flash just needs to be opened and evolved. Adobe's on that.
Here's a bit of parting-shot trivia for non-developers: What's Adobe's little-acknowledged high card in the rich Web app game? JavaScript.
Posted by Tom Yager on October 4, 2007 12:52 PM
October 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: The future of digital media and math tricks
The future of digital media and math tricks
Looking back from year 2107 - In this week "Ahead of the Curve" Tom Yager pauses to imagine what our legacy of digital images will look like 100 years from now, and what he sees is not a pretty sight. Will we be remembered as the generation that loved quantity more than quality? Will our collections of digital media be assimilated to other plastic debris littering out planet? Will our grandchildren even be able to explore their content? Tom answers are here
Pick a number, any number.. Are you good with math? Perhaps more important, can you quickly make the right decision when facing uncertain data? Well to find out take a look at Savio Rodriguez post in Open Sources. Now, where is that pill for my headache?
Posted by Mario Apicella on October 3, 2007 08:12 AM
October 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Silverlight Shines
It's a great day in the Test Center, with a review on a top web app development system, and looks at sustainable reading and hacker tools.
Coding by Silverlight: The race is on for web-application development framework, with Ajax, Flash, Curl, Ruby, and others all muscling and edging one another for attention. Microsoft has thrown Silverlight into the mix, and Martin Heller finds a lot to like in the upstart development language. Between a well thought-out development environment and a clear division between tasks for designers and programmers, Martin thinks that Silverlight can offer a lot to new web app developers, especially if they've already committed to Microsoft Visual Studio.
Sustainable Reading: Some folks cast a skeptical glance at any capitalist involvement with "Green" issues, but Ted Samson looks at a business publication and finds encouragement in corporations that take a serious look at sustainable operations. When top management sees sustainability in terms of dollars and cents, that's when change can truly start in the enterprise.
Learning the Hacker Way: There's no reason that hackers should have all the cool tools, and Roger Grimes points out two of the best in his latest column. The Security Adviser thinks you should know how hackers think and how they work -- and these tools will give you a leg up on each of those goals.
Posted by Curt Franklin on October 2, 2007 10:30 AM
September 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Don't pass the buck
Does a brake shop say that you don't need new brakes? Architectural device from vendors turns out to be risky business, as David Linthicum points out in his latest blog on Vendor Designed Architecture. Just the phrase makes me shudder. It's comfy, David points out, to pass the buck to vendors who are only too happy to solve your problems for you. It's also expensive, and big surprise, vendors don't always have your business interests in mind when they lend a hand. I say, this is what happens when you hire inexperienced IT staff or "streamline" technical management. Lousy decisions based on vendor guidance end up costing more than the salary for an employee paid to make good decisions.
Uncle Sam is enforcing carbon limits. Uncle Sam Walton, that is. Sustainable IT blogger Ted Samson describes a Wal-Mart initiative to push environmental responsibility down to its suppliers. Wal-Mart, the 800-pound gorilla of retailing with a lackluster pedigree of leadership in matters related to the public good, put key suppliers on notice that it's tallying and disclosing their environmental impact. When America's go-to outlet for $6 DVDs and Dustbusters steps up to do what the politically hamstrung EPA won't do, it sets an example for all corporations: What evil your suppliers and subcontractors do is your responsibility.
You just can't refuse those automatic Windows updates. Literally. Automatic software updates are grand, but vendors are getting sloppy about disclosing what's in them. Apple is burying fresh firmware for iPhone inside iTunes updates, but Microsoft does Apple one better with its program to ship "silent updates" for Windows to users who have turned automatic updates off. In a story from sister publication Computerworld, we learn that these secret updates block efforts to recover Windows XP client systems using Microsoft's own mechanism of non-destructive reinstallation. Thanks, guys. Perhaps IT needs to consult with pirates about tattletale firewalls that thwart systems' efforts to phone home without permission. Short of this, don't let updates come to you. Go get them, and find out what's in them.
Posted by Tom Yager on September 27, 2007 11:03 AM
September 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: What not to do with backups - Got Macs?
Label me moron? I can't resist taking a shot at the latest "Off The Record" story where the anonymous (keep it that way, pal) writer narrates of a trouble with Monday backups. What put me off is not as much that person using scotch tape to keep tape labels in place, although that warranted the "Label me moron" award from one of the comments.
What calls for immediate expulsion from the IT community, is that this individual responds to a tape full message during a Monday backup starting to delete files. Now that's more than moronic, that's dangerous behavior, like playing Russian roulette with company data, that apparently went on for a year or so. Read the full story and feel free to comment.
Got Macs? For you Mac lovers out there David Marshall has some interesting news on how to use desktop virtualizatiom to reach those "can't do without" Linux or Windows apps.
If more Mac-ego boost is Mac-needed, Tom Yager is unveiling another episode of his friend's (and his own) journey toward Mac-perfection. Well, sort of an ego boost, considering that the sub-title is: "Mac Sense and Nonsense", nevertheless always informative and entertaining.
Posted by Mario Apicella on September 26, 2007 08:48 AM
September 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtually Productive
The wheels on the I.T. model go round and round, and they're turning back around to centrally-managed, fully-hosted environments. Manageability, security, and economics all play into the push for a re-imagined virtual data center.
Virtual Desktops: Randall Kennedy has looked at three of the latest desktop as a service offerings and finds that we're farther down the road to a virtual Shangri-la than you might think. The three products he tested, from Microsoft, Symantec, and Thinstall, are aimed at an enterprise rather than a service provider, but each could provide a starting point if you're ready to begin stepping into a virtual future.
VMWare Extended: Speaking of virtualization, David Marshall has posted a new podcast on Veeam and Vizioncore, two products that add to VMWare's already impressive virtual server capabilities.
Demand Meets Capacity: Finally Ted Samson addressed a serious economic question in Sustainable IT: if processors keep adding cores, won't customers buy fewer processors? The answer is no--customers will find ways to use as much processing power as the chip manufacturers can provide. That simple (and not surprising) fact is a bit reason why providing that processing power in as ecologically-friendly packaging as possible makes sense to everyone's bottom line.
Posted by Curt Franklin on September 25, 2007 11:58 AM
September 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Let the virtualization begin
Virtualization and the City: Greetings from New York! Wish you were here -- especially if you're organization is contemplating adopting virtualization to get more bang from your servers and platforms. But if you weren't able to make it out here, fear not: We've got plenty of coverage on InfoWorld.com, including five case studies plus a spiffy round up of virtual desktop solutions.
What's your network security IQ? School's in session across the country. You may not be a student, but that doesn't mean you can't test your knowledge on weighty subjects such as, oh, network security. So put your books under your desk and give our Network Security IQ Test a try. No No. 2 pencils required. If you're hungry for another challenge when you're done, give our Geek IQ Test a go.
Know thy carbon footprint: As InfoWorld's "go-to green guy," I was interested to learn about Sun's effort to help organizations measure their greenhouse gas emissions. Today the company has launched an online community called OpenEco.org where companies will find tools for measuring and tracking their GHG emissions, as well as ways to compare their emissions to those of other companies. There's also a forum component through which participants can swap ideas.
Posted by Ted Samson on September 24, 2007 05:01 AM
September 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
TC Tracker: Lights on (we hope) on data protection
Progress with data protection
Mike Heck takes for a ride Vontu version 7 and finds significant improvements over previous versions. If the name Vontu doesn't ring a bell, think of a modular suite of applications to help corporations preventing disclosure of sensitive data. Locking the door that lets data flow to external devices is a feature still to come, but
Vontu 7 is a near-total solution for guarding confidential customer and company information, Mike says.
Someone didn't get the memo Seems to be the only logical explanation for some disturbing data points reported by our Ted Samson in the latest Sustainable IT. Would you believe that many companies are only six months away from exhausting the resources of their data center? Well these are the smart ones, others ran into a wall without any anticipation. Chilling report, but not to miss.
Posted by Mario Apicella on September 20, 2007 11:49 AM
September 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Keeping it Green
The Green Scene: Yesterday, the Daily pointed you to 7 Reasons Your Software is So Slow. Proving that we read our own stuff, Ted Samson has looked at the environmental impact of slow apps in his Sustainable IT column. The longer we're at this business of information processes, the harder it becomes to justify putting up with poor performance from any process or system.
Bad Guys Get Better: It would be really nice if the information thieves were really stupid, or just very bad at what they do. Unfortunately, some of them are quite good, and they're changing malware behavior to make their exploits more effective. Matt Hines takes an in-depth look at one of the new trends over in the Zero Day security blog.
More App News: IBM is taking aim at Microsoft Office with Lotus Symphony products -- a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program designed to compete with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint at a price point that will be pretty difficult to under-cut. Savio Rodrigues looks at the possible implications of the move in Open Sources.
Posted by Curt Franklin on September 18, 2007 11:58 AM
September 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: All aboard the Adaptec SAN that can
Small format, big features: Senior Test Center Analyst Mario Apicella got yet another exclusive look at a shnazzy, features-packed pieces of entry-level storage hardware, this time Adaptec's Snap Server 720i. The machine "combines good administration tools, easy iSCSI connectivity, tight integration with Windows, a mirroring capability that larger arrays will envy, and scalability that should match even the fastest growing repositories," writes Mario.
7 reasons your software is slow: If you're like me, you don't like to wait, and high on my list of pet peeves is waiting for a slow application to respond so I can get on with my work. But why, oh why, are so many apps out there such slow performers? Contributor Neil McCallister delivers not one but seven reasons, ranging from code bloat to security sapping system performance.
Posted by Ted Samson on September 17, 2007 11:57 AM
September 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Barcelona seems nice, this time of year...
Weather in Barcelona: Turns out the climate in Barcelona is pretty much the same as that in Hammer's Rev F, according to AMD. Ted Samson has taken a close look at Barcelona from an energy perspective, and the results are exciting if you want top performance that won't lead to immediate ice-cap melting. In further Barcelona news, Tom Yager has been comparing the AMD and Intel processors, and he's reaching conclusions that will matter to you if new servers are in your future.
Building a better Internet: There's a lot to like about the Internet as it stands: information is widely available, you can work from pretty much anywhere, and it's become much, much easier to follow your favorite sports team. With all that, there are still some things that could be better, and most of them have to do with security. Roger Grimes has been thinking about the needs of the next Internet, and he has ideas that could make things much better--and that you could use today to make significant parts of your network applications more secure.
Virtual systems, real event: Our third Virtualization Executive Forum is coming to New York City on September 24 and 25, and this one will be the broadest and deepest yet. Our theme is, "Mastering virtualization from the datacenter to the desktop," and we're taking it seriously. We'll have sterling keynotes from Burton Group analyst Chris Wolf and USi CTO Toby Ford, who is pushing virtualization as far as it can go. We've got more case studies than ever before -- three cases studies apiece to be presented in sessions on server virtualization, desktop virtualization, application virtualization, storage virtualization, and file system virtualization. And Deep Ender Paul Venezia's technical track on server virtualization is back, with sessions on planning, p2V migration, monitoring and management, and scaling and DR. We're aiming to make the tech track as interactive as possible; feed the discussion, and get Paul's panels of experts working on your problem by submitting it to State Your Case. See you in New York!
Posted by Doug Dineley on September 14, 2007 08:52 AM
September 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Taking the north bridge to Redmond
Project Server 2007: Installing it is a project in itself. The Brian Chee - Oliver Rist duo tackles quite a big job with the review of Microsoft Project Server 2007.
If you ever thought that the folks in Redmond sometimes over-analyze and over-program their solutions, this a review you shouldn't miss. Be sure to allow plenty of time, because three pages were barely enough for our duo to start scratching the surface of this software behemoth and to show how it fits in the Microsoft software galaxy.
What's in your socket? If what processors keep your servers running is the last of your concerns, this week's Ahead of the Curve is not for you. Why would you want to know what makes the latest Intel CPU more power efficient? Why should you be interested in learning why north bridge congestions are bad news? Well, read Tom Yager's column for answers, and find out WHY you should be concerned.
Posted by Mario Apicella on September 12, 2007 08:45 AM
September 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Speedy Storage
Partnerships, confusing acronyms (or, at least, confusing usage), and high-speed disk arrays get the day started here in the InfoWorld Test Center.
Entry-level Speed: If you've been looking for a reason to get into the network-attached storage game, NetApp may have the perfect reason to jump. Mario Apicella looks at the new FAS2020 and FAS2050 and finds them high-performance kings of entry-level NAS, with prices that might leave your CIO with a big gulp at the outset. If speed and management matter, though, the gulp will go away as the performance of the boxes wins fans from users who have to deal with power-hungry applications.
Partnerships from...: Over in Open Sources, Brad Shimmin is talking about the wild and wonderful world of technology alliances in the open source universe. He says we should get used to friends and enemies ending up in strategic alliances--and that it all might just be good for us.
SOA far, so Microsoft: Dave Rosenberg has been studying the latest Microsoft press release on SOA, and says that an acronym is not a technology--at least, when it comes to closed technology versus architectural advantage.
Posted by Curt Franklin on September 11, 2007 09:42 AM
September 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Visiting Barcelona
AMD's quad squad: After months of anticipation and delays, AMD has finally unveiled Barcelona, its innovative quad-core processor. Just what will Barcelona mean for the enterprise? Will it be worth the wait? Over the next week (and beyond), InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager will share his insights based on the information on which he's been sitting for months, as well as his hands-on experience with the chip.
It's a storage world after all: Senior Test Center Analyst Mario Apicella has been busy of late putting some storage gear through its paces. First, he got an exclusive look at NetApp's newly unveiled crown prince of entry-level storage arrays, the FAS2020. He finds to be an impressively high-capacity, high-performance solution, boasting a "rich portfolio of applications, rock-solid reliability, plenty of bandwidth to connect FC and Ethernet networks, and an abundance of management tools."
Second, Mario got to kick the tires on Dell's MD3000i iSCSI array, which he says "promises more deployment flexibility and easier sharing across multiple servers than the MD3000, its direct-attached sibling." Though hindered by the moment by lack of available SATA drives, it's a strong competitor, delivering good management and reliability.
Posted by Ted Samson on September 10, 2007 02:21 PM
September 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: One Giant Leap for Laptop Security
High Performance High Security: Mario Apicella has looked under the hood of new drives from Hitachi and Seagate, and he likes what he sees. If you're looking for easy configuration and management, Seagate's the way to go: if top performance and BIOS config screens make your list of favorite things, then Hitachi has a drive for you. Either way, the security of full-disk encryption comes without a noticeable performance penalty, making the drives serious contenders for "must-have" status in new laptops.
Extreme Phones, Head to Head: Tom Yager is up to his, well, ankles in very small phones with very big capabilities. In part one of his multi-part review, Tom compares the Blackberry 8800 to the Nokia E61i and finds to very different solutions to the problems of enterprise mobile computing. Look for additional hard-working phones to pass under Tom's microscope in the coming weeks.
Sifting the Network: Signacert's ETS does several things, and all of them well. It compares your application files to the vendor's originals, and current versions of files to earlier copies, all in the service of making sure no one has been playing fast and loose with the data stored on your system. Roger Grimes has been running the Signacert through its paces, and he has come back with good news--the ETS works, and works well, though you have to keep a couple of critical limitations in mind if you want to start the cert process in your own network.
Posted by Curt Franklin on September 4, 2007 10:56 AM
August 31, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Porn sites aren't the only Internet danger zones
Malicious Web: Not just porn sites: The New Zealand Honeynet Project finds porn-related Web servers tend to serve up the most malicious code, there's plenty of other site types of sites out there that are just as nearly as dangerous. That's just one of seven interesting security nuggets that Roger Grimes has extracted from the study. Read more in his Security Adviser column.
Happy birthday, Aperi! Storage Insider Mario Apicella blows out a celebratory candle in honor of open-source storage management project Aperi turn one (give or take a month). The project hasn't garnered much attention, Mario notes, but it should, because it's come a long way. And lo, it's a runtime version is available for download now. Read more here.
AMD vs. Intel, Round III: Independent consulting firm Neal Nelson and Associates continues its series of raw power-performance tests between the AMD Opeteron and Intel Xeon. Once again, AMD demonstrates an overall edge, but it's not cut and dry. For certain configurations and at certain load levels, the Intel Xeon based server was 2.4 to 11.7 percent more power efficient while in other cases the AMD Opteron based server was 9.2 to 23.1 percent more power efficient. The more memory on the machine, the better the Opteron fared.
Posted by Ted Samson on August 31, 2007 02:17 PM
August 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Mobile drive encryption goes native
Drives you can afford to lose: The runaway leading cause of slips listed in the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's sobering chronology of data breaches is the lost or stolen laptop. New mobile drives from Hitachi and Seagate -- quipped with hardware-based, full-disk encryption -- aim to keep laptop data under wraps, unless you're Paris Hilton and your password is Tinkerbell. Check out the results of Mario Apicella's test drive in today's review.
Gadgets gone green: Bamboo monitors, keyboards, and laptops are good-looking and eco-friendly. Interestingly, they are not made of wood. Find the answer to this conundrum, and a neat survey of other green gadgetry (including a manual cell phone charger, a solar panel jacket, and AA batteries you can recharge by plugging directly into a USB slot) in Ted Samson's "Green gadget guide for geeks".
What's wrong with Web 2.0? In a nutshell, the problem is that too many Web businesses don't "understand the huge difference between a site and an application," notes Tom Yager in yesterday's Ahead of the Curve, "Never send an HTML hacker to do a developer's job".
Posted by Doug Dineley on August 30, 2007 11:16 AM
August 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: The zen of Web apps and Mac OS X
Have you been thinking to get yourself a Mac for a long time and never did? Then don't miss this week Enterprise Windows where Oliver Rist asks (with his well known subtlety): "Does Mac OS X suck?". Oliver's column is the closest you can get to walking the Apple road yourself, and may be you will after reading it.
Is the Web treating you well? Or more to the point, are Web applications treating you well? Moving an application from the quiet waters of a corporate network to the stormy weather of the Net takes more than being technically savvy, warns Tom Yager in this week's "Ahead of the Curve". In his column Tom explains why, and reveals what's the secret sauce to make good Web apps. A useful reading also for non-developers.
Posted by Mario Apicella on August 29, 2007 08:30 AM
August 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Safe Surfing
Everyone wants to be secure while using the Internet, but tucking your enterprise into the warm, comfy blanket of safe surfing can be, at best, a significant challenge. James Borck looked at the Clearswift MIMEsweeper Web Appliance ENW10 and says that it does a job that's both reliable and broad, protecting web surfing, e-mail, IM, and ftp traffic from the various nasties that we've all come to know and loathe. It's not a perfect tool, with HTTPS contents being among the packets that remain hidden to its probing, but it could be the sort of tool that makes on-line life a bit safer and happier for your enterprise.
If your on-line duties include blogging, you'll want to check out Geeks in Paradise, where Brian Chee has been discovering the kinks, hiccups, and promise in Microsoft LiveWriter 64. Brian's managed to get it working (with significant support from Microsoft), and likes the way it helps get more rich-media bloggy goodness up and on the web.
Posted by Curt Franklin on August 28, 2007 08:46 AM
August 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Savoring MS InfoPath and Forms 2007
Another helping of MS servers: Contributors Oliver Rist and Brian Chee continue dishing up their meaty assessments of Microsoft's newest crop of servers. (So far, they've looked at SharePoint 2007 and Groove 2007.) This week, they bite into InfoPath 2007 and Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 and discover that, combined, they make for a delectable pairing for processing forms: "From content to display capabilities, the duo handles it all and adds security and business intelligence into the mix to boot."
iPhone unlocked: As you may have gleaned from his review of the iPhone, Chief Technologist Tom Yager is no fan of the device, in part because Apple is limiting you to one service provider, AT&T, to use it. While a resourceful teen has come up with a way to bypass that restriction (using a soldering iron), and an Australian company is offering to sell you a Turbo Sim, Yager has an alternative approach: "Buy a real phone."
Posted by Ted Samson on August 27, 2007 11:30 AM
August 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Lotus Notes is new again
Notes lives! If you're still thinking of Lotus Notes as a giant, awkward, and ornery beast, or as a decrepit desktop version of the Winchester Mystery House, look again. Mike Heck previews the modernly modular and mashup-friendly Lotus Notes and Domino 8, with related news analysis by Ephraim Schwarz.
Chillin' at the HP Datacenter: How cool is your datacenter? Odds are it's much cooler than the one at HP Labs in Palo Alto -- which is a sign that it's much less efficient. Sustainable IT blogger and green guy Ted Samson reports on his visit with HP Fellow Chandrakant Patel, who is working with a team of researchers to find more effective ways to cool entire datacenters, individual server racks, and specific server components. Don't miss the video!
Does Vista still suck? In yesterday's Enterprise Windows column, Oliver Rist explores some common Vista gripes and returns a verdict: Vista doesn't suck, so get over it.
Don't blame us. Just add your comments to the long long list.
Posted by Doug Dineley on August 23, 2007 12:41 PM
August 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Microsoft's Groove is a bit off
Not feelin' so Groove-y: Senior Contributors Oliver Rist and Brian Chee are tackling Microsoft server after server, and the most recent project on their plate: Groove Server. "For companies with more than 100 seats that really want to exploit Groove client, Office Groove Server is a must-have," conclude Rist and Chee. "The security and data retention capabilities alone make it worth the cost and effort -- probably." However, getting it up and running is quite the challenge, plus pricing is vague. But when it's all said and done, it's worth the effort.
I've seen the future, and it's ...: Subscription-based virtualized apps? Dynamic, virtual server farms? Multi-threaded chip cores? InfoWorld's bloggers and analysts have whipped out their crystal balls to predict the Next Big Things under 15 different technology umbrellas, from databases to middleware to security to open source.
Honeyd gets sweetened: Security guru Roger A. Grimes reports that Jesper Jurcenoks, co-founder of netVigilance, has released an updated version of Honeyd for Windows. Honeyd, Grimes says, "is one of the best virtual honeypot software programs in existence."
Posted by Ted Samson on August 20, 2007 10:02 AM
August 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
OK, so it's not particularly cool to blog and point to your own article, but that's the way the cookie crumbles on this fine Friday in August, so bear with me...
If you're like most of us, cell phone reception has moved far beyond "Can you hear me now?" to a matter of serious business need and service-level requirement. If you haven't been blessed by geography and cell-tower placement, then a little boost can be just what the doctor ordered for your RF signal strength woes. The Spotwave Z1900 can provide just the sort of boost you need and the price is right, so take a look at my review to see if a Z1900 can solve your cell reception problems.
Next, take a look at Roger Grimes' Security Adviser, where he talks about applications that just won't go away. No, it's not malware he's talking about, but legitimate apps that leave older versions on your system after updates--older versions that just sit there, holding the door open for pirates and thieves to exploit vulnerabilities you thought you'd taken care of.
Finally, with air conditioners humming all over our fair land, it's a good time to read Ted Samson's Sustainable IT and learn how the right networking architectures and technologies aren't just good for business--they're good for the planet.
Have a good weekend and head back to the Test Center on Monday...there's a big week ahead.
Posted by Curt Franklin on August 17, 2007 04:29 PM
August 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Beware the power of Office SharePoint Server
With great power ...: Senior Contributors Oliver Rist and Brian Chee are boldly tackling all five of Microsoft's new Office servers, and this week, they're sharing their experience with SharePoint 2007. The duo is blown away by the amazing new potential the offering yields for Office users. But the server is just so packed with power, Chee and Rist caution admins "to be careful when planning architecture and hardware distribution as well as when and in what order they’ll roll out certain features."
Die, Access, die, revisited: Over in the Database Underground, Sean McCown reiterates his call for the death of Microsoft Access, a proposal he made last week that generated quite a bit of controversy. He's sticking to his guns on the subject, though, and goes to great lengths to explain why: "Why give users another avenue to create a data store that's ill-conceived and basically unmanaged? From my perspective it just doesn't make sense. ... [T]here's no such thing as trivial data. You either need it or you don't."
What's your Geek IQ? School may not be in session, but we're springing a pop quiz on your anyway. Oliver Rist has come up with 20 questions aimed at taxing your technical intellect. Will you prove yourself the top dog at Geek Summer Camp?
Posted by Ted Samson on August 13, 2007 11:32 AM
August 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Daily: Elluminate the collaboration possibilities
Dive into Elluminate Live: Test Center Contributor Mike Heck has dabbled in many a Web-conferencing tool for InfoWorld, so when he finds something he considers innovative, it's worth noting. In this case, it's Version 8 of Elluminate Live. "The live, interactive environment with high-quality video improves the meeting and learner experience," Mike observes. Plus it's platform agnostic and boast some nifty features such as breakout rooms.
RocketStream fuels file transfers: Thanks to high-speed Internet, I think we've all become less and less patient waiting for pages to load or files to up- or download. InfoWorld Senior Analyst Mario Apicella has discovered a potential cure for slow file transfers between far-flung locations: RocketStream, a suite "built around the company's proprietary PDP (Parallel Delivery Protocol), which harvests the best characteristics of TCP and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and adds features such as on-the-fly data encryption and compression."
Reaching into Black Hat: Security wizard Roger Grimes today is sharing some take-aways from the Black Hat conference. Among them: Hacking Macs is easy -- though don't blame Grimes for that tidbit; it's from Mac enthusiast and security researcher, Dr. Charles Miller. Roger also discovered a tool for cloning RFID cards, prompted the warning that "If you use 125KHz proximity cards, your doors are highly insecure!"
Posted by Ted Samson on August 10, 2007 11:43 AM
August 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Blogs and More Blogs
When test center analysts and editors aren't busy writing reviews, what are they doing? Blogging! There's lots of bloggy goodness today, with information that can make life in your data center more productive, more efficient, and more interesting.
First, Geeks in Paradise continues to left the curtain and show what's been going on behind the "Pimp My Data Center" series. Brian's insight is good because it's so easy to forget about all the physical infrastructure that has to be changed whenever major upgrades come to the data center.
Next Sustainable IT looks at the difference between IT and politics, and where IT professionals (and their vendors) can most profitably spend their time. Ted points out that time spent lobbying congress is time that isn't being spent developing and encouraging best practices in the industry. It's not that each isn't important: the real question is where an industry group should focus its time and efforts.
Finally, Martin Heller looks at how to set up Microsoft tools for Silverlight development work in the Strategic Developer. As with virtually all development environments, how you set up your systems will determine just how productive you can be, and Martin's made some interesting discoveries in that will make an enormous difference if Silverlight is part of your team's world.
Posted by Curt Franklin on August 9, 2007 01:40 PM
August 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: graphics, violence and eye-candies
If developing Web apps interests you don't miss Martin Heller taking a shot at InfiView, an Ajax graphics development tool from MB Technologies that’s built with and complements the company’s own Bindows.
Martin Heller explains how InfiView can produce some powerful charts but our reviewer is put off by its rarefied set of tools and calls for more extensive documentation.
At InfoWorld we do not advocate nor condone violence but Sean McCown may have a point with his calls to arms against Microsoft Access, a database system still present when he last checked Office 2007.
Access is not free, is not scalable and is not very reliable, so why keep it, Sean says. What’s the possible alternative to Access? Read what Sean proposes in Database Underground
Care to have an update on how Apple plans for world domination are progressing? Want to learn how following an iPod can lead to iLife and iWork? Perhaps interested to learn why a 20-inch laptop may cost less than a 17-inch? For this and more do not miss Tom Yager’s latest Ahead of the Curve.
Posted by Mario Apicella on August 8, 2007 08:12 AM
August 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Early August is an interesting time of year. In much of the country (Florida, for instance) Summer is at its height. Families are taking last-minute vacations and stores are beginning to run their "back to school" sales. During the next three weeks, things start settling back into what passes for normal most of the time, and people will spend more time thinking about work and less time thinking about SPF. Here at the Test Center we're always thinking about work...
...and Martin Heller's spent some time on CURL, a platform for developing and deploying serious Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Martin says that CURL makes it relatviely easy to get something very good up and running--perhaps the free personal version should find its way into your back to school shopping list (whether or not you're a student).
As RIAs start up, major security conferences wind down, and Mike Barton has a wrap-up from DefCon. You'll be seeing more from DefCon later this week in other blogs, but the general feeling seems to be that the latest in hot products are making life easier for hackers--just the sort of news we need on a lazy Summer day.
Posted by Curt Franklin on August 7, 2007 01:58 PM
August 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: BRMS wars, mainframe futures, and encryption caveats
BRMS Pushmi-Pullyu: Doctor Doolittle's two-headed llama has nothing on ILOG's JRules, a product that is moving forward and backward at the same time. JRules 5.0, which James Owen reviewed in June 2005, was a silky combination of strong performance and rich rule tools, nabbing the highest score we've given to a rule management system. But by the time of Owen's evaluation of JRules 6.0 and top rival Blaze Advisor 6.1 in July 2006, JRules had not only lost ground in performance to the Fair Isaac engine, it stumbled on documentation at the same time it introduced more complexity in its tools and repository. With Version 6.5, reviewed last week by Stephen Nunez, JRules continues the flow of important new functionality -- now exposing decision logic as Web services -- but hasn't reversed the ebb in performance, documentation, or general ease of use.
Project Big Green: We already knew that the mainframe is harder to kill than Stephen Seagal. The mainframe's resource management and high availability features are unparalleled, and it has virtualization capabilities that the x86 can only dream about. Although "mainframe migration" stories sprout like weeds from enterprise IT publications, if you ask deep-pocketed IT shops (think IRS) that can actually afford what they really want, they'll tell you they're running their most important apps on Big Iron. Turns out there may be another reason to invest in the monoliths: IBM claims they are more energy efficient than little iron. See Ted Samson's report in Sustainable IT.
Encryption dos and dont's: Embarrassing data breaches are all the rage these days, and encryption seems like a sensible, no-brainer solution. But as Roger Grimes points out in Friday's column, file encryption is not as simple as lock and key. Encryptors can require a surprising amount of free disk overhead. Some files will refuse to be encrypted. Some encryption processes leave readable traces of file text behind. Before you take the plunge, check these considerations and caveats from the Security Advisor.
Posted by Doug Dineley on August 6, 2007 10:52 AM
July 31, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Digging a little deeper
Yesterday, Ted mention that we would be getting back on track here at the Test Center Daily, and so we shall. This time, we'll call your attention to a few more reviews that you might have missed while you were out following baseball or getting ready for the X-Games this Summer. First, let's talk about VoIP.
Polycom: Paul Venezia looks at Polycom's high-def VoIP offerings as played through an Asterisk IP PBX. The top-of-the-line Polycom phone isn't just about high definition sound--there are tons of features to look at, as well. If your needs run to conference room speaker phones, then his look at the Polycom SoundStation IP 4000 should be right up your alley.
If you'd rather not be tethered to a desk (or a conference room table), then you'll want to read to the end of the article, where Paul looks at the SpectraLink NetLink e340 WiFi VoIP handset.
Web Content Management: Managing your content on the web and in other media can be done with a single CMS, but to take advantage of each type of media you might be better of with separate systems to manage content. Mike Heck looked at the Tridion RF Web content management system, and found a lot to like.
Misc.: I'm new here, so take a moment to leave a comment and let me know the sort of thing you'd like to see in the Test Center Daily. This could be the start of a beautiful blogging friendship...
Posted by Curt Franklin on July 31, 2007 02:08 PM
July 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Bluespring wades into BPM waters
Diving into Bluespring: Businesss process management (BPM) can be downright complex, what with the applications, documents, employees, and customers you've got in the mix. I envision it as a determined juggler trying to keep a dozen balls (ranging from tennis to bowling), a couple of torches, and chainsaw aloft. Well, Senior Contributing Editor James R. Borck recently dipped his toe into version 4.5 of Bluespring Microsoft-centric BPM suite, and he found some might fine, easy-to-use tools for managing business processes. It's by no means a perfect solution, but it's a promising one well worth watching.
Riding the RadRails: Strategic Developer Martin Heller is revisting open source IDE RadRails, from Aptana. Having giving it a test run, he concludes that "it retains all the strengths that RadRails had in its previous incarnation, and is stronger still because of the JavaScript support provided by Aptana." But he'd love to hear what other developers out there think.
Back on track: As an aside, for those of you dedicated Test Center Tracker fans who've missed daily updates, we apologize for the lapse. But expect daily updates to resume, pointing you to the best product reviews and analyses we have to offer.
Posted by Ted Samson on July 30, 2007 09:34 AM
July 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: It's SAN-tastic
Midrange SANs master high-end features: Midsize companies in search of some bang for their SAN buck have cause for celebration: There are systems on the market that are packed with impressive capabilities, as well as potential to grow with your needs. Senior Contributing Editor Logan H. Harbaugh recently took a look at a trio of systems from Compellent, iQstor, and Xiotech. Impressively, all three reaped Excellent scores.
Virtualized Vista also a dud on Linux? Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy is taking Vista to task, saying the operating system runs slower than it should under virtualization. "As with Vista under Windows-based VMware, the Vista-on-Ubuntu VM was slower than it should have been. But whereas the former configuration was as much as 50% slower than its equivalent native performance delta indicated it should be, the Vista-on-Ubuntu scenario showed a 93% slower result."
Posted by Ted Samson on July 5, 2007 08:45 AM
June 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: BeyondTrust review and Tablus Content Sentinel screencast
Fresh from the Test Center: Think you have to allow everyone admin rights in order to keep those pesky installation requests from bogging down your inbox? Not a good idea, especially considering the security risks of extending installation rights to all employees. BeyondTrust Privilege Manager will lend a hand, overseeing group policy, rights and privileges, and security - and according to Roger Grimes' review, it's a good tool for "a Windows shop that insists on the insecure practice of granting users Administrator privileges so they can install software and make configuration changes."
Tablus Content Sentinel in action: You've read the review, now see the movie! Mike Heck follows up his review of Tablus Content Sentinel 3's data-protection prowess with a screencast demonstration of how all the pieces come together. Watch and learn.
What, me worry?: Oliver Rist is sick of the iPhone hype. Why the worry over its impact on the enterprise?, he wonders. After all, "the little white pill may be the biggest thing for summer beach-going entertainment since Danielle Steele, but for those of us managing a network, June 30 isn't going to be a heckuva lot different from the day before. 'Cause it's just a phone, see?" With that in mind, Oliver offers up five things that are more worry-worthy than Apple's latest foray in this week's Enterprise Windows column.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 29, 2007 10:12 AM
June 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Review of PGP NetShare, and iPhone countdown continues
Fresh from the Test Center: Encryption is the name of the game, and PGP's NetShare version 9.6 does a good job of locking down folders and files. It's user-friendly, letting the employees themselves create the authorized user lists for protected folders. The downside? It really needs to work in tandem with PGP's Universal Server to rise to its full potential, according to Roger Grimes' findings.
License to drive (development): The Open Sources blog takes on an interesting topic, spurred by a recent slashdot posting: Does GPL v3 alienate developers? Savio Rodrigues examines that question, as well as the effect GPL licensing may have on VC or other acquisitions. Take a look and weigh in with your own comments.
iPhone countdown continues: If you're already standing in line for an iPhone (or if you're paying someone to wait for you), or if you're waiting for the first rush to run its course before putting down the big bucks, check out Tom Yager's take on the iPhone rate plans and service questions, as well as distribution details, iPhone alternatives, and more on the Enterprise Mac blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 27, 2007 10:08 AM
June 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Cover your data assests
Fresh from the Test Center: Hidden throughout every nook and cranny of your corporate LAN is an assortment of sensitive information, like private data and intellectual property. Surely you want to protect it, but keeping track of it all is no easy task. InfoWorld Contributing Editor Mike Heck got a chance to review a solution to the problem from Tablus, called Content Sentinel. Using grid processing, the system "helps you gauge gaps in your data security by identifying content at risk on laptops, desktops, and servers. You can then take measures to protect this information before it moves or is misused."
The cost of data loss: Continuing with this week's theme off data protection, check out a rather harrowing data-recory tale in the most recent edition of Off the Record. Seems an unfortunate company practically found its backup data being held hostage by a rather incompetent and inflexible third party. Those of you attending our Enterprise Data Protection Executive Forum will hopefully learn some better techniques.
Posted by Ted Samson on June 26, 2007 08:32 AM
June 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: The trials and tribulations of keeping data safe
To dream the impossible dream: It's an ongoing nightmare for business management and IT staffs alike - how to protect enterprise data from misuse or theft, while still making it available to the applications and systems that need it? Throw in those fun disaster recovery and business continuity planning, and you've got quite a data-protection stew. There is hope, though - check out how these large companies got a handle on their own data vulnerabilities, and keep an eye on our Enterprise Data Protection Executive Forum (kicking off tomorrow in New York City) for presentations and news that might lend another helping hand.
Ruby on Rails update: Martin Heller lays out the (somewhat revised) landscape for the Rails IDE market, now that Aptana is overseeing RadRails. Several other IDEs, including Komodo, have also revved, so check out the Strategic Developer blog for the latest updates.
Video tours: Safari and Parallels 3.0: Apple's WWDC conference may have passed, but there's still lots to see (not to mention lots to double-check; Apple patched another Safari flaw today). Check out these two videos - courtesy of our sister pubs Macworld and PC World - that take a peek at the Safari browser and Parallels Desktop 3.0 for the Mac (the InfoWorld review of Parallels is here).
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 25, 2007 09:30 AM
June 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Full OS X 10.5 Leopard preview now online
Four parts, no waiting: Now that it's been leaked to the masses, check out what makes Leopard so interesting. Tom Yager's four-part developer's-eye preview covers the major pieces of OS X 10.5. Click here to read all about it: Part I (Xray and Core Animation); Part II (Xcode 3.0 and Objective-C 2.0); Part III (Cocoa and object-oriented frameworks); and Part IV (64-bit support).
Tortoise-speed Vista: Randall Kennedy is working on a virtualization review, and he's finding that Vista's complexity is becoming even more of a performance issue when it comes to virtualization. What's the cause? Kennedy has some theories, but still isn't sure. Do you have an idea? Post to the Enterprise Desktop blog and share your own theories.
Column round-up: Roger Grimes is still exploring the options for a second, more secure Internet; this week, he's examining the network protocol changes required to trace packets from origin to recipient. Inspired by New York City, David Margulius takes a look at the roots of innovation and infrastructure in this week's Enterprise Insight column. And Oliver Rist bemoans paperwork (especially when associated with reregistering a Ducati with the DMV) but likes System Center Capacity Planner (SCCP) 2007 Beta for creating planning paperwork on the fly.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 22, 2007 09:31 AM
June 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Benchmarks and a new blog
Doing the benchmark shuffle: Tom Yager found a kindred spirit in Microsoft's Greg Leake - he and his team are tasked with benchmarking Java application servers against .Net. After a tough grilling on his processes, Leake gets the Yager Seal of Approval for selecting a bnechmark that trod the straight and narrow - and resulted in a fair measurements. Read all the details in this week's Ahead of the Curve column.
A New York state of mind: Say hello to our newest blog, New York CTO. Written by Jon Williams, the CTO of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, the blog seeks to "assist great technologists become great managers, with (hopefully) significantly less pain than I went through. It's not hard (like writing a new operating system or learning a new programming language is hard), but it does require a different approach, a different point of view." Sound good? Read more of Jon's posts here.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 20, 2007 09:49 AM
June 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Get your storage in top business form
Data, data everywhere: If you're not making smart use of your storage resources, you could be in trouble. And we're not just talking about lost files or bad backups; nowadays, that also means compliance issues , quick-response data searches, and metrics, metrics, metrics. Is your storage network up for the challenge? Our feature will help you find out, as InfoWorld storage guru Mario Apicella analyzes out four technologies (data classification, continuous data protection, data deduplication, and tiered storage) that will be key to making sure your storage environment is business-aware. (And don't forget to take a look at the InfoWorld Enterprise Data Protection Executive Forum for more on securing all that valuable data you're storing.)
The 64-bit question: Martin Heller has been seeking a way to get a 32-bit app access to a 64-bit registry, and after lots of digging, he's found it. Now he's sharing the wealth over on the Strategic Developer blog - so you don't have to go through the same pain. Enjoy!
Video on the go: Because you never know when you'll need to see that sneezing panda, YouTube stealthily rolled out its mobile site over the weekend, says Stephanie Bruzzese on the Tech Treks blog. She's got a couple of points from the Gizmodo folks who tested it out - take a look.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 18, 2007 09:30 AM
June 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Leopard preview, part deux
Fresh from the Test Center: Apple's Leopard upgrades are extensive enough to warrant a second look. Part I of Tom Yager's preview looked at Xray and Core Animation; Part II heads over to the developer side with an examination of Xcode 3.0 and upgrades to -C 2.0 language. Read and enjoy as we wrap up our week of Mac-related reviews and WWDC coverage (but stay tuned - there's more to come!).
A quest for Quest's rationale: Sean McCown has been waiting for Quest to release LiteSpeed for Oracle for a long time - waiting for years, in fact. So when he heard that this product was headed for the garbage bin, he wasn't thrilled. Why deny users the chance for unified database backups across all their platforms? Was it the rumor of Oracle developing a similar product, or a lack of faith? Read Sean's take on the situation and post your own comments on the Database Underground blog.
A closer look at health care tech: InfoWorld Senior Contributing Editor David Margulius stirred up a bit of a maelstrom with his April Enterprise Insight column on Kaiser Permanente's digital healthcare movement and the apparently less-than-acceptable way the project was going. So David invited Kaiser Associate Executive Director Dr. Andrew Wiesenthal to weigh in on how things are going - and the good doctor agreed. Watch our four-part video interview to learn more about how Kaiser's project evolved, what went wrong, and what went right.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 15, 2007 09:04 AM
June 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Wrong number for iPhone?
iPhone hang-ups for developers: InfoWorlders Ephraim Schwartz and Tom Yager are noting today that developers appear less than enthused by Apple's pronouncement that they won't be able to create native apps for the device, because it runs a full Safari browser engine. "Of all the ways to write and package software, none is less suited to mobile use than a Web application," notes Tom.
Tuning in to Apple TV: In addition to busily writing about the iPhone and Leopard during this week's WWDC show, Tom Yager has also taken a peek at the Apple TV. "Apple TV combines superior ease of use and superb output quality," Tom finds. "Video and audio quality are very high, and the menu interface is easy and familiar, but only wide-screen monitors are supported."
Linspire and MS sign patent pact: Joining the ranks of Linux companies such as Novell and Xandros, Linspire has penned a deal with Microsoft to guarantee protection for its customers from future patent claims from Redmond. Microsoft recently claimed Linux and related open-source software violate 235 of its patents.
Posted by Ted Samson on June 14, 2007 07:59 AM
June 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: VMware Fusion beta shows promise
Fresh from the Test Center: For once, VMware is following in someone else's footsteps: Now that Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac is out, it's VMware's turn to address the Mac market. Paul Venezia says the Fusion Beta 4 isn't quite up to Parallels' level of host OS integration, but the interface layout is similar. However, VMware Fusion has the advantage of possible integration with other VMware products - will that give it an edge? Read the full beta review and find out more. Want to see Fusion in action? Here's a snappy little video (with music!) that gives you a peek.
Share and SharePoint alike: Document sharing, quick communications, easy updates... ah, collaboration. Yet Oliver Rist has his cranky pants on when it comes to Microsoft's heavy pushing of SharePoint. Despite Microsoft's claims that "team leaders don't need either to phone IT or be exceptionally Microsoft savvy" to handle SharePoint setup, Oliver thinks SharePoint is more complex and requires a good dose of geek to correctly navigate document libraries. Do you agree? Read this week's Enterprise Windows column and post a comment.
Where's the phone in iPhone?: Tom Yager is having a ball at this year's WWDC (despite a fried MacBook Pro battery), but there's one news item from the Apple conference that has him deep in thought: the lack of development options for the iPhone. If, as Steve Jobs says, the iPhone is a portable browser, will the focus on Web apps do it in?
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 13, 2007 09:30 AM
June 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: A developer's eye view of Leopard
Feature-spotting on Leopard: InfoWorld Chief Technologist and Mac enthusiast Tom Yager has his hands full of Apple-y deliciousness tthis week as he attends WWDC 2007. Not only did he deliver a "real-time" account of Steve Jobs's keynote; he's also shared his take on some of the innovative goodies in Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard) that will make developers very, very happy. "Leopard's new features will be taken up extremely rapidly by developers, extending the transformation of the Mac platform from the OS all the way up end-user applications," he predicts.
VMware releases Fusion Beta 4: IDG News Service reports taht VMware has made available the beta 4 version of Fusion, the company's rival to Parallels . Both are geared toward Mac users who want to run Windows as well. One of Fusion's key features is Unity, "whch allows for seamless transition from Mac to Windows applications. Icons for Windows applications will be displayed along with those of Mac applications in the dock at the bottom of the computer screen," Robert Mullins reports. Watch for a Test Center review of Fusion in the near future.
TCO showdown: Mac vs. PC: Rounding out this Apple-filled Test Center Tracker, Scott Finnie at Computerworld has written a very thoughtful piece analyzing the costs of PCs vs. the costs of Macs. His results are surprising, though not conclusive, given all the factors one can take into account: "What I have found in my research is that neither side has a lock on good value. If you start with Apple's relatively short list of SKUs ... and then look for comparable Windows machines, you'll find that Apple bests the competition in some ways and not in others, but the pricing, overall, is surprisingly on par."
Posted by Ted Samson on June 12, 2007 09:02 AM
June 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Review of Parallels for Desktop 3.0
Fresh from the Test Center: Parallels for Desktop 3.0 was released last week, and the InfoWorld Test Center snagged it right away. After all, this software "does for Mac OS X what VMware Workstation did for the Windows and Linux world -- full-blown hardware virtualization in a workstation package running natively on the Mac OS," says Senior Contributing Editor Paul Venezia; read more about what's new and improved in version 3.0 in his review.
Live Apple conference coverage: Tom Yager is at Apple's WWDC, and he's covering the keynote live on the Enterprise Mac blog. Check out his first WWDC post here, then follow along as the keynote unfolds (as of this posting, Steve Jobs is onstage - stay tuned).
Around the horn: Strategic Developer Martin Heller is wrestling with Windows Vista Ultimate for x64 and bloatware issues; Rackspace is going green with plans for an alternative-energy powered datacenter in Scotland; and check out our videos of new super-portable laptops and other devices.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 11, 2007 10:20 AM
June 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: TechEd wraps up, Parallels 3.0 release, and Lewis Black on Google Street View
TechEd 2007 wrap-up: This year's Microsoft TechEd show certainly had its share of interesting projects and products. Randall Kennedy explored User Access Control (UAC)(a topic that created much buzz at the conference), including a trip to the Microsoft lab to get some tips on fixing his own UAC issues. Silverlight's multimedia display tech was worth a look, tools to help out with Vista deployment saw the light of day, and the next versions of Visual Studio (see InfoWorld's preview of Orcas here) and SQL Server got names.
Parallels 3.0 beta released: On the eve of Apple's developer conferences, Parallels took the wraps off their virtualization software for Macs. InfoWorld IT maven Kevin Railsback has more details on the Inside IT blog, but new features include better 3D support for gaming and SmartSelect, which "allows for virtual OS apps to be set as the default type for a specific filetype," says Railsback.
Friday funny: Google finds itself in Lewis Black's ranting crosshairs this week on Comedy Central's Daily Show. The reason? Google Street View's "invasive" photos of people caught doing things when they think no one's watching (Our own man-on-the-street Cringely has the full scoop, Wired's blog has a collection going, many of which feature the weirdness caused by the image overlap). You've got to sit through a short ad to see the video clip of Black's vent-fest, but it's chuckle-worthy.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 8, 2007 09:16 AM
June 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Sun breeds a 48-drive storage behemoth
Fresh from the Test Center: A new 4U, 48-drive storage beast has lumbered onto the scene: The Sun Fire X4500 server, aka "Thumper." After tangling with "Thumper," InfoWorld analyst Paul Venezia found it to be an excellent performer -- though you really need to employ Solaris to reap the true benefits. "The speed of file system creation and raw I/O possible with [Sun's ZFS (Zettabyte File System)] surpasses that of any other file system available today, and truly makes the X4500 usable in enterprise settings." Plus, we have a screencast, so you can see ZFS on Thumper in action.
Sun lets Leopard secret out of the bag: Speaking of Sun's ZFS technology, the company's CEO Jonathan Schwartz told a group in Washington D.C. On stage Wednesday in Washington D.C. that the "open-source file system will replace Apple's long-used HFS+ in Mac OS X 10.5," Computerworld's Greg Keizer reports. This isn't the first time we've heard Sun mention Apple's plans to adopt ZFS, but Apple, as is its tradition, remains mum on the subject.
Isilon a resilient file server: Test Center Storage Guru Mario Apicella recently got his hands on the compact Isilon IQ 200, a clustered file system with an appealing sticker price. The system "can provide great scalability, good performance, and multiple levels of resilience that make losing data an unlikely occurrence," Apicella finds, plus optional software adds some useful capabilities, like snapshots and remote sync. One key drawback: It lacks a second power supply. Nevertheless, it's worth checking out.
Posted by Ted Samson on June 7, 2007 08:25 AM
June 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Web conferencing with Microsoft and exploring Google Gears
Nights at the RoundTable: Web video conferencing just got a little smarter with Microsoft's A/V heavy RoundTable conferencing device - so says Oliver Rist in this week's Enterprise Windows column. The Office Live Meeting 2007 requirement is a bit of a bump in the road, but "a little beta polishing" should make it easier to connect to the Office Live Meeting service, says Oliver. And overall, it's a pretty tempting goodie - find out why when you read the full column.
Are you a gearhead?: Martin Heller has been exploring the possibilities of Google Gears, "an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline," according to their Web site. In other words, it lets you turn a Web app into a browser-based app that doesn't have to be connected to a server to run. Is it worthwhile? Get Heller's take on Google Gears on the Strategic Developer blog.
CTOs get their names in lights: Have you checked out this year's top 25 CTOs? We're just a bit more than halfway through the list, with 10 more winners to come in the next two days. For a quick glimpse, page through our slideshow, or read the full profiles if you prefer.
P.S. Don't miss Tom Yager's take on Apple's upcoming WorldWide Developer Conference, filed from Microsoft's Tech Ed conference. And watch the Enterprise Mac blog for more on the WWDC in the coming weeks.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 6, 2007 08:58 AM
June 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: The elusive SOA standard stack
The "A" is for architecture: Real World SOA blogger Dave Linthicum comments on the emerging debate over whether or it's desireable, or even possible, to standardize the SOA stack. He's clearly on the "it ain't gonna happen" side of the fence: "The notion that we can create one approach and one set of enabling technologies is just silly, and those that promote the single stack approach should rethink the core concept of SOA, and how it's something you do, not something you buy, nor will it ever be a standard stack."
MS polishes Live Meeting: It's been a while since the InfoWorld Test Center took a close look at Microsoft Office Live Meeting, but Redmond has been busily building on the Web conferencing product, according to the IDG News Service, with the new version 2007 due out in the third quarter. "The updated software will have a new user interface and allow users to share media files. In addition, users will be able to participate in conferences over either VOIP or regular telephones," writes Nancy Gohring.
Sporty PDA: If a Ferrari sportscar is out of your price range, you might consider hitting the road with a new Ferrari-branded PDA from Acer. "The black PDA has candy-apple red trim and runs Windows Mobile software. It's officially called the Ferrari Racing Personal Navigator, a reference to its built-in GPS, and bears a strong family resemblance to Acer's c500 PDA," writes IDG News Service's Sumner Lemon. Hopefully it's more energy-efficient than its namesake.
Posted by Ted Samson on June 5, 2007 09:52 AM
June 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Analyzing ASAP apps for Cisco switches
Switching things up: ASAP (aka Automated Switchport Access Provisioning) is "a PHP/Perl application that automates switchport VLAN assignments for Cisco switches," says Paul Venezia, who recently used ASAP while moving large switchsites from one building to another. Faced with 800+ switchports, he turned to ASAP for the VLAN assignments. How did it go? Check out Paul's analysis on his blog for more details and a link to download the ASAP code for yourself.
Speak and be heard: After discussing the pros and cons of his Windows Mobile installation on the Geeks in Paradise blog, Brian Chee adds an update on the features he has used so far and a few thoughts about Windows Mobile 6's voice command and what looks to be a long learning curve. Nicknames, calendar lookups, a big list of nouns and verbs... can you hear me now?
Video roundup: Gina Smith discusses Microsoft's TechEd and a new telepresence conference in this week's edition of The Week Ahead; Bill Gates himself demos the Surface interactive touchscreen project (code-named Milan); and IBM Senior Vice President Steve Mills talks about SOA governance and applying SOA tech to new fields - like gaming.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 4, 2007 09:25 AM
June 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Visual Studio beta review
Orcas Beta 1 surfaces: Wondering what's going on with the next version of Microsoft's Visual Studio? InfoWorld Contributing Editor Martin Heller took a look at the Orcas Beta 1, and found a lot to like, include the new design surface for WPF apps. Check out his beta review and previous blog posts for more. (And don't miss Heller's quick peek at Microsoft's Popfly mashup tool, either.)
App dev shapes up, slims down?: According to a new McKinsey Quarterly study, application developers should adopt lean principles to save effort and time -- which means thinking about app dev and maintenance as if it's a factory. Dave Margulius takes a deeper look at the issue in this week's Enterprise Insight column.
Around the horn: Roger Grimes provides a quick malware history lesson and some tips on how to cope with ever-evolving nasties in this week's Security Adviser column. Mario Apicella sees the forthcoming NFSv4.1 standard as being a very good thing for high-performance storage environments. And Sean McCown is fed up with snobby software vendors who don't make it easy to learn about (and experiment with) their products.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on June 1, 2007 09:15 AM
May 31, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Clearspace fosters collaboration
Build customer relationships: Communication is essential to keeping customers satisfied. In a hands-on review of Clearspace X, Test Center contributor Mike Heck finds that Jive Software has brought many notable improvements to its external collaboration platform. On top of the requisite wiki, blog, and document management features, users can take advantage of a rating system, as well as a rewards system to foster participation. Moreover, server clustering supports high-traffic sites, while LDAP and Active Directory integration speeds setup and maintenance.
Palm's phone friend: Is your mobile phone feeling lonely? Well, Palm yesterday a mini PC yesterday, the Foleo, that the company is touting as a smartphone companion. The 2.5-pound Foleo stays connected to its companion smartphone through a Bluetooth wireless link, plus it supports Internet browsing with either its own Wi-Fi card or the smartphone's radio. Users will be able to read their e-mail and office documents on a large screen instead of a cramped phone display, Palm boasts. If seeing is believe, check out our slideshow and video about the device.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 31, 2007 09:32 AM
May 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Windows Mobile 6 gives BlackBerry a run for the money
A contender enters the ring: Will Windows Mobile 6 really give BlackBerry a fight in the wireless OS world? Senior Contributing Editor and Hawaii lab guru Brian Chee says it might, based on what he's seen over the past few weeks while experimenting with a slew of mobile devices, including the new Dash (HTC S620). Check out his lists of pros and cons to find out the verdict so far.
Hardware heaven: Senior Contributing Editor Paul Venezia is enthralled by the power and performance he's seeing in the combination of a Sun Ultra 40 M2 and a 3Ware 9650SE SATA RAID controller: "I've been beating up the 9650SE and the Ultra 40 M2 with my normal brand of workstation torture -- cyclic MD5 sums on multi-gigabit files, kernel recompilations, DVD ripping, MP3 encoding, and two virtual systems running under VMware Workstation 6, all while playing movies from NFS shares and running Beryl with all the widgets enabled." So far, he says, the system still purrs. Today's blog post details the setup and configuration process; stay tuned for more.
Security on my mind: Roger Grimes has been busy of late (a security maven never sleeps), and he's sharing several resources that could help with your own data security efforts. First, the Honeyd honeypot has been updated and ported to Windows for your intruder-trapping pleasure; second, a new report on anti-virus testing and malware collection; third, a site that recommends the best cryptography key sizes for various applications. That fits nicely with the most recent Security Adviser column and the news that the second of three password hash challenges has been cracked. One more to go...
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 30, 2007 10:36 AM
May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Daily: An exclusive look at an evolutionary CMS
On-demand Astoria leverages the DITA standard: InfoWorld contributor Mike Heck got an exclusive look at Astoria's SaaS (software as a software) content management solution, built around OASIS's DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). He liked what he saw, too: "This easy-to-use solution enables remote teams to author, review, and publish XML-based technical documents."
Context for insider threats: Companies are well aware that security threats don't just lurk outside the organization; there are employees who may very well leak sensitive customer info or code, be it accidently or otherwise. Mike Heck got to try out Version 4.0 of Oakley Networks SureView and found that the product has come along nicely, with improved reporting and more app support, in helping admins pinpoint and plug information spills on a more granular level.
iPhone demo put on hold? When Apple comes to San Francisco for the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 11, it will have new notebooks to show, plus a more mature version of Leopard -- but no iPhone to demo, a Wall Street analyst predicts.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 24, 2007 01:07 PM
May 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: OSBC puts open source in the spotlight
Open everywhere: Today's the second day of the Open Source Business Conference, and much conversation is circling around the business side of using open source tech. The impact of open source on proprietary software was a main topic (sparked by Microsoft's lawsuit threats, perhaps?) yesterday, but there's lots more going on. Matt Asay has constant updates on the Open Sources blog - check it out.
SOA videos posted: InfoWorld's eighth SOA conference had a lot of case studies featuring companies that have successful SOA projects and they lessons they learned along the way. One video interview highlights BT's ambitious project, as BT Chief Architect George Glass discusses his company's drive to make the entire architecture 100 percent SOA by 2009, while another shows how Amtrak got their SOA project on the right track.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 23, 2007 06:00 AM
May 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: What happens in Vegas gets reported on InfoWorld
Gambling on Interop 2007: Joining the mass of networking enthusiasts at Interop in Las Vegas are Senior Contributing Editors Oliver Rist and Brian Chee, as well as Test Center Senior Editor Stephanie McLoughlin. They've already been pretty busy, as you can see from Oliver's updates in the SMB IT blog, as he's chatted with the folks at Splunk about log management and authentication via cell phone with Positive Networks. The easiest way to keep up on Interop: Bookmark our Interop special report page.
HP declares SOA's time has come: Though the concept of a service-oriented architecture continues to baffle some people, HP has declared that SOA is ready to move out of the prototype phase and into mainstream. Analysts think the announcement is indicative that HP's acquisition of Mercury is bearing fruit. Of course, InfoWorld has been talking about SOA for quite a while now, and some companies already have embraced it. If you're still hazy on the concept or the route to implementing it, consider checking out an upcoming InfoWorld SOA Executive Forum.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 22, 2007 09:21 AM
May 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Data integration wonders from Interop
Integrate, and be free: Brian Chee is going cuckoo for Apatar's open-source data integration tool - and so are other Interop Team Members, he says. The drag-and-drop data transformation process is so clear-cut and straightforward that Chee says he can now "give folks read-only access to my company database and let them pull data out and push it into their desktop contact tool. The mind boggles at the possibilities." Find out more about Apatar and other Interop news on the Geeks in Paradise blog.
Salesforce goes SOA: Perhaps this is an announcement long forseen, but Salesforce.com today removed the bubblewrap from Salesforce SOA. According to InfoWorld SOA Maven Eric Knorr, the product seems to be "the first enterprise mash-up platform" rather than the grand "SOA as a service" touted by Salesforce.com. Check out Dave Linthicum's Real World SOA blog for more on the new offering. (On the flip side of the coin, Ed Foster recently took a closer look at a Salesforce.com-Office 2007 compatibility gripe over at The Gripe Line.)
Come on in, the water's fine: Randall Kennedy finally jumped in to the deep end, moving over to 64-bit Windows. Learn more about the beginning of his journey on the Enterprise Desktop blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 21, 2007 08:51 AM
May 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Secure those wireless networks
Fresh from the Test Center: A one-two punch from Trapeze Networks and AirDefense makes it easier to figure out what's happening on your wireless network and control who goes where. Brian Chee set up Trapeze RingMaster 5.0 with AirDefense 7.0 at his lab and was impressed by the system's intelligence - based on his policies, it knew which threats were serious and which ones were minor, and could send alerts accordingly. Want to lock down your own WLAN? Read our review first.
Power hunger strike: Does Vista's Aero UI really eat battery life? Randall Kennedy put that myth to the test, and his results may surprise you. Take a look at his findings on the Enterprise Desktop blog.
All around the site: A slideshow of products and features from Dell's Project Hybrid announcement has some snazzy stuff (liquid-cooled server! Super-thin monitors!). This week's Storage Insider column wants to speed up acceptance of built-in disk encryption to protect data, while Roger Grimes rails against real-time block lists that don't allow innocent servers a way out (that means you, AT&T) in this week's Security Adviser column.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 18, 2007 09:20 AM
May 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Daily: Do the mobile hop!
DiVitas handless wireless hand-offs: Getting cut off in the middle of a phone call isn't just annoying; it's not good for business. DiVitas has devised a wireless solution, its Mobile Convergence Appliance, lets a mobile-phone user seamlessly move from cellular to Wi-Fi to Bluetooth, and Senior Contributing Editors Brian Chee and Oliver Rist had a chance to give it a try. Their conclusion: "It delivers better connectivity for your users, but considerable cost savings for organizations with lots of road warriors." (Check out our video of the wireless-to-wired rollover, too.)
The SOA way: Over in the Real World SOA blog, Dave Linthicum offers a recap of a discussion from InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum in the Big Apple. The topic was linking processes to services, and some of the points included the fact that "SOA has always included business processes ... [though] many people think it's new," and "processes are able to abstract distributed services turning them into solutions within a SOA."
Microsoft to pad patch previews: Surprises can be fun, but not if you're, say, an IT admin bracing for a patch to an undefined problem. Yet every month, admins at Windows shops have had to endure several days of waiting and wondering specifically what was coming the pike on Patch Tuesday. Well, Redmond has announced that it's improving the process, the IDG News Service reports, letting you know not just what apps will be patched and how important the patches are -- but also offering a summary of the problem.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 17, 2007 09:31 AM
May 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: AMD attempts to fight FUD with facts
Intel-AMD battle rages on: Tom Yager spent some time in Monterey, California last week at AMD's CTO Summit, and got an "unusually detailed look at unpublished products and plans." Alas, he's bound to secrecy on most of it, but he did come away with a few new insights into AMD's response to Intel's FUD on production levels.
Oh, those patent woes: Oliver Rist files his own take on the Microsoft patent complaints and the news that Longhorn's virtualization features (aka Viriidan) just hit the fan. Looks like you can have your Longhorn on time or with all features intact, but apparently not both. (And yes, given Longhorn's cattle-themed code name, I could have made a castration joke here. I chose to take the high road...)
Why open source matters: Some readers that say that "CIOs don't care about open source." Matt Asay puts a finer point on it: While the CIO may not care, that doesn't mean they can ignore open source - mainly because the workers in the trenches are the ones that do care about open source, and they're the ones using these technologies to get their jobs done. And if the jobs get done, that should please the CIO - right? (P.S. - Are you signed up to attend OSBC next week? There's still time...)
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 16, 2007 09:02 AM
May 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Opening Apple's MacBook
MacBook holds appeal: InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager evaluates Apple's MacBook product line, finding it a popular choice among the pros, "despite lousy 3-D graphics performance, a much smaller display and a non-traditional keyboard." Among other things, Tom says, the newest MacBooks hint that 965 chipset derived MacBook Pro notebooks will debut at the Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference next month.
Get your code in order: Test Center Contributor and DB maven Sean McCown has fallen hard for Red-Gate's SQLRefactor, "a tool that lets you setup templates to organize your SQL code, rename objects," and more. Not only does he say it beats Microsoft's Visual Studio Team System for DBAs; it just makes the life of a DBA a little easier.
Buzz from the Honeypot: Matt Hines shares some findings from the Web Application Security Consortium's Distributed Open Proxy Honeypot Project, which has been identifying targeted Web app attacks. Among its findings: "Of the million Web requests processed, almost 20 percent displayed known malicious attacks or anomalous behavior."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 15, 2007 02:48 PM
May 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: SOA bottlenecks, be gone!
SOA Conference hits the Big Apple: Tomorrow marks the start of the SOA Executive Forum in New York, and if you're anywhere in the area and are considering an SOA implementation at your own organization, then the Roosevelt Hotel is the place to be for our two-day conference. Can't make it? Then our bounty of SOA analysis is for you: "Breaking SOA Bottlenecks" mirrors the conference theme (how to avoid mistakes as your SOA grows), Dave Linthicum's Real World SOA blog will follow the action at the conference and has plenty of good advice; and The Week Ahead with Gina Smith gives you a video glimpse of the action to come. Enjoy!
Fresh from the Test Center: Want your virtual machine to really roar? Innovawave's DXtreme for Windows 2.0 will help you tweak I/O performance to make sure you're running at top performance. A little intelligent caching here, some predictive block retrieval there, and you'll be set for optimal virtualization. Read our review for more details.
Bits and bytes: For those on the virtualization train, VMware just announced version 2.0 of its free VMware Player. Martin Heller says the resurrected XML Notebook 2007 is a "good starting point for people writing other XML processing applications." And this IT worker's tale of woe gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "ghost in the machine."
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 14, 2007 09:43 AM
May 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Open-source Web services test tools
Fresh from the Test Center: Are your Web services up to snuff? Do they run smoothly, work the way they should? Are you sure? If you're looking for a lower-cost way to test them -- and you and your staff have some solid development skills -- check out the open-source Web service testing tools we recently put through the wringer: soapUI, TestMaker, and WebInject. They're all quite solid performance wise, but some are more capable than others, and some have a steeper learning curve. The choice is yours.
I can see clearly now: Maybe it's a case of not wanting to reveal how they make the sausage, but not many companies offer real insight into how their business runs. That's why David Margulius was surprised to find that Intel's 2006 IT Performance Report offered so much transparency into how and why it runs its business. Read this week's Enterprise insight column, take a gander at the Intel report PDF, and get a better look under Intel's hood.
Columns roundup: Two new columns today for your reading pleasure: Mario Apicella examines disk drive reliability and the push for better performance, while Roger Grimes presents a reader argument that suggests vendors are better off not closing every security vulnerability when first discovered.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 11, 2007 09:43 AM
May 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Longhorn 3's got beef
A meaty OS serving: InfoWorld Chief Technologist has sliced into Beta 3 of Microsoft's long-awaited Longhorn and found plenty to chew on. Major advances center on PowerScript, Microsoft's .Net command-line shell, which is accompanied by utilities that enable robust administration from the PowerShell command line or via text-only connections, he writes. The firewall's been spruced up, and the last pieces of Longhorn's virtualization story have fallen into place. Beefy!
Meanwhile, Enterprise Windows columnist Oliver Rist, still weary from his Vista adventures, has reluctantly set down the Longhorn path, and he has insights to share.
Broadband banditry: Over in The Deep End, Paul Venezia investigates broadband banditry: broadband companies' practice of artificially limiting bandwidth options. "One of the major issues is the ridiculously limited upstream bandwidth provided in most residential packages," he notes. "Consumer broadband needs to change. It needs to provide at least a 5:3 down/up ratio as part of the standard package for a reasonable price."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 10, 2007 10:18 AM
May 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Pondering UIs and mobile Java
More from JavaOne: Martin Heller is wondering if the new JavaFX platform is related to the old Java ME, "which was going to extend the Java platform down to PDAs and cell phones." Is there anything new in the JavaFX announcement? Post your own thoughts on the Strategic Developer blog. For more JavaOne news, check out our special report with the latest announcements and analysis.
Everything old is new again: Text-based UIs as the next big thing? "But those are so old-fashioned!" you might cry. Tom Yager disagrees, especially with the greater push for mobile access to systems and software. Read the latest Ahead of the Curve posting and find out why Tom things getting back to text is a good thing.
There and back again: Longhorn loomed in the distance for many moons, but now it's almost within sight. Beta 3 is out, but Oliver Rist knows that this is just the beginning of a long, long journey. Like a certain little hobbit, Oliver's on his way, bearing the heavy burden of installation workarounds and Vista-Longhorn code base differences so he can give you all the lowdown on Longhorn's details. Is it weird that he's starting to call the beta disks his "precious"?
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 9, 2007 08:50 AM
May 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Java, Java everywhere
JavaOne 2007: If you feel a buzz from Java like you get from your morning coffee, check out our ongoing coverage of JavaOne 2007. Among other stories from the show, Sun has said it will work with the open-source community to rewrite "encumbered" Java components to replace the current closed-source code. Oh, and the company thinks open-source developers should get paid. Go figure.
Laptop leakage: Can't wait for news about the forthcoming crop of Santa Rosa laptop systems? Well, the information has spilled out a bit early, reports Stephanie Bruzzese over in Tech Treks. Among them: HP has an "enormous new 12-pound notebook with a 20-inch LCD that runs Media Center" due out.
Impolite hosts: StopBadware.org has fingered the top five service providers responsible for hosting the world's most prolific numbers of malware-brokering Web sites. The worst, reports Zero Day writer Matt Hines: iPowerWeb, which had almost 11,000 of the malware infected sites tracked residing on its Web servers. Matt also digs into what can be done to address the malware bane of the Internet.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 8, 2007 11:14 AM
May 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Going green can save you some green
Forecast for the week: greener, with a chance of green: Get your green on with the latest energy- and resource-saving tidbits. Ted Samson sat down with Sun's vice president of eco-responsibility to talk about sustainability on the eve of JavaOne - watch the video here. And over in the Sustainable IT blog, Ted's got the lowdown on OSS's Green Series Gemini Servers. The Green Series sports a high-efficiency power supply and uses less power (meaning less out of your pocket when those bills come due), but it also has a modular design that lets you swap in and swap out drives, memory, and other resources as needed. Nice.
Worm alert: A new Trojan worm is out there, and this one has a twist -- it's carried by USB drives. So far, Sophos researchers say there's no evidence of a payload, but it wouldn't take much to add malicious code. The lesson: don't hook up with unknown devices, and practice safe USB connections (whatever that may be).
Stupid is as stupid does: It's baaa-aack! Last year's tales of stupid user tricks proved that lots of people have the same experiences when it comes to dealing with less-than-bright employees. This year, we've got 10 more impressively dumb tricks - take a look and see if any of these are (unfortunately) familiar.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 7, 2007 09:37 AM
May 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Exclusive review of Intransa 10Gb iSCSI system
Fresh from the Test Center: Intransa's StorStac PCU100 is one of the first 10Gb iSCSI systems out there, and based on what Logan Harbaugh saw in his exclusive early review, it's a snazzy, scalable, well-perofrming storage system. Check it out.
First-time caller, long-time listener: The 13th edition of the InfoWorld LIVE! radio show is online for your listening pleasure. This week's installment talks PCI security standards with Quest. It's a rather hot topic these days given the recent rash of credit card theft reports. Listen here.
iPhone, you phone: Much ado lately over rumors that the iPhone won't allow open development, thereby tainting its "smartphone" label. Tom Yager things this runs contrary to Apple's strategy - to allow open access simply because most other vendor's don't. Read about Tom's iPhone predictions on the Enterprise Mac blog, and let him know if you agree or disagree. Only 39 days 'til WWDC07!
DIY RFID and text-to-speech: Courtesy of Make Magazine, learn the basics of RFID and text-to-speech modules.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 4, 2007 09:44 AM
May 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Proventia's spyware stalker
Fresh from the Test Center: Bells and whistles can get a bit irritating at times, so there's something to say for good, solid, simple functionality. Therein lies the allure of the newest version of IBM's ISS Proventia Desktop Endpoint Protection firewall. Roger A. Grimes had an opportunity to review the offering, and found it to be "a good host-based firewall with above-average features," such as anti-virus, anti-malware, and buffer overflow exploit protection.
Dealing with the anti-open source clause: Fear of open-source software still permeates in some organizations, as evidenced by clauses in licenses insisting that "the Software provided, or to be provided, by Company in the manner licensed under this Agreement does not and shall not contain any software covered by a GNU license or other "open source" license." Open Sources blogger Matt Asay attributes this type of fine print to ignorance of what open source is about. But he has some useful suggestions as to how to deal with it.
MS celebrates client security shipment: Redmond has let loose a couple of desktop-defense tools: the Forefront Client Security RTM, and its System Center Essentials 2007 package -- a collection of desktop and server management tools for small and medium-sized businesses, reports Matt Hines in the Zero Day blog. The company is celebrating the integration of its security offerings, something it asserts it can do better than security vendors out there. "Customer interest is being driven around the idea of security that is integrated with their existing Windows environments that works with Active Directory," said Steve Brown, Microsoft's director of product management for security and access products.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 3, 2007 08:20 AM
May 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Datacenter tune-up tools
Datacenter check-ups: After tweaking two datacenters in two weeks, Paul Venezia has some valuable advice for anyone who's looking to monitor their own datacenter gear. He has written a couple of new plug-ins for Nagios and Cacti monitoring programs, and is willing to share: the first one, for Nagios, is on Paul's blog now, with the second (for Cacti) coming soon. Keep an eye out for more.
Silicon's last hurrah?: After seeing the news from last month's Intel Developer Forum, Tom Yager thinks the writing may be on the wall for silicon chips. Does the introduction of Hafium - a less-leaky, less-power-hungry element - into chip production herald the future? Read the latest from Mr. Yager and post your comments.
Roam where you want to: Some hard work by the folks at DiVitas and Avaya bore excellent fruit for road warriors who are constantly in and out of offices. As shown in this video recorded at Interop HotStage, you can roll a call from your cell phone to a desktop phone and back. That should save on those roaming charges...
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on May 2, 2007 09:58 AM
April 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Make your meetings meatier
Exclusive review: There's little in the work day that's less satisfying wasting time in an unproductive meeting. Test Center Contributing Editor Mike Heck has found an excellent remedy for those time-wasting experiences in his exclusive hands-on look at Yon Software MeetingSense 2.0. The product provides an ingenious way to prepare for meetings and capture essential information during the gatherings, Mike finds, plus it works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook.
VMWare freebie: Version 3.0.1 of VMware's Converter tools has materialized, announces David Marshall in the InfoWorld Virtualization Report. The tool gives companies a means of migrating machines, both physical to virtual and virtual to virtual, sans downtime. Version 3.0.1 has some new interesting features, too, like the capability of importing VMware Consolidated Backup images and certain StorageCraft ShadowProtect images.
Dell does Ubuntu: Confirming the speculative buzz, Dell has announced that it will start shipping systems pre-loaded with Ubuntu Linux, IDG News Service's China Martens reports. "Canonical will certify the Dell models that feature preinstalled Ubuntu and will also provide support for the Linux distribution, which users will have the option to purchase from Dell's Web site," she writes. Notably, Michael Dell himself runs Ubuntu on his home PC. Will greater Linux adoption follow?
Posted by Ted Samson on April 30, 2007 11:52 PM
April 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: When updates attack
A cure worse than the disease?: Cringely may be in an all-digital format these days, but he hasn't lost his nose for rumors, gossip, and sundry news items. His latest post on some killer updates (distributed by Microsoft) fans the flames of an earlier proposal that Microsoft's monopoly is crumbling. Got some fuel to add to the fire, or want to dump a bucket of water on Cringely's musings? Post your comments and join the discussion.
MySQL's next release: InfoWorld contributing editor David Margulius talks to MySQL's Marten Mikos about the next release of this open-source database. Watch the video here.
In case you missed it: Don't forget to check out the Test Center's most recent reviews: the super-sized comparison of four iSCSI file systems from Adaptec, Celeros, Dell, and NetApp; our head-to-head matchup of virtual desktop management tools (Kidaro and Sentillion), and a roundup of four tools to prevent data loss and keep your company in compliance with government regulations.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 30, 2007 10:30 AM
April 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: MacBook health check, and network rabbits
Open up and say "Apple": Tom Yager's trusty MacBook Pro is showing signs of advancing age, from shorter battery life to an unfortunate failure incident. Read his dispatch on the laptop's health over the past six months and let him know if you're seeing the same problems on the Enterprise Mac blog.
Basic training: Inspired by an NPR interview, Roger Grimes outlines a few ways that thinking inside the box - and reapplying traditional, basic policies - can make your security strategy more successful.
Wascally wi-fi wabbits: If your tech equipment just isn't cute enough, check out these little rabbits - also known as Nabaztag and made by a company called Violet - that handle your wireless connections as well as doing network monitoring, email, playing music, and other tasks. The folks at TheTechStop.net give you the full rundown in this video:
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 27, 2007 10:06 AM
April 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Filers shatter language barriers
Fresh from the Test Center:: Trying to meet your file serving needs while juggling NFS, CIFS, and up-and-coming iSCSI can be a tricky. Fortunately, an increasing number of storage vendors are creating filers that can handle all those standards at once. Test Center Senior Contributor Paul Venezia got his hands on four such jacks-of-all-trades from Adaptec, Celeros, Dell, and NetApp, and for the most part, he liked what he saw. They won't rival the capabilities of higher-end, and more expensive, options, but "buying a few simply to maintain a nearline backup is a terrific idea."
Bypass the Internet-tiering scam: InfoWorld's Chief Technologist Tom Yager expresses his frustration with telcos who are sticking smaller subscribers with shoddier Internet service. But a promising alternative has emerged from Towerstream: The company supplies scalable Internet connectivity to businesses in metropolitan areas through a web of WiMax transceivers.
Live from Davey Jones' Locker ...: Senior Contributing Editor aand Geek in Paradise Brian Chee has access to some of the coolest high-tech gear at the University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology. One of his latest products: setting up a raw audio feed, five kilometers beneath the waves, via an open source streaming audio server called Icecast. "This stream from a broadband hydrophone is being used for real science, but it's still pretty cool to be able to listen to whale song live from the middle of the Pacific Ocean."
Posted by Ted Samson on April 26, 2007 09:32 AM
April 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Wednesday smorgasbord
Pictures worth a thousand words: Conference calls and slideshows may be the way of life for remote workers, but as Brian Chee points out, once those talks start involving drawings or notes made by the presenter, the remote folks are out of luck. A new little device from Virtual Ink, called the Mimio, may change that - it records and sends out what you write, so remote workers can see it and so you have a permanent record of all those cocktail-napkin ideas for the next big thing. Learn why Brian thinks the Mimio is "even better than sliced bread" on the Geeks in Paradise blog.
The host with the most: Oliver Rist's latest Enterprise Windows column explains why hosted services make sense: for one thing, there's someone else to call if something goes wrong. Intrigued? Learn more about hosted services and SaaS here.
Game on: Microsoft's connecting the Xbox 360 with Windows PC with hopes of giving gaming an extra boost - we've got the video of its introduction in Tokyo. Check it out.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 25, 2007 09:48 AM
April 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: DIY high performance computing
Paging Bob Vila: High-performance computing (HPC) isn't just for massive conglomerates with billion-dollar budgets anymore. These days, clustered servers running basic processors and programs are making HPC a do-able DIY project -- albeit one that's going to require some dedicated resources and committment to ferreting out complex solutions. Read our special report and see if you'd like to leap into the world of homegrown HPC, too. No hard hat required.
Useful wallpaper: Brian Chee likes the way Microsoft's BGInfo tool puts machine info onto your wallpaper automatically - check it out on the Geeks in Paradise blog.
Also useful as wallpaper: Now that InfoWorld is running in an online-only mode, we've heard that some readers miss the quiet moments they shared with the print magazine while travelling, or commuting, or... um... in the bathroom. Good news: you can have those moments again with InfoWorld Express, a weekly, printable PDF. Register for it now and enjoy!
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 23, 2007 09:31 AM
April 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Storage nuts and bolts, and video from TED
Storage roundup: It's a Very Special Storage Friday in the columnists' corner. Mario Apicella ponders 10 Gig switch technology that could lead to a real 100 Gigabit Ethernet fabric (not to mention more iSCSI and FCoE talk on the Storage Network blog). And Oliver Rist wonders if virtualization will be the key to increasing iSCSI adoption among SMBs (Microsoft's Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 doesn't ignore iSCSI, for one).
Who goes there?: Want to see if a site is running in IE7 Protected Mode on Vista? Martin Heller has the code you need, and the background on the detective work he did to find it.
Friday video break: This year, the TED folks posted a large number of videos (dubbed TED Talks) from their yearly share-and-share-alike conference in Monterey, Calif. Check out Jeff Han demoing a multi-touch, hi-res, full-screen touchscreen - and tell your mouse that its days may be numbered.
Want to see more from TED? They've got 99 videos of everything from a performance by Pilobus dancers to James Watson describing how he discovered DNA and Jane Goodall on the difference between humans and apes to Golan Levin's quest to see software as art.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 20, 2007 10:12 AM
April 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Desktop virtualization horse race
The virtual destkop evolves: Representing the next evolutionary phase of virtualization, desktop virtualization products are giving organizations a way to securely and inexpensively push application and data via VMs to users. Contributing Editor Randall C. Kennedy had a chance to examine a trio of desktop virtualization products: Kidaro Managed Workspace 1.0, Sentillion vThere 2.0, and separately, a beta of VMware's ACE 2.0. Randall's overall assessment: "Both Kidaro Managed Workspace and Sentillion vThere offer excellent, base-level management functionality that matches or beats VMware's ACE offering." Check out his reviews to find out why.
Pentaho and OpenOffice unite: Matt Asay, in the Open Sources blog, discovers that the Pentaho reporting engine will be integrated in the next iteration of OpenOffice. That means that users will be able to create reports with content from the OpenOffice.org Base database as well as a wide range of proprietary and open source relational databases, OLAP and XML sources. "I think this is really cool, and demonstrates the power of the open source development and distribution model. It also fulfills the promise of open source business intelligence," Matt writes.
Posted by Ted Samson on April 19, 2007 09:47 AM
April 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Apple cages Leopard for six more months
Leopard in waiting: Apple extended the wait time for Leopard (aka OSX 10.5) by six months, and Tom Yager says there's a greater goal behind the delay than just final tweaking of features -- and it involves the iPhone (speaking of which, Cisco just dropped a few more details on the Cisco-Apple iPhone interoperability agreement). Do you agree with Tom's vision? Read his blog and post a comment.
Mashup mania: It's more than just maps of housing prices or crime statistics -- mashup technology is ready for enterprise prime time, according to the CEOs of Kapow, StrikeIron, and Teqlo. Check out our video roundtable of these three execs discussing what drives enterprise mashups, and why they're a good thing for business.
Greener than thou: How do you measure energy efficiency? With vendors on a rambunctious quest to tout their own "green-ness" and stomp on their competitors' claims of eco-friendliness, there seems to be a lot of statistics-spinning going on. Ted Samson puts a point on the issue and raises a good question in his recent Sustainable IT post: is it greener to massively reduce the amount of energy and resources from your prior usage, or is it greener to be using less in the first place? Or... does it matter, as long as you're keeping sustainability in mind when making tech decisions?
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 18, 2007 10:06 AM
April 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Oracle reveals Project X
Does X mark the spot? Oracle has unveiled a flexible new platform called Application Integration Architecture (AIA) that may be the answer to the prayers of companies suffering the rigidity of ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. "Through the AIA framework, the functionality of Oracle's vast application portfolio -- Oracle E-Business, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and JD Edwards -- can be recombined and tailored to enterprise needs, reports InfoWorld Executive Editor at Large Eric Knorr.
Put virtualization to the test: Trying to get a handle on just how well your virtualization project is faring? Then you might want to check out VMWare's virtualization benchmark tool, VMmark, which has just gone public, as reported by David Marshall. The release "has undergone some key changes since that original specification was developed in order to simplify benchmark setup and execution," he notes, including the distribution of virtual appliances for Linux-based workloads.
SCA gets some love: On the SOA front, Dave Linthicum reports that the Rogue Wave Software has released the first product to directly support the Service Component Architecture (SCA) standard. "My take on SCA is that the specification seems to be blurry in many respects, however it is maturing rapidly and has evolved into something very interesting and something we should track," Dave writes.
Posted by Ted Samson on April 17, 2007 10:24 AM
April 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Spotlight on dynamic programming languages
Language lessons: Dynamic languages - PHP, Python, Ruby, and so on - are finding their place in enterprise software development, often spurred on by the need to get projects done quickly. But what exactly makes a dynamic language dynamic? And how do you figure out which language is best for which project? Today's analysis article answers these burning questions and more - check it out.
Apple security, round two: Paul Venezia's first missive on the better security of Apple systems garnered a good bit of interest, and after watching the discussion unfold on other sites, Paul is back to refute or address some of the most common rebuttals to his original post. Keep an eye on this discussion - it promises to be an excellent ongoing debate.
Listen and learn: The latest installment of InfoWorld LIVE radio show -- number 10, if you're keeping count -- lays out a primer on data protection: why it's important, why you should worry about it, and how to accomplish it. Looking for more InfoWorld LIVE episodes? They're all archived on the SMB IT blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 16, 2007 09:36 AM
April 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Cures for the data-loss blues
Keep private data private: In this age of Sarb-Ox and other regulations, companies are working hard to protect sensitive data from outsiders. But what about the insider threats? Fortunately, there's protection available, and contributing editor Mike Heck recently took a look at four solutions, all of which showed promise. We've also got a slideshow of the tools for you visual types.
PlateSpin gets green: Ah, sustainable technology! A topic near and dear to my heart. David Marshall over in the Virtualization Report blog looks at PlateSpin's move toward greenery, announcing enhancements to its data center planning and analysis solution to help organizations boost operational efficiencies while accelerating the path to environmental responsibility.
Posted by Ted Samson on April 12, 2007 11:23 AM
April 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: xBox as HD DVD hacking device?
Your Atari 2600 can't do this: Turns out the xBox may be able to do more than just serve up Madden NFL. A resourceful individual figured out a way to hack HD DVDs using the xBox's DVD drive. Will blu-ray discs be next?
VMware Workstation revisited: The Test Center's recent desktop virtualization comparison pitted four solutions against each other: InnoTek VirtualBox, Microsoft Virtual PC, Parallels Workstation for Windows, and VMWare Workstation. VMWare's product was a Beta 3 release of the 6.0 version, so Randall Kennedy went back to run the test with a later build... and the results were interesting. Get the specifics on the Enterprise Desktop blog.
Microsoft security spotlight: It's been a busy couple of weeks for Microsoft's security fix teams. First, there was the rush emergency patch job to kill a bug in Windows' processing of .ani files. Then, Patch Tuesday arrived with fixes for seven critical flaws. Now, it looks like there could be more vulnerabilities in Word 2007. Ouch. On the other hand, Oliver Rist lays out the means to improve your WEP security by making a few straightforward tweaks in Active Directory.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 11, 2007 10:05 AM
April 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtualize with care
Virtually insecure: It's easy to get excited about virtualization, what with the numerous benefits it promises, like simpler management and potentially significant cost savings. But virtualize with care, cautions David Marshall, author of the InfoWorld Virtualization Report. David cites a recent report from Gartner, stating that when companies adopt server virtualization, they overlook many security issues, plus the proper tools and technologies for addressing security concerns range from immature to non-existent. What to do? Read David's entry for some guidance.
Apple goes 8-way: "For about $4,000, you can now buy a Mac Pro fitted with a pair of 3 GHz Clovertown Xeon CPUs, creating an eight core OS X workstation and the meanest Intel Mac in Apple history." So reports InfoWorld Chief Technologist and Mac fan Tom Yager. Alternatively, you could shell out $2K to manually upgrade your existing Mac Pro to an eight-core configuration. Does that price seem too high? Yager expects it will go down -- with time, and the performance benefits may well be worth the investment, depending, of course, on your processing demands.
Airport security: Speaking of Apple, the company has released a security update for its Airport Extreme Base Station wireless router, aimed at fixing two vulnerabilities, Matt Hines reports. The first vulnerability could lets potential attackers circumvent the router's security features when configured in default mode. The second flaw could enable other users within a local network to view other people's file names.
Posted by Ted Samson on April 10, 2007 09:02 AM
April 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Manage those databases
Fresh from the Test Center: More enterprise data means more databases, which means you'd better be up to speed on how to use those databases to your best advantage. Altova's DatabaseSpy may be able to help - Sean McCown likes its easy setup and numerous data-handling features, among other things. Read his review and see if DatabaseSpy is the answer to your company's data deluge.
Business desktops review: Oliver Rist got his paws on two desktops -- the Dell Optiplex 745 and HP Compaq dx220 MicroTower -- and compares them from head to toe. The winner? Read and find out. Then catch up on the SMB news of the day.
Virus-vulnerable iPods: It was bound to happen... there's an iPod virus making the rounds (though it only replicates on iPods running Linux, at least for now). Paul Venezia analyzes the connection between OSes and overall security on his blog, and has some interesting points to make on "The Myth of Apple's Insecurities."
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 9, 2007 09:46 AM
April 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Deduplication, identity theft, and virtualization, oh my!
Column roundup: Lots of good stuff out there this week: Mario Apicella takes on data management and suggests that deduplication technology could help with the looming problem of having too little space for storing all that data; Oliver Rist is impressed by Windows Meeting Space and its collaboration potential (check out the slideshow to see how you can set up Meeting Space for yourself); and Roger Grimes is incensed by the way credit card and identity theft is handled by the vendors -- with seemingly little concern, for the most part.
Tim Howes on managing virtualization: David Marshall over at the Virtualization Report blog sat down with Opsware CTO Tim Howes to discuss the challenges of managing virtual machines -- and why automation is the best route to follow.
Friday funny: Ye Olde Tech Support... some things haven't changed much...
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 6, 2007 09:23 AM
April 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Juniper gives Web apps a boost
Heavy-duty load balancer: Senior Contributing Editor Logan G. Harbaugh got an exclusive look at Juniper's DX3680 5.2 load balancer, and finds that for the hefty price, you get plenty of value. Not only does it do Web server clusters, but also delivers SSL encryption, user authentication, and protection against hacker attacks.
Peer into Vista's p-to-p tool: For all his digging into Vista, senior contributing editor Oliver Rist just recently stepped into the OS's included collaboration tool, Windows Meeting Space. He's even put together a slideshow to help get you started. WMS is a pretty nifty tool, Rist finds, though it won't replace higher end tools that deliver whiteboarding or videoconferencing.
Posted by Ted Samson on April 5, 2007 09:53 AM
April 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Go virtual, get cash for your servers
Virtualization pays off: Well, it pays off if you're a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) customer, at least. Ted Samson has the details on the Sustainable IT blog, but here are the basics: You develop a virtualization plan, apply for the program, let PG&E calculate your incentive amount (based on the energy savings "directly related to removing the computing equipment"), and once PG&E verifies you've implemented your plan, you get a nice check - incentives can range from $150 to $300 per server removed. Not too shabby!
Java IDEs under the microscope: Did you catch the Test Center's review of three Java IDEs? No? You should- it's an in-depth look at IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software 7.0, Borland/CodeGear JBuilder 2007 Enterprise Edition, and Sun NetBeans 5.5, and the results may surprise you.
Search this: We've all been frustrated by search tools that just don't seem to understand what we want - results that are too narrow, too broad, just not quite right. Is natural language search the answer? Check out our video interview/demo with Powerset and see for yourself.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 4, 2007 09:44 AM
April 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Vista Service Pack snippets slip out
Vista SP1 comes early: If you're a Vista adopter, you might have discovered that Microsoft newest OS isn't without its flaws, such as a lack of certain device driver and software compatibility technology many users had expected. Well, if you just can't wait for Redmond to release Service Pack 1 of Vista, check out HotFix Blog author Ethan Allen's Vista SP1 preview and information center. Allen has posted more than 100 Vista fixes expected to appear in the first forthcoming Vista service pack. If you do plan to deploy these fixes, remember to test them first, OK?
A moment of security tranquility : Security Adviser Roger Grimes doesn't have any rants this week about the shoddy state of security affairs. Rather, he has some tasty tech tidbits to share, include information about an anti-EMI paint from Emsec "that blocks most EMI and wireless emissions from entering or leaving a room, confined space, or box."
Best products evar! Everyone likes products -- at least good ones, like Silly Putty and hybrid cars. And if you're an InfoWorld reader, you likely fancy tech products. Well, good news: InfoWorld sister publication PC World has compiled a list of the top 50 tech products of all time. I don't want to give away too much, but I'm willing to wager to AOL CDs aren't on the list.
Posted by Ted Samson on April 3, 2007 10:51 AM
April 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Complex event processing review; print's last dance
Fresh from the Test Center: Agilty, speed, flexiblity... those seem to be the buzzwords du jour when it comes to building enterprise architecture. The goal is a system that can take in real-time data and analyze it for certain events - events that could trigger proactive or corrective action automatically, saving both time and money. Complex event processing (CEP) systems aim to do just that, and we've got an exclusive review of one CEP contender, Coral8 Engine 4.6. Check it out.
Workstation wrangling: Paul Venezia may be busy, but he's found time to do a little pounding on two workstations, the Sun Ultra 40 M2 and IBM zPro workstation. Get all the stats and Paul's opinion of the two systems on The Deep End blog.
InfoWorld print is dead, long live InfoWorld online!: After nearly 29 years in print, InfoWorld's going online-only - today's issue will be the last paper copy printed. From now on, you'll find all the content you know and love from InfoWorld's pages in a digitally delicious form here at InfoWorld.com. But we're still setting aside some time to reminisce about the past and pay respect to all those pages toiled over by so many veteran journalists, editors, copy editors, and production teams. Check out our special report for a look back at InfoWorld's past - and a glimpse at the future. Got an InfoWorld memory to share, or an opinion on the move to the Web? Post it here.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on April 2, 2007 09:50 AM
March 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Adobe Apollo had landed
A galaxy of mashup opportunity: Developers eager to delve into the world of application mashups would be well-served by checking out the alpha version of Adobe's new Apollo IDE. Contributing Editor James R. Borck had a chance to dabble with innovative SDK, which enables developers to create desktop/Web app hybrids based on technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, Flash, and beyond.
IBM tackles phishers: With its ISS MS3004 e-mail security appliance, Big Blue attempts to take on several scourges of the Internet communications stream, including spam and phishing. The intent is certainly laudable, observes Test Center analyst Logan Harbaugh, but unfortunately, the machine's capability of separating the good from the bad isn't quite up to snuff, compared to rivals. But it does deliver other security benefits, such as a fireweall and IPS, which makes it a worthy security consideration.
Choose your own blog-venture: Like every journalist-type, Strategic Developer Martin Heller gets a plethora of PR pitches in his e-mail box. There's no way he can write about all things app-dev, so he's giving readers a chance to weigh in on some topics. Among them: Backbase's AJAX framework kits; salesforce.com's Spring '07 release (which includes AppSpace, "a facility for building customer-facing portals using AppExchange applications and other assets built on the Apex platform"); IBM's developerWorks Exchange developer community, and IBM CODESTATION, Big Blue's 3-D area in the virtual world of Second Life. Let Martin know what interests you.
Posted by Ted Samson on March 29, 2007 10:03 AM
March 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Compliance outsourcing, laptop security, and dead fish
Lost and found: With the increase in lost (or stolen) laptops and other devices, as well as the increasing acceptance of wireless networks and mobile computing in the enterprise, setting up a security system to protect data stored on devices is no longer optional. And as Roger Grimes points out in this week's Security Adviser columns, if a LoJack-style remote lockdown system works for police departments, why can't it work on laptops?
The regulation race is on: Compliance issues may seem like security concerns at first (privacy, access control, and so on), but pretty soon they turn into storage issues. How are you going to archive and manage all those e-mails and documents, and how are you going to keep an eye on those automatic processes to make sure they're sucessfully doing their jobs? According to Mario Apicella, outsourcing that kind of remote management may soon be an option, if the AXS-One/EDS partnership bears fruit. Find out more in today's Storage Insider column.
Friday funny: What's the difference between a laptop and a dead fish (it has ceased to be!)? John Cleese explains in this early-80s Compaq ad. I'll leave it up to you to decides what's funnier: the dry humor or the fact that this "portable" computer weighs over 20 pounds...
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 23, 2007 11:50 AM
March 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtualization battle royale
Desktop virtualizers vie for position: If you haven't noticed, we're strong advocates of virtualization here at InfoWorld. Those of you hungry for some insight on the desktop virtualization space would be well served reading Randall C. Kennedy's recent roundup of four competing solutions from big-names like VMware, Microsoft, and Parallels, as well as a potential up-and-comer, InnoTek. In general, Randy observed some room for improvement across the board: Only one of these solutions scored above an 8. Check out the review and find out why.
XenSource vs. VMware: Speaking of virtualization, David Marshall over in the InfoWorld Virtualization Report is keeping a tab on the ongoing battle between the XenSource and VMware camps as they argue over which solution is the superior performer. Well, XenSource is poised to release a white paper later today -- which VMware has signed off on -- that says, among other things: "Our performance results show convincingly that XenEnterprise 3.2 performs equally well or better than VMware ESX Server 3.0.1 in all but a couple of tests." David will link to the white paper when it's available, so stay tuned.
Freebase and the Semantic Web: The promise of the Semantic Web has tickled and tantalized the fancy of many a techie, including InfoWorld Strategic Developer Martin Heller. Now Martin has stumbled across a promising building block for the Semantic Web: an ontology, or system of classification, called Freebase, "something like a modifiable database already integrated with a Web application." To find out why he's so excited, click on.
Posted by Ted Samson on March 22, 2007 09:45 AM
March 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Multitasking's Achilles heel
When too much is too much: Computers may be renowned for their multitasking abilities (crunching numbers, formating files, playing video, and searching for extraterrestrial life nearly simultaneously ain't half bad), but Tom Yager says that virtualization and multi-threaded software is exposing the x86's limits. Can the hardware -- and all the other computing components -- catch up to our demands? Read this week's Ahead of the Curve column to find out.
Every second counts: It's the scenario no one wants to think about... the day The Big One hits the San Francisco Bay Area, or a tornado wipes out power and phone/Internet lines to half your city, or an act of sabotage paralyzes your corporate headquarters. That's when disaster recovery plans become less of a nuisance and more of a godsend. IBM and Cisco recently teamed up to put together a disaster response and recovery service that focuses on keeping communications and networks running. Plus, they've got some nifty equipment for doing so - check out our slideshow for photos.
Video killed the radio star?: How hip is your code? David Margulius found a YouTube breakout that's all about the evolution of technology, and features "lots of raw, naked, pulsating code!" He's got the scoop on the Kansas State U. professor who created the video and how the video came together - check it out.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 21, 2007 09:31 AM
March 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Vista's hunger for power
Aero's a CPU hog: Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall C. Kennedy digs a bit deeper into the Vista's slick yet ridiculously processing-power-hungry Aero interface. It "chews up more CPU cycles (an average of 22%) with desktop composition enabled than with it disabled. In other words, turn on the "bling" and you toss nearly a quarter of your CPU bandwidth out the window." Maybe that's why HP is seemingly struggling to develop a PC that comes with Vista and also complies with Energy Star 4.0.
Taking on Dell's rugged laptop: Stephanie Bruzzese is really putting Dell's resilient Latitude ATG through the wringer in an effort to see how truly rugged it is. "Usually when you grab the sides of a laptop screen with both hands and try to twist it, you get a decent amount of bend. But I hardly got any bend at all with the Dell, even when I twisted just about as hard as I could." The laptop's not without it's flaws, though. Read her entry and find out why.
Linus on GPLv3: Over in Open Sources, Matt Asay shares some comments from the king penguin himself, Linus Torvalds, on his reasons for not supporting GPLv3. Among them, he cites the unknown issues ("I would be totally crazy to accept a license for my code sight unseen."); technical problems in the draft; and the fact that " the GPLv3 drafts have not been about developing code in the open, they've been about what you can do with that code."
Posted by Ted Samson on March 20, 2007 09:49 AM
March 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: A handy guide to open-source VoIP
DIY VoIP: The days of complete rip-and-replace VoIP installations may be waning, as open-source VoIP options (like Asterisk) and more mingling between traditional PBX vendors and VoIP vendors make for a more even playing field. If you're considering trying your hand at open-source VoIP -- or want to know more about how it all fits together -- we've got everything you need to know in this special report. Be sure to read Test Center Senior Contributing Editor Paul Venezia's tale of deploying his own Asterisk platform (a process he's mentioned a couple of times on his blog). And don't miss his screencast demonstrating how to use Trixbox 2.0, which combines Asterisk and a "whole bunch" of management tools.
Apps on the go: Randy Kennedy is dubbing PortableApps.com a "stealth technology" for its ability to become a potential app virtualization aide. Do you agree? Learn more about PortableApps.com and post your comments on the Enterprise Desktop blog.
Catching up with IBM Rational: Martin Heller got an update on IBM Rational's road map and their work on Jazz, a project that's "about integrated, globally distributed, Web-centric life-cycle development, with an emphasis on governance." Read more on the Strategic Developer blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 19, 2007 10:13 AM
March 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Security Friday
Today's edition pulls together a healthy dose of security content from our Test Center analysts and contributors -- just in time for a Friday systems check before the weekend.
Fresh from the Test Center: Defending the network used to be as simple as running a couple of scans and warning users not to open strange attachments. Nowadays, it's the Web traffic that brings in a whole host of threats (although warning those employees about those virus-bearing attachments is still a good idea). CP Secure wants to cut off threats at the pass with its CSG-2500 appliance that blocks dangerous traffic at the network edge. How does it do? Read Keith Schultz's review and find out.
Locking down Linux: Securing your Linux files doesn't need to require a major full-disk encryption purchase, says Josh Kuo. Over at the Geeks in Paradise blog, he's got a rundown on how to hide your entire file system or encrypt it the usual way.
Encryption on the road: Mario Apicella is often on the road, but he admits his laptop isn't as well-protected as it could be. Will the forthcoming ASI C8051 notebook and its built-in encryption and fingerprint scanner be the answer to his data encryption prayers?
Dumping passwords in the name of security: In this week's Security Adviser column, Roger Grimes presents the case of a client company who decided to get rid of passwords entirely, replacing them with stronger two-factor authentication. The biggest challenge? Getting back-end RSA and Citrix systems to work together. Would they succeed? Read the column and find out.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 16, 2007 09:16 AM
March 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Silver bullet storage for SMBs
All-in-ine backup: For SMBs, implementing an effective and winning mix of backup technologies can be overwhelming. Who has the time and the know-how to make it work? Well, InfoWorld's Master of Storage Mario Apicella has found an appliance that may be a dream-come-true for small and midsize businesses: the Breece Hill BizGuardian, "a self-contained appliance that combines tape drives, disk space, and a backup application under the easy management tools of Windows Server 2003."
Don't sweat OpenBSD security: Geek in Paradise Josh Kuo observes that, after a decade with a clean remote-security record, a new vulnerability has been discovered in OpenBSD. That's a pretty impressive track record indeed, Josh says, compared to OSes like Linux and Windows. "It's obviously super secure, and there are some pre-built OpenBSD-based firewall appliance installers that you can easily use with any regular PC hardware."
Cisco, please fix WebEx: The big news of the day is, Cisco has bought online conference provider WebEx for a cool $3.2 billion with the aim of delivering "a stronger combination of communications and collaboration platforms for business customers," the IDGNS reports. Well, Matt Asay over in Open Sources has a simple hope: "that maybe WebEx will actually work now." He says that his company is "already in the process of cancelling our account due to shoddy technology - it crashes all the time."
Posted by Ted Samson on March 15, 2007 09:30 AM
March 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Gateway notebook review, and arguments for open source
Gateway comes through again: He may have already swooned over Gateway's M255-E, but Oliver is liking most of what he sees from the Gateway M685-E notebook: a 17-inch behemoth that performed well over the months but could use a smidge more oomph for those who use a notebook for multimedia work (or viewing). Get all the specs and details at the Enterprise SMB blog.
Open source freedom: The Geeks in Paradise blog is planting its flag in the sand when it comes to the use of open source in business. The verdict? It's a good thing, and not just because you can save some money. Josh Kuo argues that the benefits of open-source software "freedom" -- freedom from vendor support schemes, freedom from worries that a vendor will abandon a product, and so on -- are just as important, if not more so. (Hey, even Microsoft says that if you're going to steal software, steal Microsoft products - something Matt Asay considers a sign that the open-source business model might even making advances in Redmond.) Agree? Disagree? Post your comments and join the discussion on open-source's pros and cons.
Sit, roll over, shake: Do you have tales of that must be heard to be believed? Send 'em to us! Oliver Rist is putting together a second series of "Stupid User Tricks," and while he's got a few gems of his own, we want to hear your tales from the trenches. E-mail Oliver and score some shwag if we print your war stories (anonymous or not, either is OK).
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 14, 2007 09:52 AM
March 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Data Management 101
Getting a grip on data: It's not an easy task, making a silk purse out of the sow's ear that is enterprise data: there's too much of it in too many places, it's constantly changing, and it's got to be always available to handle any request that comes in. But there are solutions that work, and InfoWorld's got the goods - check out our special report on data management and find out which data management strategies are best for keeping your information both secure and accessible.
Monday morning Xen: Big enhancements in the new beta of XenEnterprise 3.2. Check out today's Virtualization Report post for more on the added features and information on downloading it for a trial run.
Good, bad, and... ugly?: Can you spot the good SOA tech vendors? Dave Linthicum has a few tips to make sure you don't end up on the wrong side of the architecture tracks, taken in by false promises.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 12, 2007 07:49 AM
March 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Database deployments made standard
Fresh from the Test Center: More applications mean more databases mean more problems - sometimes. Standardizing deployments reduces the chance of errors, but can be an admin pain. The answer? Try a product like GridApp's Clarity 3.5. According to Sean McCown's review, this product is extremely scalable and "excellent at provisioning Oracle and RAC installations, although it delivers less functionality for SQL Server." Read the full review here.
Cancel or allow?: Vista's User Access Control may be a little extreme, but Martin Heller has more of an issue with the inability to create an elevated privilege command shell. Read more on the Strategic Developer blog, and post your own thoughts about the availability (or lack thereof) of a su command for Vista.
Watch and learn: The newest InfoClip is posted for your viewing pleasure, and it's all about SOA. If you've got three minutes, you can learn the basics of service-oriented architecture. Then, check out Dave Linthicum's Real World SOA blog for more on the link between AJAX and SOA.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 9, 2007 09:40 AM
March 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Order from database chaos
A DBA's dream come true: The prospect of managing multiple databases not only spread out across the country (or globe), but also written using varying technologies, is a bit daunting. seeMore Virtual Database Server Version 2.8.0, fortunately, provides
"a brilliant tool that will enable a large enterprise to gather its far-flung databases – regardless of their origins – under a single, relational roof," writes Test Center Contributing Editor Rick Grehan. Even with its steep price-tag, the solution is impressive enough to earn an Excellent score of 9.1.
Tuning in to VOIP: The InfoWorld LIVE! series, featuring Test Center senior contributor Oliver Rist, continues this week, and the topic du juor: voice over IP. Does it have a future? Does Oliver? Guests from Packet 8 and Linksys weigh in.
Are you ready for DST? The new Daylight Saving Time (DST) is nearly upon us, and some companies are still scrambling to get their systems patched and prepped for the big change. Whether you haven't started yet (tsk!) or have had it wrapped up for days, you could stand to benefit from some tips and real-world advice on getting ready.
Posted by Ted Samson on March 8, 2007 07:03 AM
March 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Office Live -- the promise and the pain
Thumbs down for Office Live: Oliver's been using Microsoft's Office Live for a while now, and it's long enough for him to declare that the whole thing needs a do-over. Sounds like the distant drumbeats from Google are coming closer, and the natives are restless. What do you think of Microsoft's web apps, and why isn't more AJAX showing up in their products (despite the work going on over in ASP.Net/Atlas world). Check out the latest Enterprise Windows column and post your comments.
A question of collaboration: SOA governance can be a sticky wicket, but intense collaboration and a dedication to keeping the feedback loop open are key to good governance. That's the conclusion of this analysis article by Phil Windley, and if you're in the midst of SOA projects, you'll appreciate the advice he offers up on how to assemble an architecture with less pain. Need more SOA guidance? Take a peek and Dave Linthicum's Real-World SOA blog, and don't forget our special reports - including this one on building SOA the right way.
Vista videos: Want a peek at Vista in action before you decide to upgrade? Put that popcorn in the microwave and take a seat to watch these three videos - courtesy of PC World - on Vista's user interface, the multimedia aspects, and it's security features.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 7, 2007 10:01 AM
March 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtual desktop skepticism
No ACE up VMWare's sleeve Try as VMware might to push its VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) initiative through announcements such as its ACE virtual machine management platform, the company isn't impressing Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy. "The truth is that IT shops aren't buying into the whole 'VM as a desktop replacement' story," Kennedy writes. "These customers were burned once already by the server-based computing fiasco, so they're understandably skittish about any solution that purports to replace the desktop with 'something better.'"
Zend does open source right: Zend Core, an enhanced, open-source version of PHP, has officially hit the big two-dot-oh, reports Matt Asay in the Open Sources blog. In addition to the technology, Asay applauds the Zend business model that stays true to open source: "It's all about making the code open and free, and charging for the service around that code. If you're a developer, you probably don't want the service. If you're an enterprise with uptime requirements, you can't live without it. Zend is serving both."
Saved by the Tornado: If you're like Oliver Rist and in need of performing a quick desktop-data backup, he recommends checking out The Tornado. "Think of a cable coil device with a USB 2.0 connector at either end. Hook it up between two Windows XP machines and it pops up its own file transfer tool. Each window sees the disk tree of both machines. Find what you want on one and then drag-and-drop or cut-and-paste to the other machine." Pretty slick.
Posted by Ted Samson on March 6, 2007 10:34 AM
March 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtual PC woes and open-source definitions
Virtual bomb?: Randall Kennedy says Virtual PC 2007 isn't up to snuff (actually, he says it "sucks"), and he thinks it stems from Microsoft's reluctance to embrace desktop virtualization. What do you think? Post your comments on the Enterprise Desktop blog.
Don't fear the free: Defining open-source technology has been a tricky task, and the recent explosion of companies claiming to have some form of "open" business practice doesn't make it any easier. But there is hope, and there's no reason to accept watered-down "open source" technologies when real open tech is out there. Neil McAllister lays it all out in this week's Open Enterprise column.
Live on the Web: The latest installment of the InfoWorld LIVE! radio show discusses technology startups. How does today's startup market differ from (or mirror) the crazy times of yesteryear? Listen here.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 5, 2007 09:29 AM
March 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Analyzing Vista deployment tools
Fresh from the Test Center: This week's Test Center missive analyzes Microsoft's free tools for deploying Vista. According to Oliver Rist and Brian Chee, "The company — shockingly — has succeeded" with much thanks due to Vista's imaging technology. Learn more about Vista and Office (tricky!) setups and get cracking on your own to-do list.
Wi-Fi landing pad: Test Center Chief Technologist Tom Yager reviews the Apple AirPort Extreme over on the Enterprise Mac blog. He's impressed by how much you get -- fast authentication and IP address assignment, support for the 802.11n draft standard, easy management, etc. - for the low, low price of $179. Sound good to you? Read the review for more details.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on March 2, 2007 06:00 AM
March 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Symantec probes Vista
Symantec points out Vista security holes: Microsoft poured lots of resources into making its newest OS secure, an effort that some analysts have praised. But now Symantec has released a report citing out security shortcomings in the OS. Among them: its ability to effectively ward off existing malware threats.
Google tackles click fraud: Advertisers pay good money for ad placement on Google, so it's no surprise they want to be sure that the clicks they get are legit. Alas, click fraud has been on the rise, but the search behemoth has announced plans for further-enhanced tools to combat the problem -- including giving advertisers the ability to blacklist select IP addresses.
Are you open or not? Matt Asay over in the Open Sources blog further probes the question of what makes a company open source. His definition: "My own definition of an open source company? The company must actually release code as part of its core business." And by that definition, he contends that EnterpriseDB, contrary to some opinions, is definitely not an open-source company. Why? "EnterpriseDB's business is in selling proprietary extensions to PostgreSQL. Period."
Posted by Ted Samson on March 1, 2007 08:04 AM
February 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Sunrise, sunset... and daylight savings
Here comes the sun: Daylight savings time arrives early this year - as in March 11, about a week and a half away. The date was moved up three weeks with the intent of saving some energy (check out Ted Samson's thoughts on the realities of that in the Sustainable IT blog), and the "fall back" date was also moved back a week to Nov. 4. That's no big deal in Arizona, Hawaii, or the U.S. territories. But there could be a problem for the rest of us, other than losing an extra hour of sleep: Most systems aren't programmed with the new DST switchover, so your calendars, e-mail apps, etc. could go wonky. There are patches out there to fix the blips, but you've got to make sure you're downloading and installing them correctly and all systems are covered. Here are a few resources, and Oliver Rist has a few tips on fixing this ahead of time (as well as Virtual PC 2007) in this week's Enterprise Windows column.
Virtually bummed: Speaking of virtualization, Randall Kennedy over at the Enterprise Desktop blog is not a happy virtual camper after reading VMware's "breathless diatribe it unleashed last week against all things Microsoft." According to Kennedy, VMware's spouting the kind of FUD that Redmond is so familiar with, and he's taking it as a sign that VMware is getting a bit worried about Microsoft's long-term plans. What's your take?
Parallels is out: Parallels Desktop for Mac is out and ready for use. InfoWorld IT director Kevin Railsback has the update details and download link. Tom Yager touts Parallels as the tool that helped him begin an experiment: is it possible to successfully switch a long-time, hardcore PC user to a Mac? Follow the experiment in Yager's Ahead of the Curve columns.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 28, 2007 09:33 AM
February 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Daily: IBM won't do Oracle Linux
Big Blue says "no" to Oracle: Matt Asay over in the Open Sources blog notes that IBM, for the time being, isn't ready to promise users that its software will run on Oracle's brand of Linux, despite Oracle's claims that its Linux is just like Red Hat's. But Matt, he knows Red Hat Linux. He's worked with Red Hat Linux. Oracle Linux, he declares: You're no Red Hat Linux.
Acrobat aggravation: In its efforts to battle software piracy, Adobe may have gone a bit too far with its DRM implementation, judging by an anecdote shared by GripeLine blog Ed Foster. A reader wrote in about his trials and tribulations getting Adobe Acrobat to stay activated on his systems and the pains of getting unhelpful support from the company. "If the DRM is going to be phoning home periodically anyway, there's no reason it has to be tied to specific hardware components of your system," Foster concludes. Tell him what you think.
Will Dell deliver the Linux goods? Geek in Paradise John Kuo notes the Dell customers have called for the company to ship some of its systems loaded with free versions of Linux -- Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE -- as well as other open-source wares. Dell already ships Linux on systems in China. Heck, the company has tried to selling Linux-loaded systems before in the U.S., but soon gave up. Will it work this time around?
Posted by Ted Samson on February 27, 2007 09:11 AM
February 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: iSCSI in the spotlight
Fresh from the Test Center: It's an iSCSI explosion! We've got reviews of LeftHand Networks' SAN/iQ and the EqualLogic PS3800XV, plus a full report on iSCSI's present and future. If you're looking for storage upgrades, this is the report to read.
What's up, bot?: Several recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, including one against his friends at CastleCops, have Roger Grimes steamed. But is there any good defense against an onslaught of bots? A little knowledge of how bots and botnets operate can help, so check out the most recent Security Adviser column for a primer.
License liability: Looks like Red-Gate's licensing for SQL Backup is awfully particular about which computer you use your license on. Sean McCown explains that by Red-Gate's wording, a SQL Backup license is non-transferrable... that means if you're consolidating hardware or some other such activity, those SQL Backup licenses can't go into the general pool. Read more about the exact license wording and Sean's thoughts on this issue on his Database Underground blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 26, 2007 09:25 AM
February 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Daily: New blogs on the block
Desktop tech and green IT: We've added a couple more entrees to InfoWorld.com's blog buffet. Test Center Contributor Randall C. Kennedy is the author of the new Enterprise Desktop blog in which he'll be honing in on -- as the blog title suggests -- enterprise desktop computing technologies, such as DreamScene, which he dubs "A Nightmare on Vista Street."
Meanwhile, since I am not above self-promotion, allow me to introduce you to my new blog, Sustainable IT. I'll be exploring issues of green technology, including strategies for making your business more energy efficient. And make no mistake: Energy efficiency should be a top concern for you as data-center power needs continue to rise but sources of reliable energy aren't keeping pace. (Then there's the environmental issues and that whole global warming thing.)
System Restore and Windows: Strategic Developer Martin Heller raised some questions about System Restore on Windows a while back. Specifically, he commented that admins seemingly have less control over restore points in Vista than they do with XP. Well, a program manager at Microsoft pointed him to some information about System Restore that proved somewhat useful -- though Martin still wonders why that info was buried in a Technet blog instead of actual documentation.
Posted by Ted Samson on February 23, 2007 08:55 AM
February 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Beat the bots
Botnet resources: Roger Grimes compiled a handy - and thorough - list of reading material about botnets and denial of service attacks. Check them out on the Security Adviser blog and get up to speed fast.
VoIP to go: VoIP on your cell - is it a pipe dream? Oliver Rist says no, although he admits it's going to take a while for the tech to come around thanks in no small part to telecom's delay tactics. In the meantime, the DiVitas MCA can give your DIY VoIP-cell project a leg up. Find out more about this appliance (and Oliver's push for a special summer bikini issue) in this week's Enterprise Windows column.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 22, 2007 06:00 AM
February 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: More virtualization goodies
Virtual vital signs: Microsoft released its free Virtual PC 2007 to the masses -- David Marshall says it may be the last version of Virtual PC we'll see. You can download Virtual PC 2007 here. And if you missed last week's InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum , have no fear: you can download the presentations and peruse them in the comfort of your own chair. (There's a podcast series on virtualization available, too.)
1 Picture = 1,000 words: IBM's got a snazzy visual data representation tool called Many Eyes, and to show how it works, they've created a picture of recent data theft statistics that certainly shows where the biggest breaches hit. Paul Roberts has all the info about Many Eyes and IBM's Visual Communications Lab over on the Tech Watch blog.
Enterprise mashups get real: It's more than just mashing up a map with a random data source; enterprise mashup applications take some extra care and feeding to make sure they stay current and useful. Find out more in our special report on enterprise mashups and SOA
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 20, 2007 09:54 AM
February 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Treo security alert and Microsoft's online video debut
Fix it or forget it: First it was Qualcomm not patching a vulnerability in Eudora WorldMail. Now, Palm is following that same path: it will not be fixing a Treo password bypass problem found by Symantec. Roger Grimes is appalled, and plans to dump his Treo. What do you think?
Surf's up: If you missed the InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum earlier this week, don't despair too much. We've got a flood of videos and presentations that will be coming your way over the next few days, not to mention an excellent collection of analysis articles and product reviews. Start off with this interview of Don Norbeck of SunGard and his thoughts on the coming virtualizaion tidal wave, then check out Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens' thoughts on virtualization features to come in future Linux releases.
Soapbox vs. YouTube: The battle begins: Microsoft opened the doors to its MSN Soapbox online video service today, offering it up as a public beta. Will this be a You Tube killer? Looks like it does most of the same things, although you can watch a video while searching for others at the same time (check out Soapbox for yourself here). Perhaps the larger question is: do we really need another way to watch the Mentos-and-Diet-Coke video? (P.S. Wonder why that combination of candy and soda works? Here's some explanation, courtesy of the MythBusters...)
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 15, 2007 09:59 AM
February 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Wi-Fi and VOIP are ready to mesh
Seamless wireless: Enterprise Windows columnist Oliver Rist is taking a much-needed break from Vista and donning his prognostication cap. His prediction for this year: Wi-Fi and VOIP are going to converge in a big way. The bad news is, we likely won't start reaping the real benefits of that melding for a while.
Will Internet kill the video star? The aforementioned Oliver Rist has indeed been busy, having just wrapped up the 4th episode of InfoWorld LIVE!, our Internet radio program. This week's focus is on data centers and how building strategies are changing. Special guests include Phillip Pokorny of Penguin Computers/Scyld and Test Center Senior Contributing Editor Logan Harbaugh.
Book review: Ajax on Rails: InfoWorld's Strategic Developer Martin Heller recently curled up with Scott Raymond's new book Ajax on Rails. "Focusing on the Ajax support in Ruby on Rails in just about the right depth for most developers, and offering some valuable insight without going too far afield," Martin reports.
Posted by Ted Samson on February 14, 2007 09:37 AM
February 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Parallels security alert and laptop raves
Heads-up on Parallels: Kevin Railsback, InfoWorld's IT director, is spreading the word about a potential vulnerability in the Parallels beta. (For more about this Windows-to-OSX connection technology, check out our review of Parallels.) According to Railsback, "a recent addition to the Parallels Beta, called Global Sharing, can open up OS X itself to possible attacks from the Windows side." Get more details here and learn how to close the hole.
One for the road: Oliver Rist got his hands on a Gateway M255-E SB laptop, and he doesn't want to give it back. His review on the SMB IT blog says that this little notebook took a licking and kept on ticking, handling everything Oliver threw at it. Sounds like Gateway's going to have a hard time prying this one out of his hot little hands...
Have you seen the InfoClipz yet? Primers on storage virtualization, server virtualization, and SaaS, all in one easy-on-the-eyes video clip. Check 'em out.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 13, 2007 10:01 AM
February 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: 10G at $1,500 per port
Dell delivers: Value-conscious network admins would be well-served adding Dell's new PowerConnect 6248 to their short list of switches. Test Center analyst Paul Venezia finds the gear -- a full Layer-3 switch that can handle up to four 10G ports in addition to 48 gigabit Ethernet ports -- to be a solid piece of hardware for an incredibly low price.
Introducing InfoClipz: If you're curious about information technology concepts like software as a service or virtualization, and you have three minutes to spare, check out InfoWorld's latest offering: InfoClipz, easy-to-digest videos about some tricky technology topics. Our library thus far includes Software as as Service, Storage Virtualization, and Server Virtualization -- with lots more to come.
Virtualization under the hood: Speaking of virtualization, we've put together an essential owner's manual to server, storage, application, and desktop virtualization technologies will help you break the limits of traditional, tightly coupled systems.
Posted by Ted Samson on February 12, 2007 08:55 AM
February 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Color multifunction printer reviews
Color-rific: Can your company's color printer make copies? Fax documents? Serve as a scanner? If you answered "no" to any of those questions and you want to change that, check out the Test Center's head-to-head comparison of four color MFPs. These systems from Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba, and Xerox vary in speed and performance, so choose wisely. And if you want to see more color printer reviews, you'll find them in the Product Guide.
Is your storage ready for Vista?: Mario Apicella is exploring Vista's impact on storage over at the Storage Network blog -- and it looks like things are running about 50-50 in terms of good and bad news. Learn more about Mario's restore story here, and his personal storage tests here.
RSA Roundup: In case you missed the boatload of products, news announcements, company launches, and general hoopla coming out of this year's RSA show, we've got a full rundown in this special report. And don't forget the video interviews, too.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 9, 2007 06:00 AM
February 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: On the road with Windows
Windows goes Mobile: Ever needed to write up those meeting notes, but have nothing around except your cell phone? The next version of Windows Mobile 6 will put the power of Office at your fingertips. Learn more from Ephraim Schwartz's news scoop.
Who are you?: Control over who can access what types of information is bound to be critical in the face of more federal data regulations and growing insider data-leak threats... can XML make a difference? Check out this video interview with Andrew Nash (formerly of RSA and Reactivity) and hear more about XML's role in identity management.
No more Minesweeper: Think your staff is productive? Think they could be more productive? Here are 12 productivity tips to help ditch the YouTube slacking and get back to work.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 8, 2007 06:00 AM
February 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: To Barcelona and beyond
A trip to Barcelona: AMD has a big fan for its forthcoming x86 CPU: InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager. "Barcelona is genius," he writes, "a genuinely new CPU that frees itself entirely of the millstone of the Pentium legacy. It'll do the same for you." Intrigued? Read on!
MS's connectile dysfunction: What do you get when you put three tipsy geeks in a hot tub? A debate over the merits of Microsoft's and Google's collaboration wares. Enterprise Windows columnist Oliver Rist shares highlights from the debate with a focus on the improvements Microsoft has added to SharePoint.
Visiting Vista: Regular visiting to InfoWorld.com have likely seen at least some of Oliver's countless (and very informative) write-ups about Vista. Well, if you want some impressions from our other analysts, you should check out Paul Venezia's latest blog entry about his views on Vista, as well as Mac fan Tom Yager's dive into the OS (with more to come).
Posted by Ted Samson on February 7, 2007 09:29 AM
February 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Mobile mashups
Smash it up: Mobio's Mobile 2.0 puts personalized mashups on mobile devices. Could be just the thing for that intern who gets lost on the way to get coffee. Check out the video of Mobio's Demo presentation and see for yourself if this widget is worth waiting for. (And take a peek at all our other Demo videos, too.)
Off the hook: A new anti-phishing feature in IE7 caught Roger Grimes' interest. Called "High Assurance," it color-codes the addres bar for safe links, adding another layer of verification to potentially thwart phishing schemes. Find out more on the Security Adviser blog or the Spyware Sucks blog.
Into the wild blue yonder: Tom Yager's Vista voyage begins with this post. That's right - InfoWorld's resident Mac man is tuning in and booting up. Follow the adventure as Tom enters the world of Microsoft's newest OS on the Enterprise Mac blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 6, 2007 06:00 AM
February 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Four-way NAC attack
A NAC for security: In this day and age, you don't just want any ol' system connecting to your company's network; that innocent-looking device could be packing a fistful of wormy or viral unpleasantness. InfoWorld Analyst Steve Hultquist looks at a quartet of NAC (network access control) solutions, Enterasys Sentinel Trusted Access, McAfee Policy Enforcer, Symantec Network Access Control, and Trend Micro Network VirusWall Enforcer, to determine which was best delivers policy-based NAC. We did find a winner -- but all the vendors have work to do.
Can Oracle do MySQL? Late last year, Oracle stirred up the IT industry with its offer of low-price support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This week, InfoWorld Open Enterprise Columnist Neil McCallister contemplates whether Oracle may be poised to develop its own branded version of popular open-source database MySQL -- and more important, could the company compete.
WLW woes: Martin Heller, InfoWorld's Strategic Developers, decided to try out Microsoft's Windows Live Writer (currently in beta) for blogging. Alas, the path from creating a blog entry to posting it via Movable Type (InfoWorld's blog-publishing system of choice) proved rocky, to say the least -- but at least there were lessons to be learned.
Posted by Ted Samson on February 5, 2007 08:25 AM
February 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Who's the most insecure OS of them all?
Debunking security myths: Roger A. Grimes, InfoWorld's Security Adviser, counters critics who declare Windows the most difficult OS to keep secure. To that, Grimes says, "Unless you're running OpenBSD, this statement is usually untrue. All of those other OSes end up with a fair amount of published vulnerabilities that need to be patched."
See DEMO run: If you couldn't make it to DEMO this year, fear not; you needn't miss out on all the glitz and techno-glamor. We got plenty of videos from the event featuring products like "the poor man's Blackberry" and Mobio's Mobile 2.0 product for creating personalized mashups on mobile devices.
It's the little things: Strategic Developer Martin Heller discovers that Ruby in Steel, a Ruby programming environment for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, will run on Windows XP, but not on Vista, for rather suprising reasons.
Posted by Ted Samson on February 2, 2007 09:59 AM
February 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Live from Demo
On the floor at Demo: With new technologies whizzing about their ears, both Ephraim Schwartz and Steve Fox are blogging from the 2007 Demo show - you'll find their latest postings on the Reality Check and TechWatch blogs. From inkless printing to someone calling SaaS old school to a slideshow of presentation tidbits, we've got your Demo needs covered.
A whale of a tale: Martin Heller is still fiddling around with Orcas. After getting more RAM and doing some image work, it looks like the beta of the next version of Microsoft Visual Studio is playing nice again. That doesn't mean it's all peaches and cream, though i- Heller thinks his original instincts were right about waiting for the next drop. (P.S. Check out Heller's REST posts for more app dev insights.)
Talking heads: Two recent interviews that are worth a read: Matthew Szulik discussing Red Hat's future, and Bill Gates getting grilled about Vista on NPR.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on February 1, 2007 06:00 AM
January 31, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Cisco unveils new Catalyst switches
Catalyst for change: InfoWorld Test Center Analyst and networking guru Paul Venezia reports on some of the newest additions to the Cisco's ever-growing family of Catalyst switches. The new hardware, as well as software upgrades, was announced just today, and they demonstrate that Cisco indeed still has some enterprise tricks up its sleeve to fend off lower-price competition from rivals like Dell.
Ready or not ...: Unless you've been harboring yourself in an undisclosed location the past few years, you know what Vista is, and you know that's it's really and truly here. And if you're an admin especially, you've got to deal with it. Let Enterprise Windows columnist Oliver Rist continues to help, as he details a couple of Vista features that warrant some close attention: insta-OS upgrading, and deep searching.
Sun still shines on AMD: Reports of AMD's death have been greatly exaggerated, according to InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager. Yes, there have been reports that Sun has started buying chips from Intel, but Tom points out, "AMD will continue to supply Sun Microsystems with enterprise-grade x86 server CPUs. Sun found in Intel a cheap second source of supply for x86 microprocessors."
Posted by Ted Samson on January 31, 2007 10:01 AM
January 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Vista, Vista everywhere
Vista on my mind: The official release of Micrsoft Vista is finally here. If you were one of the folks waiting outside a CompUSA to snag the first copy at 12:05am, I hope you've got some naptime scheduled for this afternoon. If you're gearing up for the install, check out Oliver Rist's last-minute countdown tips: finding a GPU, learning the rules of the new game selections, running a firewall check, getting those home movies ready for wallpaper viewing, and monitoring random downloads by your users. On the other hand, it looks like interoperability is still an issue for security products, especially with multiple versions of the OS. Looking for more ? You'll find all our Vista coverage here. Happy upgrading!
DIY appliances?: Embedded Linux is big in the appliance space, especially when it comes to security appliances. But that doesn't mean you can't roll your own, thanks to the Debian Router Project. Check out the list of potential appliance ideas over at the Geeks in Paradise blog, and start building boxes.
When "IE only" isn't the whole story: Tom Yager had to bite his tongue during a recent webcast prep: On24 informed him that he had to use IE on Windows. Not an easy pill to swallow for InfoWorld's resident Mac man. But the real surprise came about when Yager started digging into On24's code -- turns out, it does support a couple of other platforms besides IE. So why not tout this fact? That's the $10,000 question, folks.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 30, 2007 09:41 AM
January 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Big box o' EAI
Caging the beast: Enterprise application integration is one tough animal to tame. Cast Iron Systems offers a rather innovative approach: stuff EAI into a box. Test Center Analyst Martin Heller peeks into the Cast Iron iA3000 to discover that the hardware approach does indeed ease the EAI process -- at the expense of reduced capability. And if seeing is believing, check out Keith Schultz finds that it doesn't do nearly as well with traffic such as FTP and MAPI.
Peek into MS's virtual labs: Over in the InfoWorld Virtualization Report, David Marshall offers a peek into Microsoft's shiny new virtual labs, "which allow you to quickly evaluate and test Microsoft's newest server products through a series of guided, hands-on labs which can be completed in 90 minutes or less."
Posted by Ted Samson on January 29, 2007 09:00 AM
January 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: On the verge of Vista
Countdown to Vista: With less than a week to go before Vista is released to the masses, it's time to get ready for the upgrade. Oliver Rist is posting his last-minute get-ready tips on this blog - you'll find tip #1 here. For more on upgrading to Vista, check out our in-depth analysis and the latest news, predictions, and rumors on our Vista news page,
You oughtta be in movies: EMC is embracing online video with a series of webcasts and demonstrations that could end up providing a nice glimpse of products in action, says Mario Apicella. His verdict? The topics sound interesting so far, but ignore the marketing-speak descriptions. And if you're looking for more insight into EMC's strategy, check out our recent exploration of their secret plan for world domination (what better to explain all those acquisitions?)
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 25, 2007 10:22 AM
January 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Scrybe embraces Web 2.0 innovation
Web 2.0 winner: If you've been impressed by online organizers like Google Calendar, consider following the lead of Test Center Analyst Mike Heck and taking a peek at Scrybe. The aesthetically pleasing, Flash-based organizer -- still in beta -- is brimming with "Web 2.0 innovations with new approaches to traditional functions, including printing." The company has even nailed online/offline syncing: "The service made a local copy of my data, let me work disconnected, and then automatically synced changes when I reconnected."
Peeking into Project Server 2007: Enterprise Windows columnist Oliver Rist has been buried in new Microsoft wares for a while, but every so often he emerges with some insights. The latest: his impressions of Project Server 2007. Coupled with the Enterprise version of the Project client, he finds that Project Server 2007 delivers handy features such as Project View, an all-around managerial dashboard on the health of all your projects.
Microsoft preps for Vista SP: Speaking of Microsoft, the company is already taking orders for Vista's first service pack, Jeremy Kirk reports. Vista was released to businesses last November and is slated to reach consumers next Tuesday. Feedback for Vista is coming from testers who are part of Redmond's Technology Adoption Program (TAP).
Posted by Ted Samson on January 24, 2007 08:39 AM
January 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Sun-Intel chip deal and Orcas details
Killer (whale) app: "Orcas," the code-name for the next version of Microsoft Visual Studio, is making a couple of waves. It's getting a new Web designer, for one. And Martin Heller delves into specifics about some of its security meansures and the install requirements for the preview on the Strategic Developer blog.
Sun-Intel, part deux: Much has been reported about the Sun-Intel chip agreement. But don't miss Paul Krill's interview with Tom Goguen, Sun's vice president of Solaris marketing, and Doug Fisher, Intel vice president of systems software, on the future of SPARC and Neil McAllister's take on the chip news (Neil also recently outlined seven ways Sun could boost Solaris to a true Linux contender).
Switch-a-roo: Brian Chee thought his quest for a "small manageable gig desk switch" would go forever unfufilled. However, a sample switch sent over by HP is giving him hope for the future. See all the statistics on the Geeks in Paradise blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 23, 2007 06:00 AM
January 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Oracle SOA sweetness
Sowing the seeds of SOA: The allure of SOA is strong; the path there, though, is precarious. Test Center Analyst James R. Borck discovers in the lab that Oracle has made the move potentially easier with Oracle SOA Suite 10g Release 3, "the most comprehensive and easy to use product on the market today for effectively developing and securing most [SOAs]."
The rocky road toward Vista: If you're overwhelmed by the prospect of not only moving to Vista, but by the choice of whether to pick up Office and Exchange 2007 allowing the way, you're certainly not alone. There are certainly potential benefits -- but there are, of course, potential costs, and not just in the form of licensing fees. Oliver Rist shares some insights and perspectives from other IT pros stumbling down the rocky migration road which just might give you the guidance you need.
How can Solaris beat Linux? Whether or not Sun appreciates unsolicited advice, Neil McCallister has seven pieces of it for the company regarding what Sun should do it if wants to win back its Unix market share. Among his suggestions: Open up OpenSolaris under the Gnu GPL, and beautify the Solaris desktop.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 22, 2007 09:15 AM
January 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Recasting the Net
Building a better Internet: Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes foresees a huge Internet crime theft that will interrupt the Internt, the banking system, and business in general for a week or more. The problem, simply: The Internet as we know it is not sufficiently secure to stop it from happening. The solution, Grimes proposes: Build a new, secure Internet that he's calling Internet/S. How'd that work? Click and read.
Fault Simulator has its faults: InfoWorld's Strategic Developer Martin Heller got his hands on Version 2 of Compuware DevPartner Fault Simulator. Although he did find advances in testing and improving .Net application-exception handling, the specialized product still his its shortcomings, including a notably high price-tag.
Track those assests: Test Center Analyst Jeff Angus dips into Maxager 7.3 analysis system to discover an innovative BPM (business process management) solution that sops up back-end data to deliver return on assets (ROA) results. But instead of measuring net margin by product, Maxager calculates the margin per minute that your assets are capable of generating.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 19, 2007 07:39 AM
January 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Exchange 2007 in the crosshairs
It's going to be a bumpy ride: Despite the post-CES haze, Oliver Rist has a pretty clear view of Exchange 2007 -- and it's not all pretty. This week's Enterprise Windows column details some of the potholes in the new version of Exchange, from 64-bit problems to management misalignments.
Here comes the Sun: David Marshall's got a few details of Sun's virtualization additions (and other new features) for Solaris 10 on the Virtualization Report blog. Is the sign of Sun making a run on Linux? And in other virtualization news, check out the updated lineup for InfoWorld's upcoming Virtualization Executive Forum in February.
Roy G. Biv gets into security: Roger Grimes' recent Security Adviser column on rainbow tables got a response from Phillipe Oechslin that explains a new use for rainbow tables: cracking Office documents. Oechslin is the man who developed rainbow tables, so he certainly knows of what he speaks.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 18, 2007 11:19 AM
January 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Rich CRM-y goodness
Salesforce to be reckoned with: It's been a while since Test Center Analyst dove into hosted CRM service Salesforce.com, but his latest look suggests it was well worth the wait. "The Winter '07 release offers plenty of updates that should put SFDC back in the spotlight and help it compete in the on-demand SFA space. A more flexible UI, improved workflow, and new server-side programming options greatly improve business opportunity," he writes. And you visual types especially should check out our slideshow tour of the product.
Take my BlackBerry ... please! InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager pays tribute to the arguable king of mobile devices: the BlackBerry. It may not be as sexay as the iPhone and other gadgets unveiled at CES, but by golly, the thing does what you want it to: It pushes your e-mail messages to you reliably. Yet still, Tom dreams of a finding a superphone that will give him cause to retire his BlackBerry, one "that reaches beyond the concept of two-way paging and yet works the instant you remove your device from its box."
Reading material: Strategic Developer Martin Heller reports that Raymond Chen's new book The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows has a little something for everyone -- though the more you know about programming, you more you'll get out of it. "If you're an old Windows programmer, like me, you'll follow the whole book with interest."
Posted by Ted Samson on January 17, 2007 07:31 AM
January 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtualization goes open-source
What's in the box?: For all the buzz about virtualization in 2006, it's certainly not dying down in 2007. InnoTek is making its VirtualBox virtualization platform available as open-source technology under the GPL, a move that could prove interesting as the market develops. Get more details on the Virtualization Report blog. (Greg Nawrocki on the Grid Meter blog has a few virtualization resources to recommend, too.)
Fresh from the Test Center: Our exclusive review of BMC's AppSight bug-finder finds that it's a great bundle of code-testing features -- as long as you don't need to run it on Linux or Unix servers.
Second Life spotlight: It may be a virtual world with all the trappings of meatspace and amazingly complex environments and customized avatars, but what does it take to keep the Second Life environment running? Get a peek behind the curtain as InfoWorld Editor in Chief Steve Fox talks to Joe Miller, vice president of platform and technology development at Linden Lab in this video interview.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 16, 2007 09:49 AM
January 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Triple blade battle
Which blade server cuts it? When the InfoWorld Test Center called forth challengers for our latest server-blade duel, four answered -- yet only three showed up to do battle: Dell, HP, and Sun. The no-show was IBM, which inexplicably backed out at the very last minute. Jump to whatever conclusions you like there. As for the testing among the remaining trio, analysts Brian Chee and Paul Venezia discovered a rennaisance under way in the world of blades as the technology continues to evolve toward enterprise-worthiness -- especially with the increasing popularity and viability of virtualization.
Open source yield better code: Senior Editor Neil McAllister takes a look at the business strategy of Aras, a company that recently open-sourced its suite of product development and planning software -- which run exclusively on Microsoft. Surprising? Perhaps. But the company finds that when it can spend more time on developing code than counting its software licenses, the creates greater demand for its products -- and revenue through support services.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 15, 2007 03:00 AM
January 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: A triple dose of reviews
Potent yet pricy bug catcher: Developer want bugs in their code about as much as chefs want flies in their soup of the day. Unfortunately, the former can be a lot more difficult to find and remove. Test Center analyst Andrew Binstock got to take an exclusive look at BMC/Identify AppSight which proved itself an astoundingly potent solution for reproducing and tracking down bugs. Its feature set is astounding, but alas, its pricetag may be more than many shops will be able (or willing) to afford.
Exchange killer returns with a vengeance: The first time Test Center analysts Oliver Rist and Jamie Bernstein looked at the Gordano Messaging Suite, they determined the had a potent Linux-fueled alternative to Exchange on their hands. Well, GMS has hit version 12, and it's even better than before, Jamie finds, boasting more polish, better management features, spruced up calendaring, and more. Further, its AutoPort feature makes migrating from Exchange astoundingly simple.
Cisco upgrades 7200 series: It's kind of like putting a state-of-the-art sports car engine in the frame of your 2001 family sedan. Cisco has unleased the new NPE (Network Processing Engines) G2 for its lines of 7200 router series, which will let admins upgrade their hardware without having to take it off the rack. Test Center Analyst Paul Venezia finds in his testing that new engine doubles the 7200's performance -- plus it comes with other nifty features, like VPN acceleration.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 12, 2007 03:00 AM
January 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Dispatches from CES
Gadgets and gizmos galore: Oliver Rist is braving the Vegas crowds at CES to bring you a taste of the portable future. Check out the fancy Flybook tablet, Packet8's VoIP deal (with nifty video phone), and Buffalo Technology's small-but-powerful TeraStation Pro II. Looks like there are plenty of new toys to drool over at this year's show, although today's Enterprise Windows column takes Microsoft to task for a few shortcomings in its Home Server.
The other side of CES: On the other hand, Brian Chee is at CES too, and he's discovering a dark side: there are still many, many Bluetooth devices roaming the world without security protection. Brian did a straightforward experiment: "some simple scanning with my old iPaq H3900 with the older v1.0 Blue Tooth radio. (limited distance) With at least 2 dozen devices in range, 80% of these were willing to talk to me, 80% of those were willing to accept business cards and 10% were willing to accept a file." Yikes. Time to re-examine your wireless security.
Speed racer: InfoWorld storage maven Mario Apicella's looking for faster storage before diving into Vista. Turns out there are a couple of technologies making waves in the performance fishbowl: the SanDisk SSD UATA 5000, hybrid drives, and Intel's Robson cache. Check out today's Storage Insider column and find out if any of these are ready for prime time booting.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 11, 2007 09:37 AM
January 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Apple rings in iPhone era
iPhone's no Blackberry killer: Apple unleashed its much-anticipated iPhone at the Macworld 2007, but InfoWorld Mac enthusiast Tom Yager declares that Apple's latest gadget isn't a match for the ever-popular Blackberry, which boasts are far more impressive feature set from for the average mobile worker. Further, Apple has tied iPhone users to Cingular/AT&T service, rather than giving them the freedom to choose for themselves.
Don't be a tool: Database Underground blogger Sean McCown has some good career advice for DBAs out there: Actively and freely volunteer the wealth of your knowledge at your company to ensure better job security. "If I hear someone talking about an Excel sheet they do every month, I ask them questions about it to see if it's smoething that could be brought into the DB to make their job easier."
Call IT like you see it: 2006 marked an important turning point in the IT world observes aforementioned Tom Yager. Rather than letting themselves be swayed by vendors as to what was right for their shops, IT managers set their own respective courses, then made vendors deliver the necessary solutions. Expect that to continue this year, he writes: "This will be a year during which vendors adjust to the fact that convenience, risk aversion, and status quo are not permanent IT priorities."
Posted by Ted Samson on January 10, 2007 06:00 AM
January 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: AJAX, Macworld, and CES, oh my!
Stranger danger: Martin Heller, author of the new Strategic Developer blog, recently set his sights on AJAX security and the role of prototype properties. He outlines a way in which a hacker can use prototyping to "hijack standard functions in a way that breaks security without causing any error message." Yikes. Check out Heller's example and figure out if there's any solution other than "don't talk to strangers."
Macworld vs. CES: Two big shows in one week, and we've got you covered. Tom Yager is blogging live from Macworld, so read his show preview and keep an eye on the Enterprise Mac blog for the latest posts (including coverage of Steve Jobs' keynote). You can also find out if that iPod-style Apple phone is (or is not) coming soon with our Macworld news roundup. As for the gadget-fest that is CES, we've got folks on the floor in Vegas, too -- we even tracked down Bill Gates for a video interview. The latest CES stories are all found here (touchscreen Vista laptop, anyone?).
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 9, 2007 09:46 AM
January 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Something wiki this way comes
Wading through wikis: Wikis have gained momentum as media for sharing information. Part of the credit for that might go to Wikipedia for demonstrating the technology's potential, but vendors have been hard at work priming their wiki wares to enhance enterprise collaboration. That's one of the take-aways from InfoWorld Analyst Mike Heck's test drive of four wiki packages from Atlassian Confluence, Near-Time, Socialtext, and Traction.
Open source distributed storage: Open Enterprise columnist Neil McCallister guides us through an innovative open source storage technology from Cleversafe that's "provides fast, reliable, highly available storage ... in a unique way. A document is sliced up into chunks of data which are saved on various different disparate servers. Using complex algorithms, the full document can recreated -- even if some of the servers are down. Definitely on the of the most interesting approaches to storage I've read about in a while.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 8, 2007 06:00 AM
January 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: See VMware run!
VMware 3 in action: Not long ago, the InfoWorld Test Center had a chance to take a deep dive into the new VMWare Infrastructure 3. Analyst Paul Venezia deemed it excellent, but we have some good news for the healthy skeptics out there who subscribe to the mantra "Seeing is believing": We have a screencast, narrated by Paul, showing VMWare at work. Check out part one here.
The rainbow-security connection: Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes finds the treasured potential for stronger passwords at the end of the rainbow. Actually, make that within rainbow tables, which "contain hash values that represent a likely subset of all possible passwords the cracker wants to use."
New year, new patches: If one of your new year's resolutions is to stay on top of patches, next Tuesday will give you an chance to get started: Microsoft will be releasing eight patches addressing flaws, some of which are critical, in its Windows, Office, and Visual Studio products.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 5, 2007 08:20 AM
January 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Piecing together Microsoft's collaboration puzzle
In the collaboration Groove: Oliver's back from the holidays with a resolution to do a full review of Microsoft's Groove Server 2007 in the coming year. The reason? The flood of collaboration talk coming out of Redmond these days, from SharePoint to OfficeLive. This week's Enterprise Windows column puts the Microsoft collaboration puzzle together.
Boot this: A new feature in the latest Parallels Desktop beta caught Tom Yager's eye this week -- it spans the physical-virtual gulf by "wiring its Desktop virtualization software for Intel Macs to treat a Boot Camp (Windows) partition as a virtual disk." Intriguing? Tom thinks so.
Watch those PDFs: A new PDF XSS exploit popped up recently - make sure you're protected. Roger Grimes has links to more information and discussions on the Security Adviser blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 4, 2007 06:00 AM
January 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Technology of the Year Awards
Pass the champagne: Now that the midnight hoopla is over, the party hats put away, the bar closed, and confetti cleaned out of couch cushions, clothing, and shrubbery, it's time to kick off 2007 with the InfoWorld Test Center's annual Technology of the Year Awards. Check out our rundown of the top tech trends and our predictions for 2007, then view slideshows featuring the 41 products selected as winners from all reviews conducted in 2006. Are we on target? Off base? Post your comments and let us know.
OpenBSD, continued: Roger Grimes follows up his column on OpenBSD's excellent security with a couple of useful pointers posted in the Security Adviser blog. First, there's a first-timer's installation guide with step-by-step instructions, then a few clarifications and corrections to the original column, and finally, a few useful websites for those exploring OpenBSD.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on January 2, 2007 02:13 PM
December 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: 2007, here we come
Microsoft, Version 2007: Enterprise Windows columnist Oliver Rist dons his stylish prophet robes and puts forth some predictions of what to expect out of Redmond in the year to come. Among them: Crossbow, the next version of Windows Mobile, is going to have an impact, plus Microsoft will unleash something of interest in the virtualization space.
Linux resolution: Speaking of the new year, Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes has made a new year's resolution -- for you: Give OpenBSD a try. Why? "There is no better secure, popular OS than OpenBSD. ... To date, only one remote vulnerability has been found in the OpenBSD kernel."
Kickin' NAS: Over in the InfoWorld Virtualization Report podcast, David Marshall explores the storage side of virtualization, examining some recent moves from Hitachi and BlueArc. Don your headphones and take a listen.
Farewell, 2006:With 2007 just around the corner, I'd like to you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year on behalf of the InfoWorld Test Center. We're proud of the work we've done in 2006, and we look forward to bringing you more in-depth product reviews and analysis in 2007. If there are products you'd like for us to look at in the coming year, please feel free to comment below.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 29, 2006 09:30 AM
December 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Mac file security and phone fun
Mac attack: Brian Chee and the Hawaii lab staff kicked around a copy of PocketMac SecureNotes, and found it's not half bad for protecting sensitive, valuable information at the file level. Find out more about the UIs and other details on the Geeks in Paradise blog.
Phoning home: Paul Venezia is another step closer to completing his Asterisk system, thanks to a Linksys SPA-3102 FXO/FXS SIP ATA, "which will be the bridge between Asterisk and one of the incoming POTS lines to the lab." Learn more about this telecom project in progress on Paul's blog, from its start to current state.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on December 28, 2006 01:57 PM
December 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Search the wiki way?
Search with human smarts: With search powerhouses like Google and Yahoo in the way, it could be tough for a new engine to get up and running. But the founder of Wikipedia has plans to launch a new search engine, called Wikisari, early next year, with the hopes of making search smarter through human-power, as well as more open and thus more trustworthy. Will it be a success?
A look ahead: The new year means time for a fresh start, something Chief Technologist Tom Yager plans to make. Among them, he wants to take a new look "at long-forgotten PC UNIX, the simple beauty that, but for in-fighting and litigiousness, would have given us a slender, mature, inviolable operating system core." He'd also like to spend more time getting to know the newly open-sourced language of Java. What else is up his 2007 sleeve?
SMB techs for 2007: Test Center Analyst Oliver Rist is dispensing some of his SMB technology wisdom in his Emerging Enterprise podcast, sharing some tips on what to look for in a backup solution, as well as what technologies you should be watching for in the new year. Oh, and speaking of new technology, he has a new microphone!
Posted by Ted Samson on December 27, 2006 07:58 AM
December 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: 2006 in pics
What a year: We at InfoWorld have had an amazingly busy year as we've cranked out 50 print issues while keeping the Web site freshly updated with news, reviews, and analyses. Online Editor Mike Barton has put together a nifty slideshow highlighting some of the top articles we've done, featuring some of the ever-impressive art done by our talented art department.
VMware Fusion meets Mac: Apple fans, rejoice: Mac OS X has been added to the VMware Fusion Beta program, reports David Marshall in the InfoWorld Virtualization Report. The product has a nifty features list, including the ability to leverage virtual SMP capabilities to gain additional performance improvements.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 26, 2006 11:13 AM
December 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Windows gets Xserved?
Kill two Windows servers with one Xserve: Mac enthusiast Tom Yager looks at the potency of virtualization on Apple's Xserve. He notes that the Mac platform won't virtualize in the traditional sense of hosting a virtual instance of itself. "That's a real pity, especially for those of us holding last rites for PowerPC servers. But there is a silver lining: Xserve is now an x86 rack server. It can't take on the distinct personalities of two OS X Server machines, but it can show Windows and Linux servers the door."
Longhorn on the mooove: With all the excitement surrounding Vista's release, surely you haven't forgotten Longhorn, the next version of Windows Server. Microsoft clearly hasn't, having just released a new build of the OS, available only to participants of the Longhorn beta program. The final OS isn't due out until the second half of 2007. In the meantime, check out some of our previous coverage of Longhorn, including Tom Yager's look at Beta 2 from earlier this year.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 22, 2006 08:21 AM
December 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Apple security in the spotlight
Worms (and bugs) in your Apple: Two security researchers, disappointed by negative reactions to their alarms about Apple security flaws, are unleashing a "month of bugs" in January to disclose flaws in OSX, QuickTime, and iTunes (hide your iPod!). A few more details are on Brian Krebs' Washington Post blog and MacRumors.com. Happy New Year!
Support salve: There may be another side benefit of open source, at least from some developers' perspective: more helpful and useful support when something goes wrong. Rather than wading through phone banks and automated systems to (hopefully) find a real person who can crack open that black-box tech and fix your problem, open source puts the entire project at your feet - and usually has a community of knowledgeable sources willing to help. What do you think? Is this true or not? Drop a comment on the IT Troubleshooter blog.
Into the lab, part III: Paul Venezia introduces you to the workstations and apps that toil behind the scenes in his testing lab.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on December 21, 2006 10:14 AM
December 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Firefox bugs get squashed
Firefox fix: Version 2.0 of Firefox emerged from its hole last October, but not without some bugs. Mozilla yesterday released an update to the open source browser, fixing eight security vulnerabilities, including "flaws in memory corruption as well as the way the browser executes RSS (really simple syndication), Javascript, and CSS (cascading style sheets) code," the IDG News Service reports.
Take a tour of Tech Treks: InfoWorld.com has a new member to its esteemed blog family: Tech Treks, penned keyboarded by veteran technology journalist Stephanie Bruzzese. In her first posting, she examines the rugged qualities that notebook vendors are claiming of their systems. Are laptops really as durable as companies would like for us to think?
Who should do DB auditing? Database maven Sean McCown weighs the question of who should be responsible for auditing a company's database: the database administrator, the company's compliance officer -- or both? "In the end, I'm hoping that everyone will just learn to work together and the CO will become a customer of the DBA instead of a logical reporting structure. Perhaps the CO will analyze the audit data along with the DBA who will proactively remit the outstanding access issues so the CO doesn't have to call and bug him about it."
Posted by Ted Samson on December 20, 2006 06:00 AM
December 19, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtualization benchmarks on the way?
Bench pressed: You know you've made it when people start talking about wanting formal benchmarks. Virtualization is hot enough to spark the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation to form a group to explore whether there's a need for virtualization benchmarks and if so, how to form those benchmarks. IBM and Intel, meanwhile, are already on their own path toward better measuring the effects of virutalization: The jointly-developed vConsolidate tool simulates a real-world environment. Read more about it on the Virtualization Report blog, and check out InfoWorld's virtualization analysis for all the background you'll need.
Nifty gifty: Oliver Rist offers up a few gift ideas for all on your holiday shopping list, non-techies included. Hurry, and you'll still make it on time with expediated shipping. Clint Eastwood DVD gift set, anyone?
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on December 19, 2006 09:45 AM
December 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Reviews, reviews, reviews
Year in reviews: Sometimes in life, it's all too easy to keep your eyes focused on the future and thus ignore where you've been. But we in the InfoWorld Test Center are pretty fortunate: Once a year, we get to compile brief summaries of every single product review and preview we've done throughout the year (220-plus this year) and present them to you in one nice, neat, portable package. If you don't receive InfoWorld print, fear not: You can download the InfoWorld 2006 Year in Reviews as a handy PDF right here via InfoWorld IT Exec-Connect. (Fear not: If you don't have an account, registration is free and easy.)
Open source prophecies: What does 2007 hold for the world of open source? Ultimately, only time will tell, but Open Enterprise columnist Neil McAllister has some predictions. Among them: In the wake of the Microsoft-Novell partnership, "Expect numerous new product announcements from Novell -- particularly in the Windows/Linux interoperability area -- and furthermore, expect much of that code to be GPL-licensed."
Farewell Jon Udell: As many of you may have read, Test Center lead analyst and InfoWorld.com Blogger-in-Chief Jon Udell is starting a new chapter in his career at Microsoft. Friday the 15th was his last day here. His role at Big Red: Evangelist. Jon's contribution to InfoWorld and the Test Center has been invaluable throughout his time here, and we're certainly going to miss him. Best wishes, Jon. We'll definitely stay tuned to your writings.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 18, 2006 06:00 AM
December 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: The backup blues
Backing up is hard to do: Has the stress of the holiday season gotten to Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes? Actually, his gripes about the inadequacies of backup software are downright perennial; the timing is merely a coincidence. So what's his beef? Well, it's complex, for starters, and demands far too many clicks for what should be such a simple process. Plus it's not always reliable. And don't get him started on the security shortcomings. Yet despite all the trials and tribulations, backing up data is absolutely essential -- a lesson you don't want to learn when you come to work one day and find your data is missing.
VMware surprises Microsoft? Back in November, Microsoft launched a Test Drive program through which you could try out some of its software as a demo. The idea was, you could download it as a "virtual appliance type package," notes David Marshall in the InfoWorld Virtualization Report. Well, he says that "those same 'test drive' Microsoft virtual machines are now making their way over to the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace." Seems VMware is claiming that these demos are also quite handy as VMware Virtual Appliances.
Peek into Liferay's portal: Matt Asay over in the Open Sources blog celebrates the big 4-point-2 for Liferay, a "super-slick" open source portal product. Liferay has added some back-end enhancements to workflow and content management, as well as features like chat.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 15, 2006 06:00 AM
December 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Big Blue and Yahoo give away search
Has Google Mini met its match? : InfoWorld has looked at Google's search appliances in the past, and Test Center Contributing Analyst Mike Heck has liked what he's seen, from the nifty yellow casing down to the overall performance. Well, IBM and Yahoo are now giving Google a run for its search money, offering a free enterprise search tool, IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition. Mike even got to take it for a spin, and he was really quite impressed. Google may very well need to retool its search boxes.
Advantage: Novell: InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager observes that as SCO's legal action flounders and the Microvell partnership blossoms, Novell holds the biggest advantage. Among other things, "Microsoft is handing 70,000 copies of a primary competitor's operating system to existing Windows customers, introducing Windows-only shops to the advantages of the heterogeneous enterprise."
How much is that robot in the Window? Are you harried Windows admin in need of an assistant, yet facing a budget crunch that makes it impossible to hire one? Well, perhaps you can program your own using Microsoft's new Robotics Studio software. IDG News Service reports that the application "includes programming tools intended to make it easier to write robot applications, and a runtime environment that allows them to be used and reused on different types of hardware."
Posted by Ted Samson on December 13, 2006 11:38 AM
December 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Getting a bead on Windows Server 2003 SP2
SP2 unwrapped: Oliver Rist plied some Microsoftie tongues with liquor and got a few details on the forthcoming Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2. According to Oliver, SP2 shouldn't be as much of an installation nightmare as SP1... in fact, Microsoft's "painless" label may be appropriate. We'll drink to that!
Free search for everyone: IBM and Yahoo have teamed up on a new, free enterprise search app. Contributing Editor Mike Heck's verdict, after putting it through its paces? It's a keeper. Read the rest of the review here.
Fa-la-la-la-unified-storage: Mario Apicella's wrapping up the year with the latest on unified storage, including an interesting Dell-Microsoft partnership. Get the whole story in this week's Storage Insider column.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on December 13, 2006 06:00 AM
December 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Welcome to the test lab
Behind the curtain: Senior Contributing Editor Paul Venezia is wrapping up the year by offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his testing laboratory. Meet the servers, storage, and operating systems in Part One, and the racks, networking gear, and more in Part Two. Also, check out his "latest little bit of geekery" involving a Cisco IP phone, Asterisk, and VMware.
More holiday goodies: Check out the gift guide for gearheads slideshow and get all the details on some snazzy gadgets that could help finish off those gift-shopping duties -- or require some updates to your own wish list. (The HP Compaq nc6400 notebook with global wireless gets kudos, too.)
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on December 12, 2006 06:00 AM
December 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Is Xen any match for VMware?
VMware a virtual success: By many, VMware is hailed as the king of server virtualization, and VMware Infrastructure 3 stands to extend the vendor's reign. Test Center Analyst Paul Venezia took an in-depth look at VI3 and found a host of impressive new features, like iSCSI support, plus a satisfying performance boost. Despite some rough edges and missing features such as 10-Gig support, VMware remains virtually excellent.
Xen and the art of server virtualization: Yes, VMware has long been synonymous with enterprise virtualization, but for some IT admins out there, the open-source virtualization project Xen was seen as a potentially low-cost alternative. Well, according to the aforementioned Paul Venezia's exclusive look at VirtualIron 3.1, Xen has come a long way in catching up with VMware in terms of features. VirtualIron doesn't have everything you might need, yet, but priced at just $499 per processor, it's certainly worth watching.
Open source is no silver bullet: There are some serious misconceptions out there about what it takes to develop an application successfully. Some people will argue that snazzy GUI tools will make a project a snap. Others advocate throwing more manpower at a project. And one of the biggest misconceptions is that tossing a failing software project to the open source community will miraculously turn it around and make it a success. Well, argues Open Enterprise columnist Neil McCallister: "The most important work in software development happens before a single line of code is written." If you don't have a decent design to begin with for your app dev project, you have a very tough road ahead of you.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 11, 2006 06:00 AM
December 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Tibco boards the ESB line
All aboard the Tibco Express: Test Center Analyst Andrew Binstock has been at the wheel of ESBs (enterprise service bus), so he knows what he's looking for as he travels the road toward SOA. In his latest test-drive of Tibco's BusinessWorks 5.3, he discovers an "elegant, well-thought-out ESB implementation with advanced performance features and an intuitive designer."
Coming soon: Novell vs. Apple? : Chief Technologist Tom Yager digs deep into the ongoing legal battles that pit SCO and Microsoft against IBM, Novell, and plenty of other players. One of his predictions: Novell is going to take back ownership of System V UNIX, a valuable piece of technology that stands to give the company a real edge in the IT industry -- and could transform the company into Apple's next top adversary.
Vista's security resumé: In case you've been on Saturn lately, you may have missed the news [video] that Microsoft finally released its newest OS to the business world. Redmond has made assurances that security was a priority in Vista, and according to Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes, the company delivered big-time. While he expects that the OS will eventually be hacked -- "anything super-popular gets hacked" -- he says doing the deed won't be easy.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 8, 2006 06:00 AM
December 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Wireless WANs and SMB storage
WWANs without worries: The lab folks in Hawaii have been busy with some big tests, but Brian Chee found the time to post some info about wireless WAN equipment, remote access, and the curious DIY project that turns a backpack into a mobile hotspot. Check out the Geeks in Paradise blog for more.
Smarter storage for SMBs: The week of an industry conference is always fertile ground for product announcements. HP and LSI Logic prepped for the Storage Decisions conference by unveiling a couple of products aimed at making networked storage more approachable for SMBs. What's the attraction? Mario Apicella's Storage Insider column lays out the details.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on December 7, 2006 06:00 AM
December 06, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: AMD revs a powerful quad-core engine
Test driving AMD's 4-by-4: Chief Technologist Tom Yager shares his experiences with AMD's powerful new Quad FX, a dual socket, quad-core client platform that enables some serious "megatasking." "The FX-74 Quad FX platform running in a two-headed (two monitors) configuration genuinely obviates the need for a second machine," writes Yager. As for Intel, well, Yager concludes that AMD has placed itself of that adversary with this new technology.
Power of open Web architecture: Why, oh why, must switching e-mail clients be so burdensome? Test Center Lead Analyst shares an anecdote in which he helps a friend move from Outlook Express to Gmail. Creating a CSV file of contacts and moving them to Gmail is a snap. Moving her 15 distribution lists, however, proves less so, requiring capturing an HTTP transaction, doing some scripting, and leveraging an API called ibgmail. Perhaps not an ideal solution, or even a full one, "but the fact that it’s possible to discover and exploit implicit APIs in this way is a testament to the power and flexibility of the Web’s architectural style."
A Word of warning: Microsoft released a security advisory yesterday, warning of exploits for a previously unknown hole in various versions of Microsoft Word. Details were limited, indicating that "victims would have to open a malicious Word file with 'a malformed string,' that could then 'corrupt system memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code,'" reports Paul Roberts. Stay tuned to Microsoft for forthcoming patch information.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 6, 2006 06:05 AM
December 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Realities of SaaS
Reality check for SaaS?: The software as a service model seems to be slowly but surely steaming ahead; according to the Open Sources blogger Matt Asay, SaaS and open source are two steps toward a new enterprise software market focused on "simplicity and usability." On the other hand, the broad "set it and forget it" style claims of some SaaS vendors are proving to be less than true as more IT groups wrestle with SaaS admin duties. Ephraim Schwartz finds that SaaS management is often the sticking point, so it opens up a window for vendors to carve out a new niche of "Webtop" tools.
For those on the "nice" list: Sean McCown put together a handy-dandy gift guide for the database administrators in your life, from keyboard flashlights to a book suggestion. Post your suggestions for other DBA-friendly gifts to the Database Underground blog, and keep your eye on our Special Reports page for a forthcoming gift guide for other techies on your list.
Architecturally speaking: Is your enterprise's architecture up to snuff? If not, could it be that your architect is stuck in a rut? Dave Linthicum has six questions to ask that will help you decide if it's time for a change in approach or personnel.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on December 5, 2006 10:09 AM
December 04, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Sun's "octo"-ron server
Eight is great: While some game enthusiasts out there were stoked to get their hands on the new power-packed Sony PlayStation, Analyst Paul Venezia got an exclusive look at a more powerful and impressive piece of hardware: the Sun Fire x4600 M2 octo-Opteron server. Yes, "octo," as in eight AMD Opteron dual-core CPUs. Overall, Venezia concludes that Sun engineered an excellent piece of machinery. (For the sake of comparison, check out the top five servers we looked at this year -- before reviewing the x4600.)
The art of search: Why are some people more skilled at googling than others? Test Center Lead Analyst Jon Udell asserts that innate talent plays a part, but "so does learned skill. What the learnable component of effective search may be, though, is very unclear." Jon's now on a quest to discover just what he's learned from his own search expedition.
Speaking of search ...: We usually stick to teasing our on content, but I can't resist pointing to a gem of an article in Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle: interviews with the Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page from 1999.
Some excerpts of interest:
Interviewer: How did you get the name Google?
Brin: We were thinking about very large numbers ... so we came up with the term "googol" which is the mathematical term for 10 to the hundredth (power). The correct spelling was g-o-o-g-o-l and I'm not sure that we realized that we had made a spelling error. But that was taken, anyway. There was this guy who'd already registered Googol.com, and I tried to buy it from him, but he was fond of it. So we went with Google.
Interviewer: Do you see yourself as a competitor of Yahoo?
Brin: No.
Interviewer: No?
Brin: Well not any more than we're a competitor for say Upside magazine -- to the extent that people read things on our Web sites.
Interviewer: Will you be anything besides a search engine?
Brin: No, with the exception of the kinds of things I mentioned, like navigation aids and things like that. Although we're open to develop across different axes of search engines or portals.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 4, 2006 11:19 AM
December 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: PortAuthority 5.0 protects private information
Data-leak stopper: Sensitive information has an unfortunate habit of slipping out of companies, either by accident or with intent. Fortunately, products such as PortAuthority 5.0 are out there to plug those leaks. Analyst Mike Heck tested Version 4.0 earlier this year, and in his exclusive look at v5.0, he discovered marked improvements, including even better security; a simpler Web UI; 150 pre-built policies that apply to data at rest, in motion, and in use; and more power, reliable performance.
Virtual concerns: Virtualization holds so much promise, notes Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes, but -- as noted previously by InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager -- it opens the door to some new security threats. Among them, admins are wont to treat virtual machines a bit recklessly and not take necessary security safeguards to protect them. Also, if attackers break out of a VM into the host, they can immediately impact every other supported host on the server. That's just for starters. Check out his column for more.
Tiptoeing toward terabits: Storage guru Mario Apicella shares news from Fujitsu that we may soon see some impressively fat hybrid disk drives of the terabits-per-inch persuasion. Specifically, "Fujitsu is the making of a multi-layered optical element, essentially a new recording surface to be used with thermal assisted magnetic recording." What does that mean, exactly? Mario explains it all.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 1, 2006 06:00 AM
November 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Patches? We don't need no stinkin' patches
Fresh from the Test Center: Is patch management making you nuttier than an overfed squirrel? Blue Lane's PatchPoint appliance may be the answer - it servers as a patch proxy, inspecting traffic and applying patches on the network packet stream. As Contributing Editor Roger Grimes puts it, "Think of it as Tivo for patches." And it also means you have some time to let vendors get all the bugs out of patches before applying them permanently to your systems. Read the full review for more details.
FRCP for all: There are less than 24 hours until the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedures (FRCP) go into effect. Judging from the wide-reaching effect of its regulations, FRCP could have a lot of companies investing in smarter storage and more intelligent search. Ephraim Schwartz recently outlined the role IT will have to play in ensuring corporate information can be found and shared; Mario Apicella delves into the specifics of archiving requirements in this week's Storage Insider column. Brush up and be ready in case a company memo hits the streets and a court case pops up.
Verizon video: Check out the newest video interview with Verizon Wireless' Vice-President of IT, Carl Eberling, and their experience with building out an SOA.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 30, 2006 06:00 AM
November 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: ADU, take two?
Microvell to exhume ADU?: Many a pundit has weighed in on the potential impact of the Microsoft-Novell pairing. Tossing in another two-plus cents is Tom Yager, who foresees the Microvell pact resulting in the return of Advanced Server for Unix (ASU), once a rival to Samba that fell out of favor in the IT world. "A proprietary ASU-like Windows interoperability product bearing Novell’s logo would become a standard purchase with practically every commercial Linux sale," Yager proclaims. But the implications are chilling.
Breaking down collaboration barriers: Jon Udell reveals how we at InfoWorld track our vacation days: HR sends us a calendar made in an Excel sheet. We download it, open it up, put Vs in the appropriate cells to denote vacation days, reattach it, and e-mail it back. There has to be a more elegant way to collaborate, Udell argues. The problem, he says, is that we lack a universal canvas, "an environment in which data and applications flow freely on the Web." Microsft and Google are both halfway there, at least -- but there's work still work to be done.
Know thy user's browser: Sometimes, your company's Web site is only as good as the browser it's viewed in. Some homegrown sniffers are capable of determining that, but InfoWorld Contributing Editor Mike Heck has found a useful commercial tool that achieves the task and then some: cyScape BrowserHawk 10. The solution "lets Web professionals accurately detect visitors' browser and system settings to make sure they have the best online experience."
Posted by Ted Samson on November 29, 2006 06:00 AM
November 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Four new AJAX toolkit reviews
Fresh from the Test Center: Following up on his summer evaluation of six free AJAX toolkits, Peter Wayner examined four AJAX toolkits from the proprietary side of the tracks: Backbase, Bindows, JackBe, and Tibco General Interface. While "AJAX" is still picking up steam, some of these vendors got on the bandwagon years ago - so according to Wayner, "it's easy to use adjectives including 'mature,' 'established,' and 'polished' to describe these wares." Find out the results of his tests in our special report, and view screencast demonstrations of several AJAX toolkits (both open-source and proprietary).
Database security: Microsoft vs. Oracle: Is Microsoft's SQL database more secure than Oracle's RDBMS? The latest report from David Litchfield says that Microsoft is less buggy. Read the report, post your comments to Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog, and let the debate begin.
The SOA methodology tango: Vendors are jumping all over SOA, and while this can be good, it can also be very, very bad if you end up using a bad SOA methodology. That's the problem, says Dave Linthicum, who has a few pointers on what makes a good SOA methodology in his latest Real World SOA blog posting. (His guidelines to how much an SOA will cost are also invaluable if you're building out or planning an SOA.)
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 28, 2006 06:00 AM
November 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Encryption meets tape
Tale of the tape: Storage Guru Mario Apicella recently got his hands on Spectra Logic's T120, with brings encryption technology to the world of backup-tape libraries. Add flexible, easy-to-use management tools to the mix, and you've got an excellent tape library that can help you work and rest a little easier in this age of data leaks.
Virtual Vista: Our Chief Technologist Tom Yager took at look at virtualization solution Parallels Workstation earlier this year, and he liked what he saw: "CPU, disk, and network performance are exceptional and meet, and in some ways can exceed, the vendor's claim of native speed. Parallels has created a new class of virtualization." Well, David Marshall over in the InfoWorld Virtualization Report finds that Version 2.2 of Parallels Workstation is out, and among other things, it now brings support for Vista -- and it's a free upgrade.
Tiptoe through the wireless patches: If you were too busy digesting your post-Thanksgiving meal last Friday, you may have missed an important slice of advice from Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes: Patch your wireless drivers, stat. Yes, patching may be a bit of a bore, but more and more wireless exploits are emerging. "My gut feeling tells me that this round of wireless exploits won't be the next Slammer or Code Red, but who wants to be exploited by some jerk or professional criminal while computing in an airport or using a laptop in your own building? It's better to get patched." So patch on!
Posted by Ted Samson on November 27, 2006 06:00 AM
November 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Ethernet to hit 100 Gig
Fasten your Ethernet belt: In the next few years, Ethernet speeds will reach a blazing 100Gbps, 10 time faster than the current 10GbE we all know and love. So says the IEEE, Stephen Lawson reports, and that data-pushing power will come in handy for both enterprises and carriers. Buckle up.
It doesn't add up: Open Sources blogger Matt Asay has a number of patent-related questions about the Microsoft-Novell pact. Among them: If Novell has so many valuable patents and care so much about the open-source community, why isn't Novell using those patents to defend open source as it has promised to do, rather than just its quarterly revenue target?
Posted by Ted Samson on November 24, 2006 06:00 AM
November 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: A plethora of storage, and some turkey tech
Fresh from the Test Center: Storage encryption is a much needed (can you say "lost backup tapes"?) yet still rare feature -- but Spectra Logic is out to change that. The Spectra T120 tape library with hardware encryption is a nifty combination of security and solid management. Find out more in Mario Apicella's review.
Fast, cheap storage: Lots of storage talk going 'round today. This week's Storage Insider column introduces new switches from Dell and Cisco that may herald an era of faster and more affordable networked storage. As Mario Apicella puts it, "The way I read it, entry level customers will end up with a larger basket of affordable storage produce from which to choose." Meanwhile, Oliver Rist reviews an Iomega StorCenter 500 on the SMB IT blog. The StorCenter 500 packs 500GB of storage and several other tools into a single enclosure for about $440. Not too shabby.
Gobble, gobble: Tasked with Thanksgiving cooking duties this year? Looking for something a little more interesting, something a little less Norman Rockwell, something that the in-laws and cousins will be talking about for years? Check out Turkey Tek's instructables for directions to make a gravy fountain, fractal pecan pie, and more (the recent interview with MAKE Magazine is worth a read, too). Not a chef? Maybe the DIY HDTV is more up your alley. Either way, happy Thanksgiving to all. And please pass the pie.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 23, 2006 06:00 AM
November 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Novell + MS = SCO II?
The Second Coming of SCO Weighing in on Microsoft and Novell's new buddy-buddy relationship, InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager observes that the techno duo appears poised to follow in the not-so-proud footsteps of SCO Group, which has gone after Linux vendors, claiming they were infringing on its patented technology. Microsoft, which brings even more intellectual property to the table, "is giving away 70,000 coupons for SLES to customers who want to run Windows and Linux together," Yager writes. "These are 'stay out of court free' cards that hope to derail customers’ existing relationships with other commercial Linux vendors."
Greening up the supply chain: More and more people are accepting global warming as reality, and they're taking the threat seriously. InfoWorld Lead Analyst Jon Udell notes that companies can play a role in alleviating the problem by paying closer attention to the environmental impact of their business activities -- and those of their partners. Yet how can an organization keep such a close eye on those details as its products move up the supply chain? Three simple letters: SOA.
Thorny patches: Imagine, if you will, your doctor telling you that you must undergo critical surgery -- but not explaining why. Ed Foster, of InfoWorld GripeLine fame, received a missive from a reader who faced a similar situation with Oracle. But in this case, the critical surgery was actually a critical patch for PeopleTools. The problem was, Oracle would not explain what the patch was for despite repeated requests, according to the reader. As a result, "Given that we cannot justify the interruption to MIS activities and a certain amount of inevitable system downtime in the face of no information from which to base a decision, [our decision] is to not install the latest patch. Risks be damned, Oracle be damned, but if no one will disclose the information we require, how can we justify any other decision?"
Posted by Ted Samson on November 22, 2006 06:00 AM
November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: The future of Mono
RIP, Mono?: Sun's open-sourcing of Java may have some potentially unfortunate side effects for the Mono Project, says Neil McAllister in this week's Open Enterprise column. Will the new availability of Java be a death knell for Mono, in the wake of the Microsoft-Novell partnership?
Here comes the judge: The newest version for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure puts IT in the hot seat when it comes to "e-discovery and e-hold" of business data -- and it goes into effect Dec. 1, which is a short week-and-a-half away. Thankfully, this version of the FRCP removes some of the confusion present in its previous incarnation, but there are still many rules and regulations to navigate. Get the lowdown on the five most significant changes, and how your organization can prepare.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 21, 2006 06:00 AM
November 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: WinZip exploits, DCStat spotlight
Patch your WinZip 10: Roger Grimes has been following WinZip's release of a patch for version 10.0, closing up a potential exploit that "could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a system with an unpatched installation of WinZip 10.0 if the user was to visit a malicious web page," according to WinZip's site. Unfortunately, it looks like there's a new buffer overflow exploit out there, so check your WinZip security if you haven't already. Or take a look at WinZip 11.0 and see if an upgrade is in order.
Government mash-up: InfoWorld's Jon Udell sits down with Dan Thomas of the Government of the District of Columbia for a discussion of Washington, D.C.'s DCStat program. DCStat offers up live data feeds of government agencies' operational data via RSS, XML, and Atom, so district residents and employees can view and share data quickly. Watch the interview here, and if you want to learn more about DCStat, check out Jon's blog and this Strategic Developer column. Jon also has a podcast with Thomas and DC CTO Suzanne Peck that's worth a listen.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 20, 2006 10:09 AM
November 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Testing Enterprise RSS servers
Fresh from the Test Center: InfoWorld Contributing Editor Mike Heck fired up the test lab to put three enterprise RSS products through the gauntlet: Attensa's Feed Server, NewsGator Enterprise Server, and KnowNow 3 Enterprise Syndication Solution. All three use a central server to retrieve feeds once and distribute them to many users, saving precious bandwidth, and have a host of management and control features. The ultimate winner? Read the review and find out.
Guess the password, win a prize: The recent MySpace phishing scheme netted thousands of passwords and logon information. Roger Grimes picked up a couple of the files and came away with 34,000 different passwords, which proved to be a useful tool for emphasizing how easy it is to crack most passwords. This week's Security Adviser column crunches the numbers and provides some valuable insights into password probability.
Virtualization as Budget Helper: Brian Chee is looking into how much he could save on power costs by using blade-and-virtual-server combos, and it's a potentially hefty amount, especially if an incentive from the power company is involved. As noted in our special report, datacenter power and cooling costs are a growing concern. Could virtualizing servers be a good stopgap?
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 17, 2006 06:00 AM
November 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Storage grids, IM security
Storage grid confusion?: Do you know what a storage grid is? Turns out that most people don't, due to lack of a consistent definition. That isn't stopping Crosswalk from touting its iGrid storage grid solution and the just-released iGrid 7100 Series and new version of the iGrid operating system (iGridOS).
There are still questions to answer, though - like Greg Nawrocki on the Grid Meter blog, Mario Apicella feels that until there's a more straightforward and clear idea of what a storage grid architecture is and how it works, it may be tough to sell the concept to the masses. Read more in today's Storage Insider column.
R U Secure?: Instant messaging security is once again a hot topic, thanks to the Mark Foley scandal, prompting the ePolicy Institute to remind us that business IM use needs to be carefully considered. One way to secure your IM is to go with an enterprise IM solution instead of public IM programs - check out our review of JabberNow and other messaging products for more secure options.
SOA Governance in the limelight: The second in our series of video interviews from InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum is live: Jeff Schneider, CEO of MomentumSI, talks governance. Want more information on SOA governance? You'll find it in our special report.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 16, 2006 06:00 AM
November 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Securing virtual systems; SOA video
Virtual lockdowns: It may be the buzzword du jour, but conversations and conjectures about the future of virtualization need to take into account the need for security, says Tom Yager in this week's Ahead of the Curve column. How dangerous are the theoretical risks that Tom proposes? And how much faith do you put in virtual security tools (Roger Grimes has made his concerns known already)?
For your viewing pleasure: Check out our newest video, an SOA-focused interview with Oded Noy, CTO of Zag.com filmed at the recent SOA Executive Forum. Zag uses SOA as the underpinnings for its online car-shopping and financing business, and Noy has some interesting advice on the real-world hurdles he encountered during deployment. If you want a closer look at Zag's SOA project and more nitty-gritty details, we've also got an in-depth case study that should fill the bill.
Deja vu all over again: Well, it appears that Office 2007 and Vista have been cracked - that didn't take too long. And IE still has its own problems, as this phish-off with Firefox suggests. Are Microsoft's efforts "good enough"? An interview with Steven Toulouse of the MS Security Team Unit suggests that changes have been made in terms of how the company approaches security -- and this week's Patch Tuesday weighed in at a relatively light six patches. Should be interesting to see how Longhorn's security stacks up...
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 15, 2006 06:00 AM
November 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: SOA and semantics
Just one word: Semantics: Fresh from InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum last week (check out his thoughts on Day 1 and Day 2), Dave Linthicum is declaring this week "semantics and ontologies week" for the Real World SOA blog. He's starting off with a little introduction, and promises more on Web 2.0 to follow. Keep up with the discussion here.
Fresh from the Test Center: Need a new online meeting tool? Want something with a little AJAX, but without cookies? Genesys could be the answer you've been looking for - check out our exclusive review of Genesys Meeting Center 4.0 and get a bead on its abilities before the December release.
Java, Java everywhere: The open-sourcing of Java is creating quite a buzz (caffinated pun intended). Sun's Schwartz calls it "momentus"; the Apache Foundation might be willing to take Java under its wing, if it's offered; IBM (who tossed out the Apache idea in the first place) is being chilly about Sun choosing GPL. Keep an eye on our news page for the latest.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 14, 2006 06:00 AM
November 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Apple Xserve review wraps up
One last bite: Tom Yager's final segment of the four-part Apple XServe review is posted, and it's worth a look. In part one, Tom outline the system basics and it's role in Apple's eyes. In part two, Tom went "beyond Intel" to look more closely at the Xserve hardware, storage connections, and firmware. Part three of the review reported on the power, heating/cooling, and noise levels. And now, in the last installment, Tom puts it all together and presents his test results and verdict. (Don't forget the bonus notes on Tom's environmental test bed and baseline numbers.) All together, it's a pre-Thanksgiving Apple feast hosted by the Enterprise Mac blog.
Open source in the spotlight: It's looking like a busy week for the GPL crowd: Java goes open source under the GPL, the US Appeals court Samba's dev team is asking Novell to reconsider the Microsoft pact, and others are saying that the MS-Novell deal violates the GPL. Check out today's Open Enterprise column for Neil McAllister's take on the partnership and Microsoft's empty legal threats.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 13, 2006 09:24 AM
November 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Vista lands, Cisco boosts WANs
Test Center exclusive: When networking guru Cisco offers you a first look at its new line of WAN optimization gear, you say, "Yes." Well, InfoWorld does, anyway, and the Cisco WAE-512 didn't disappoint analyst Keith Schultz. OK, so performance wasn't the best he's seen (compared to, say, the Riverbed Steelhead), but reporting was stellar, customization was a snap, and it comes loaded with Cisco's useful Wide Area Application Services.
The Vista has landed: You may have heard that this software company in the Northwest called Microsoft has been working on an upgrade to its OS line, called Vista. (InfoWorld has mentioned it a time or two.) Well, Microsoft this week released the RTM of Vista, and Windows maven Oliver Rist got his hands on a copy. Check out his latest hands-on analysis and slideshow, and find out what the company has nailed -- as well as what obstacles you might face if and when you choose to deploy it.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 10, 2006 06:50 AM
November 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Office Live as Web 2.0 success?
Fresh from the Test Center: Are you having problems coralling multiple storage backup apps? Have you had the unpleasant experience of a failed restore because a backup you thought was complete wasn't? If so, WysDM for Backups 3.51 may be an answer. Logan Harbaugh put the management app through its paces, and found WysDM did a good job of bringing together results from various backup applications into one easy-to-navigate UI. Check out his review here.
Microsoft as Web 2.0 innovator?: After getting his hands into Office Live Premium, Oliver Rist comes away suitably impressed. In fact, he says that "this is the best New Economy, Web 2.0 Internet move I've seen Microsoft make in a long time." And given his week spent using only browser-based apps, Oliver's probably quite familiar with the ups and downs of Web 2.0 apps. The verdict? Office Live's combination of employee management tools, accounting and payment tools, customer tools, and Web hosting is a tempting -- and extremely useful -- one, especially for SMBs. Read all the details in this week's Enterprise Windows column.
Storage performance that's up to snuff: Mario Apicella's latest Storage Insider column delves into the new high-end, high-performance from NetApp (the FAS3070) and Panasas (storage clusters). The emphasis on performance is so great that NetApp commissioned VeriTest to do a performance comparison study; the results are posted on the Storage Network blog. Take a look and post your comments on the need for storage speed.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 9, 2006 09:38 AM
November 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Virtual confusion
Adventures in Virtualizationland: Chief Technologist Tom Yager heads down the virtual rabbit hole in search of answers to not-so-simple virtualization problems: "the difficulty of identifying and addressing critical problems that manifest as something short of a full failure, and the fact that blind trust in a virtualization solution’s tendency to do the right thing guarantees reduced return on investment." He has some hints, but if you find yourself feeling curiouser and curiouser, perhaps check out InfoWorld's next Virtualization Forum in February.
Just the data, ma'am: "It's easy to make data available for reuse by human analysts or automatic services," notes InfoWorld Test Center Lead Analyst Jon Udell. Unfortunately, so many Web sites present data in a passive manner that makes it difficult for anyone else to transform or recombine it -- and there's no good reason for it. (A product such as Web database Dabble DB can help a bit by performing data scraping, but it's not enough.)
Not your father's cash register: A POS (point of sale) system is a must-have for many an SMB, notes Senior Contributing Editor Oliver Rist, and it can do so much more than handles payments. Top of the list: inventory management.: "The PC in your warehouse stays in touch with the PCs running your cash registers. It lets sales people know what's left in the warehouse, how much it costs and when you can expect new stock," he notes. Oliver has some handy advice for you if you're in the market for this type of hardware.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 8, 2006 06:00 AM
November 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Security double standard for Sun, Microsoft?
Blinded by the light?: Ed Foster's got a good question: Does Sun get the same security scrutiny as other vendors (read: Microsoft) when it comes to Java security updates? According to one GripeLine reader, the various releases and retractions of JVM patches is enough to make your head spin. Is this much nagging a curse or a blessing?
Ballots all around: It's election day today, and we've got you covered with a special report on the elections' ramifications for IT and a look at some of the security worries surrounding electronic voting machines (check out the report and video from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, too). Post your comments to our TalkBalk thread and let us know what you think. There's a technology voter's guide here, for those who want to check out how their state representatives in Congress have voted on tech-related laws. And if you need a little levity after punching buttons, filling in the arrows, flipping levers, or banging your head against the e-voting machine, you can always ask yourself: will it blend?
SOA in the Big Apple: InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum is happening today and tomorrow in New York City. If you're not able to be there in person, stay tuned to our blogs and video pages for the latest comments, interviews, and more.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 7, 2006 06:00 AM
November 06, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Looking beyond Web 2.0
Weaving the Semantic Web: Contrary to urban legend, Al Gore never claimed to have invented the Internet -- but credit for the World Wide Web properly goes to Tim Berners-Lee. Senior Editor Neil McCallister reports that Berners-Lee is recruiting assistance from the tech community in developing the much-anticipated Semantic Web. The first critical step: "address the challenges and shortcomings of HTML, while working on the XHTML standards in parallel. ... The lesson learned from XHTML is that, when it comes to standards, just because you build it doesn't mean they will come. And yet, XHTML is only the beginning of the standards compliance that the Semantic Web would require."
Deactivating the ActiveX threat: Microsoft's investigating reports of a vulnerability in Windows ActiveX that reportedly allows an attacker to take remote control of a system. The vulnerability affects certain versions of Windows running Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0, a set of tools that allows programmers to use scripting languages to access XML documents. No patch is available, but the company has released an advisory on how to disable ActiveX in the meantime.
Building your SOA: The promises of a service-oriented architecture are real, such a greater flexibility and potential costs savings. But developing your SOA demands tough technology choices. If you need some guidance, check out our in-depth look at how other companies have gotten there
Posted by Ted Samson on November 6, 2006 06:00 AM
November 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Open source rules management
Rewriting the business rules: When it comes to deploying a BRMS (business rules management system), you have a couple of choices: Invest a huge chunk of change in an enterprise-level feature-rich proprietary package, or go for a highly capable open-source alternative that costs significantly less but lacks some bells and whistles. James Owen looks at two BRMSes that fall under the latter category: Jess 7.0 and JBoss Rules 3.2. "In a nutshell, Jess and JBoss Rules are best suited to smaller projects, where a rule repository and extensive reporting and debugging capabilities aren’t critical needs, and where rule development and maintenance can be entrusted to one or a few devoted programmers." And if your hungry for more, check out his insights on rules repositories, as well some bonus material about the products.
Re-opening Office: Oliver Rist has emerged once again from his foray in Office 2007 Beta and is now talking about the newly enhanced Access and OneNote. Access in particular has undergone some significant improvements, including better-designed interfaces, as well as new embedded macros "that should really enable amateur database developers to get some high-end performance out of their work." OneNote hasn't changed too much, but it does boast, among other things, the ability to import a presentation slide by slide.
Seven deadly sin of virtualization security: In theory, virtualization security sounds great. It essentially uses a sand box-like environment to prevent malware from infecting or modifying your computer. But Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes has played with a number of these types of solutions and has found some common problems among them. So before you turn to virtualization to solve your security woes, check out his latest column.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 3, 2006 06:00 AM
November 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Speech recognition goes mobile
Time to chuck the keyboard?: Jon Udell got a demo of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9, an update to Nuance's long-standing speech-recognition app that now sports a mobile component. Is it accurate enough for routine use? Jon says it's not there yet -- but the mobile aspect is intriguing. Take a look at his short movie clip of dictation into a Treo on his blog and see Dragon 9 in action.
More Office 2007 fun: Oliver Rist is continuing his adventures with the Office 2007 beta over at the SMB IT blog. Part II involves Excel 2007 and Word 2007 - check out Oliver's take as well as some nifty screenshots in his recent post, and stay tuned for more.
SNW Fall's quiet revolutions: Mario Apicella wasn't able to get to the SNW Fall show in Orlando, but he's certainly not out of the loop. Between drive encryption announcements and SAS and iSCSI news, it's clear that there's a lot going on at this year's show. Learn more in this week's Storage Insider column.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on November 2, 2006 06:00 AM
November 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: One app to view them all
Desperately seeking screen-sharing: Lead Analyst Jon Udell's not asking for much: just a simple, no-frills screen-sharing application that ensures that everyone sees the exact same thing during a collaboration session. "Why don’t screen-sharing systems focus on doing one thing well? It’s partly because the simple, single-purpose tools that helped make Unix great haven’t been fashionable for a long time."
Adjusting your Fedora: In case you missed it, Fedora 6 is out, and Paul Venezia has made the upgrade (a bit earlier than he expected, due to a hardware malfunction). The good news is, you get to benefit from his experience, as he's shared a list of some problems he ran into and resolutions he found. Aside from the minor hiccups, he says, "it's been pretty clean sailing today, and I've been stressing the system something fierce, though I haven't had much chance to play with the new features."
Can green-computing save you some green? Calculating the true savings from power conservation, consolidation, and other forms of green computing isn't easy, notes InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager. It starts with measuring three variables: power consumption, heat, and noise. The closer you can get to an accurate measure of all three, the better your odds of charting your success at bringing down your total IT costs. Sound complicated? Tom has a couple of shortcuts to get you started.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 1, 2006 06:00 AM
October 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Storage trading, virtualization video
Buy low, sell high: Can predictive market technology make a difference in which storage products and ideas make it to market? Mario Apicella examines Storage Markets, a predictive market research tool aimed at storaged: traders buy shares in ideas they like, giving a company an idea of which concepts have the most market interest. Sound curious? Read more on the Storage Network blog.
Server virtualization video chat: At the InfoWorld Virtualization Forum last month, Test Center Executive Editor Doug Dineley talked to Stephen Jenvey, Investment Professional at Fidelity Ventures, about the chief challenges faced in implementing server virtualization. Watch the video here.
InfoWorld 2006 Security Survey: Our annual security survey has some good news - fewer attacks happening these days. Unfortunately, the attacks that are happening are more serious, targeted, and intelligent. Find out how hackers make off with enterprise data, how you can stop them, and other security trends in our special report.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on October 31, 2006 06:00 AM
October 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Let the blade battle begin!
Prepping for a blade duel: Senior Contributing Editors Brian Chee and Paul Venezia are getting ready for a big three-way blade server review of offerings from Dell, HP, and Sun at the state-of-the-art SOEST Advance Network Computing Lab at the University of Hawaii. Check out the latest entry in the Geeks in Paradise blog for an in-depth look at how InfoWorld Test Center analysts prepare for a test of enterprise-class hardware and software of this caliber.
Tune in to Office 2007: Oliver Rist has been neck-deep in Office 2007 for the past couple of weeks and has taken the time to share some hands-on experiences in his SMB IT blog about the newly refurbished Outlook and PowerPoint. In his latest Emerging Enterprise podcast, Rist dissects Redmond's overarching strategy in cramming so much feature-y goodness into the newest version of its productivity suite. Take a listen!
Is Sun next on Oracle's list? Oracle's plan to offer inexpensive support for Red Hat Linux has caused quite a stir in the IT community -- and quite a drop in Red Hat stock. Senior Editor Neil McAllister contemplates whether Oracle's old dot-com buddy Sun has cause for concern, given that it's now effectively competing with Oracle in the open-source OS business. Could an eventual Oracle acquisition of Sun be in the cards?
Posted by Ted Samson on October 30, 2006 06:00 AM
October 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: BEA AquaLogic BPM keeps business processes flowing
Swimming in the process pool: Faulty business processes can result in costly hiccups in the day-to-day workflow of your organization. In an exclusive InfoWorld review, Senior Contributing Editor James R. Borck finds that BEA's AquaLogic BPM 5.7 delivers an effective, albeit somewhat complex, all-purpose process management engine, bridging application integration with human event management and offering some good analytical insight along the way.
Barracuda sinks its teeth into malware: Following in the wake of the Barracuda Spam Firewall, the Barracuda Web Filter 310 combines potent anti-spyware chops with the capability of blocking unauthorized Web sites, viruses, adware, malicious Web content, and unauthorized applications -- all at an impressively low price, according to security whiz Roger A. Grimes. Reporting shortcomings are a notable weakness, however.
Tiptoeing through the patches: If you're a Windows admin, you know the second Tuesday of the month as Patch Tuesday, when Microsoft releases its latest round of patches. But what happens if vulnerability is discovered two days later? You can wait four weeks for a patch from Redmond -- or you can try out a patch from a third-party vendor. What to do? Find out why Roger Grimes suggests that sometimes, the latter approach makes sense.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 27, 2006 06:00 AM
October 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: A first look at Xserve Xeon
Xserve in the spotlight: Chief Technologist Tom Yager got his talented hooks into an Apple Xserve server with Xeon, and has been putting it through the wringer, gauntlet, and lots of paces for the past five days. Do its Intel guts make it worth a switch from the Xserve G5, despite missing Apple's October delivery deadline? Find out Tom's opinion, plus plenty of hands-on details, in his two-part review on the Enterprise Mac blog.
Feeding the need for green storage: In this week's Storage Insider column, Mario Apicella takes a look at the impact of some of EMC's recent news onslaught, including the push for more energy-efficient storage. It raises a quandry: how do you create power-saving infrastructure for all the different types of storage architectures out there? Is this a realistic possibility? And what do we do in the meantime to keep power costs (and usage) down? Check out the column and Storage Network blog, and post your own thoughts.
Visting Vista, continued: Oliver Rist continues his exploration of Vista RC2, this time navigating the security and mobile-compatibility waters. Find out his verdict in today's edition of the Enterprise Windows column, then check out Part One and the Prologue if you haven't already.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on October 26, 2006 06:00 AM
October 25, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Gear6 to cache in on virtualization
Gear6 turbo-charges networked storage: InfoWorld Senior Analyst and Storage Guru Mario Apicella reports on Gear6's forthcoming Cachefx, which "promises to bump up the performance of any storage system by one order of magnitude or more." While the details are a bit hazy, he reports it's an appliance filled to the brim with terabytes of RAM with some management software that capable of selecting which applications or which files need to go faster.
Mobile landing pad for Leopard: Mac enthusiast Tom Yager was quite pleased to wake up to Apple's announcement of a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro. This 64-bit notebook offers some important advantages of their predecessors, he notes, including being based on Intel's 64-bit Core microarchitecture, performance improvements of up to 39 percent -- and a MagSafe airline power adapter hook to ensure you can keep computing while airborne.
Virtualization meets security: Aplix has unveiled a user-space virtualization technology that dynamically generates virtual execution spaces for native app, writes David Marshall. By creating a virtual execution space for an app, it restricts the application itself from directly accessing the underlying OS, thus providing a secure environment.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 25, 2006 06:00 AM
October 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Sun Java Studio Creator screencast
New AJAX screencast The newest addition to our AJAX screencast series is live! Sun's David Botterill navigates a two-part trip through the Java Studio Creator's AJAX features. Check out Part I here, then follow it up with http://www.infoworld.com/video/archives/2006/10/screencast_sun.html. You'll find more AJAX screencasts on our video page, including a host of open-source and free options from our summer roundup.
Data marts -- they're ba-aack: Just in time for Halloween, it looks like the much-maligned data mart of yore is coming back from the grave -- with a vengence, thanks to the supporting technology of better Web interfaces and more complete management tools. As SOA and other real-time services require data to be at their fingertips at all times, the more-nimble data marts are looking like a better option than hulking Frankenstein-style enterprise repositories. For more on data management, check out Jon Udell's thoughts on in-memory data management and the importance of data synchronization.
So you want to be a DBA: Test Center Analyst Sean McCown has plenty of experience - not just with databases and their associated apps, but also with the skills good DBAs sport and the career questions they ponder. Check out his advice on some must-have DBA skills, interview questions to avoid, and a four-part series on the foibles of IT recruiters (check out part one here and make your way to the fourth installment). All this and more is found in the Database Underground blog.
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on October 24, 2006 06:00 AM
October 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: IE7 undoes rootkit damage
IE7 to the rescue: Test Center Contributor Victor Garza was pleasantly surprised to find a fix for a rootkit-damaged version of Internet Explorer 6 that just wouldn't go away. Not even reinstalling the browser would work. The solution? Loading IE7 onto the system. "Humm, whadda ya know, something that fixes things right off the bat and is actually more secure than the previous version of IE."
Podcast interview with Cricket Liu: Test Center Lead Analyst Jon Udell had a chance to chat with Cricket Liu, a DNS maven and author who is working on identifying and correcting DNS security vulnerabilities. Udell steers the conversation to the question of "why it might or might not be a good idea to extend DNS in ways that identify humans rather than machines."
Sun expands virtualization set: Sun has announced a heap of virtualization-related products, reports David Marshall. Among them: LDoms, a virtualization technology for Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 that lets customers run multiple OSes simultaneously with Solaris containers; as well as Solaris on Xen, a plan to bring fully supported Xen functionality to Solaris 10 come 2007.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 23, 2006 06:00 AM
October 19, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Well-polished blades from Egenera
A sharp set of blades: Egenera takes a unique stab at delivering an adaptive datacenter using blades, specifically its BladeFrame EX system. In his exclusive review of the solution, Contributing Editor Paul Venezia concludes that, despite a limited management UI and some absent features, "Egenera succeeds in delivering a modular, high-performance, and highly adaptive blade server system."
Flow, WAN, flow! Users hate slow application performance. The budget guys don't like throwing more money at fatter pipes. Enter Riverbed with its set of Steelhead WAN optimization appliances, powered by Release 3 of RiOS (Riverbed Optimization System). Contributing Editor Keith Schultz liked what he saw from the latest additions to the Steelhead school: " Riverbed continues to impress with expanded CIFS and NFS support, allowing for better performance with both Windows- and NFS-based servers."
Know thy (new) enemy: The ongoing race between malware writers and security vendors continue. Now that companies have a pretty good handle on squishing common viruses, worms, and Trojan, a new batch of malware has emerged: companion worms and viruses. " Also known also known as spawners or twins… thet modify the infected computer's environment in such a way that when the system attempts to execute a legitimate file, a malicious file is run first," explains Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes. But fear not: Admins have a way of protecting their systems, such as employing inspection discs. Roger helpfully points to some specific solutions to consider.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 19, 2006 10:05 PM
October 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: SOA and VoIP, unite!
SOA and VoIP a perfect match: Test Center Lead Analyst Jon Udell weighs in on the inevitable pairing of SOA (services-oriented architecture) and VoIP. Thus far, he notes, "voice and data networking remain two different cultures that have so far failed spectacularly to come together." He envisions a time when a BPEL script will be able, for example, to set up a VoIP conference call among multiple parties whose verbal interaction is required to move a business process forward. "It's admittedly creepy to imagine empowering that business rule to detect our common availability, initiate a conference call, and receive a signal from us that tells it to proceed. But the alternative that we constantly endure [missing one another] is arguably worse." (If you missed it, InfoWorld had a recent cover article on the subject of SOA and VoIP convergence.)
Transmeta takes on Intel: Intel proudly touts the power efficiency of its chips, but Transmeta claims Intel achieved that bragging right by appropriating some of its patented adaptive power technology. Noting that other companies, such as AMD, have struck deals with Transmeta to use the company's intellectual property, Chief Technologist Tom Yager opines that "If Transmeta IP or lessons learned from it did get into Pentium 4, Core, and Core 2 CPUs as the complaint alleges, Intel should pony up -- and not because it's cheaper to pay than go to trial. Any Transmeta inventions that Intel used would be pivotal in positioning Intel as the self-described performance-per-watt leader."
Virtualization meets the Mac desktop: It's been a couple of months since VMware announced plans to bring a virtualization product to Macs, but it looks like the fulfillment of the promise is growing nearer, according to Virtualization Report blogger David Marshall. "It seems as though VMware is going to be announcing their Intel-based Mac product soon enough. Codenamed 'Fusion' - it is currently in beta at build 33141. ... The company claims that its first product for the new Intel Macs makes it easier than ever to take advantage of the security, flexibility, and portability of virtual machines." How will this affect Parallels, the company that has dominated Mac virtualization? Stay tuned!
Posted by Ted Samson on October 18, 2006 06:00 AM
October 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Apple's day will come -- after Vista's
Will Vista's buzz bury Leopard? So it turns out that this technology outfit out in Redmond, Wash. has a new operating system coming out soon, called Vista. I think InfoWorld has mentioned it a couple of times. But this other technology company, Apple, is working on an upgrade to its own OS, and it's called Leopard. InfoWorld Apple enthusiast Tom Yager contemplates how the two platforms will be received. "When Vista reviews start running, we'll see the professional and lay media pile on with the predictions of doom for OS X and the "too little, too late" Leopard that journalists have never seen outside apple.com. ... The media wags and flame-baiters will have a nice run through early January until MacWorld shuts them up. Steve Jobs had a wink in his voice when he projected Leopard's Spring delivery during his WWDC keynote."
Quickie bliki: If your organization is in the market for simple, easy, and free collaboration tool that brings together the worlds of blogs and wiki, check out Maggie Biggs's review of SnipSnap 1.0. "While SnipSnap provides core collaboration and editing capabilities, it is not as feature-rich as some other wiki and blogging solutions. Still, SnipSnap does provide an easy way to organize content at a budget-minded price: free."
Dimension hopping: Lead Analyst Jon Udell continues his foray in the digital third dimension, presenting a three-minute video report on his experience at the Greater IBM Virtual Block Party in alternative online universe. "I found myself in a breakout session chatting with strangers about a topic whose premise I disagreed with. That would be unproductive enough in the real world. Because we lacked a synchronous voice channel, real identities, and sufficient emotional bandwidth, it felt even less productive here."
Posted by Ted Samson on October 17, 2006 06:00 AM
October 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Sweet SOA suite and a BizTalk video treat
Oracle's SOA Suite spot: Unlike, say, parachute pants and pet rocks, SOA (service-oriented architecture) is more than a passing fad, and InfoWorld is committed to helping guide you down your SOA path. To that end, Senior Contributing James R. Borck, who has already proven himself a very capable ESB (enterprise service bus) driver, is taking an in-depth look at Oracle SOA Suite 10.1. While his full review (an InfoWorld exclusive) is yet to come, he has shared some preliminary and promising observations.
See BizTalk run If a picture's worth a thousand words, then we have quite a few thousand more words to say about Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, in the form of a detailed, narrated screencast. Whether or not you've had a chance to check out Contributing Editor Martin Heller's review of the impressive EAI solution, the video is worth watching so as to get a feel of just how rich an offering BizTalk is.
I can't believe it's not open source! Ambivalence ranks right up there with irony as one of those words that rarely gets used properly. It means "the condition of holding opposite feelings (such as love and hate) for the same person or object." Why the vocabulary lesson? So I can allude to Opera's apparent feelings of ambivalence toward open source. The way Senior Editor Neil McCallister tells it, the company supports open source; it just sees no way of adopting the open source model for its browser while being able to remain competitive.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 16, 2006 06:00 AM
October 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: PowerEdge ages beautifully
Proud heritage lives on: Dell introduced its PowerEdge line about a decade ago, and time has treated the server family well. Test Center Contributor Paul Venezia discovers that the attractively priced 2950 comes packed with power as well as some nifty updates such as SAS and SATA disk options, refreshed DRAC, and support for the newest Intel chips.
IBM IICE heats up content federation: Many companies have myriad data tucked away in ECMSes (enterprise content management systems), workflow software, and other repositories. You can get at that data in individual chunks via proprietary UIs, or you can see it with an enterprise search engine. But you want to actually add, modify, and manipulate that data, and from a single UI, consider IBM's WebSphere IICE (Information Integrator Content Edition) v. 8.3. It provides a capable means of federating access to portals and CMSes, says Test Center Contributor Andrew Binstock, thought its enter-prise orientation and pricing might not make it a good fit for all companies.
Are you ready for IE 7? The newest iteration of Microsoft Internet Explorer is on the horizon, and Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes urges you to be prepared. On the plus side, the browser is packed with a bunch of security features that could finally relieve IE of its punch-line status in IT security jokes. However, you may find that IE doesn't play well with all the Web apps and software tools your users need to get their jobs done. Best start testing now, Grimes suggests.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 13, 2006 06:00 AM
October 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: EAI, EAI, oooh!
Get down to bizness: It's been a couple of years since InfoWorld last looked at Microsoft BizTalk Server, and time has treated the EAI product well. Now in its 2006 iteration, BizTalk remains an excellent solution for stitching together complex applications, Web services, and databases, according to Test Center Contributor Martin Heller, plus it provides useful UIs for users of varying technical savvy. "Enterprises that support Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2000/2005 in their server infrastructure and have developers familiar with Visual Studio 2005 would do well to consider BizTalk as the centerpiece of their EAI and b-to-b e-commerce solutions."
Virtualization video: Does virtualization make IT management discipline easier or harder? InfoWorld Executive Editor Eric Knorr poses that very question, and others, to Andi Mann, senior analyst at IT research and analysis firm Enterprise Management Associates. (Eric caught up with Andi for the brief chat at InfoWorld's recent Virtualization Forum in New York.)
Tasty storage clusters: Senior Analyst and storage guru Mario Apicella bites into clustered storage systems, noting that the advantages to the technology are similar to those of server clustering: "You get better scalability, both for capacity and performance, and more resilience than traditional solutions can provide." He looks specifically at Isilon's impressive OneFS 4.5 (stands for One File System) clustered storage solution, a distributed file system that runs on multiple nodes of proprietary hardware, connected via iSCSI links to their hosts and interconnected via iSCSI or InfiniBand.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 12, 2006 06:00 AM
October 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: x86 isn't just for games
Leveraging x86: Application developers can learn from the example set by game developers and media editors insofar as how they use , opines InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager. "Despite the fact that every living PC has SIMD extensions by now, I am sure that [x86] extensions aren't used where they could make the greatest difference." By taking better advantage of x86, developers could inject cryptography, compression, and real-time business analytics in their wares.
Second Life, third dimension: Blogger in Chief Jon Udell observes the striking similarities between building HTML Web pages in the 1990s and constructing 3-D artifacts in online 3-D environment Second Life today. "Just as Web page authors were scarce and expensive then, Second Life builders are now. " But the similarities end when it comes to difficulty. Web pages are 2-D pages. whereas "you build Second Life objects using two-dimensional gestures that render in a simulated 3-D space. I used to be handy with 3-D CAD software, and let me tell you, that third dimension is a doozy."
Java does Vista: Contrary to rumors, Java Client Group Architect Chet Haase asserts that Java runs quite well on Vista, thank you, particularly Java SE 6. He notes that adapting Java to the ever-evolving Vista platform has been no easy trick, though. " [S]ince Vista has been a moving platform during the Java SE 6 development process, we've been in this development cycle continually with every new drop of Vista (they are still releasing weekly builds for us to test; we just found a bug in RC1 that has since been fixed in the latest release we got yesterday)."
Posted by Ted Samson on October 11, 2006 06:00 AM
October 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: VoIP over SOA
When acronyms collide: Peanut butter and jelly. Laurel and Hardy. SOA and VoIP. OK, so the last paring in the trio may not be a classic pairing, at least not yet, but they're starting to get cozy, and there's plenty of potential there for a long, meaningful relationship, Leon Erlanger finds. "As with mainframe applications, what was once the isolated, proprietary office PBX, then the IP PBX, has started evolving into a set of abstracted software services for unified communications that can be interwoven with business app services and processes in an SOA."
Slippery Slidy: InfoWorld Lead Analyst Jon Udell laments that we still lack a standard compound document format for the Web, which creates problems for such tasks as creating a presentation with HTML Slidy. He has concocted a couple of workarounds in the meantime, though.
You won't find these on YouTube: Sean McCown doesn't spend all his days taming databases. He also invests plenty of time viewing IT training videos, then kindly lets folks like us know whether they're worthwhile. Application developers, he says, would be well-served checking some selections from (fittingly) AppDev. "Their training is simply top notch. The production quality is very high, and the instruction is fantastic. ... If you ever get a chance to take any of their training, don't pass it up." There there's SQLUSA training: "I honestly can't imagine a bigger waste of money. You'd really be better off learning SQL from a house painter."
Posted by Ted Samson on October 10, 2006 06:00 AM
October 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: BEA calls out open source?
Whistling or swaggering in the dark? In a recent tour of BEA, IDG reporters got an earful from BEA CTO Rob Levy as to why open source competitors fall short of the company's SOA wares. Open Source columnist Neil McCallister suggests that Levy relied on "half-truths and misleading facts" in attempting to make his case, and that his case, frankly, was bogus. For example, Levy suggests that BEA picks up the management slack where Apache Tomcat falls short. McCallister notes, however, that Tomcat is merely a Java servlet container, and "if what you want is a fully integrated, highly manageable Java application server, you might want to look for products a little higher up the stack -- such as Apache Geronimo or JBoss, for example."
Another taste of Vista: Further whetting the appetite of Windows fan, Microsoft last Friday unveiled RC2 of Vista. The company still claims the OS will be ready to businesses next month and for users in January. Details of just how the new RC is an improvement over the previous one remains hazy, but stay tuned to InfoWorld's ongoing coverage.
Riding the SLED: After testing SLED 10 on his Thinkpad 60 laptop, Open Source blogger Dave Rosenberg concludes that Linux is A-OK for business users, despite a hiccup connecting to Wi-Fi after creating a new user account. "I can confidently say that the hardware is fantastic, the SLED Linux is good, but the applications are only mediocre. The only reason I haven't switched entirely is because of Photoshop, though I suppose I could use WINE or Crossover," he writes.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 9, 2006 06:00 AM
October 06, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Jtest 8 brings more hope to Java developers
Jtest 8 passes with honors: Contributing Editor Rick Grehan has tracked the evolution of Parasoft's Java testing tool Jtest for some time now, and he's pleased to discover that it keeps getting better. "Version 8 adds more preloaded rules and the new BugDetective analysis module for locating problems and identifying their origin," and that's just the beginning. Java developers, rejoice.
MS Antigen nails viruses, chokes on spam: Spam and viruses continue to flood users' mailboxes. Vendors of all sizes offer an array of products to battle the onslaught, and with varying success. Consider Microsoft Anti-gen for SMTP Gateways Version 9.0, with Antigen Spam Manager. Antigen for SMTP Gateway is a well-designed virus slayer that nailed every bugger analyst Logan Harbaugh threw at it. But the optional Spam Manager add-on fared worse than just about any anti-spam tool he's seen.
Virtualization Forum reloaded: A couple of weeks ago, InfoWorld Editor in Chief wrote a column singing the praises of Executive Test Center Editor Doug Dineley -- and deservedly so. Doug knows enterprise technology like Bo knows knew football. So if you were one of the unlucky individuals who missed out on our Virtualization Executive Forum in New York, or if you want a recap, check into the InfoWorld IT Exec-Connect Virtualization Chat Room today (Friday) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific.
Sad state of security: Sometime the first step to solving a problem is recognizing it -- and Security Adviser Roger A. Grimes sees a doozy. Make that many doozies. "The world of computer security is so much worse than the average Internet user or politician believes... . The people who make a living at closing tens to hundreds of thousands of bot-infected computers a day readily admit that they are not making a dent in the bad guy's ability to use bots for crime. ... Sadly, the world has decided that real computer security doesn't mat-ter any more than real terrorist security. It's all lip service. We are, and apparently choose to be, reactive sheep." It may not be uplifting reading. It may not even be heeded. But it's important.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 6, 2006 06:00 AM
October 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: The next big storage thing?
One smart switch: Storage maven Mario Apicella reveals what he deems "one of the most important releases in recent storage news": iNSP (Incipient Network Storage Platform). "iNSP is the first (and for now only) storage virtualization software that resides entirely inside an intelligent switch module. That's an architectural difference from competing products that run on arrays or ancillary appliances." Benefits include quicker data migration, and "the ability to automate recurring storage provisioning tasks with templates that classify storage according to applications' demands."
Uber 10-gig NIC: What happens when you combine NetXen's intelligent, 10-gig network controllers with HP's Multifunction Network Adapters for ProLiant servers? A powerful NIC, potentially capable of TCP/IP offloading, RDMA, iSCSI acceleration -- maybe even I/O virtualization, according to Test Center Head Honcho Doug Dineley. And according to HP and NetXen, there's plenty more to come. Stay tuned.
Shooting from the HIPS: The promise of a technology panacea is alluring, as is the case with HIPS (host intrusion prevention systems), notes Enterprise Windows author Oliver Rist. "The technology aims to combine AV, malware, and network intrusion detection into an intelligent overall security umbrella that covers your entire desktop -- and some-times server -- landscape." But HIPS has the potential to put a real strain on your systems, he cautions, so approach with care -- and a fire extinguisher -- until these types of solutions prove their worth.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 5, 2006 06:06 AM
October 04, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Amazon's SOA experiment
Amazon's SOA play: InfoWorld Lead Analyst Jon Udell looks at Amazon's recently announced FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), which will make Amazon's warehouse, its customer service, and its pick, pack, and ship machinery available to sellers. How will the endeavor work? We'll have to wait and see, but Udell predicts that "as we watch it unfold, we'll all deepen our understanding of what SOA [service-oriented architecture] can mean and how services can evolve into products."Pool your IT assests: InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager presents a novel approach to IT spending that could eliminate spending redundancies. Rather than creating separate IT spending budgets, "virtualize all assets, and turn managers with spending authority into IT investors... . IT gets to decide where the new boxes live and what badge is on them; but new investments always buy the latest hardware, and even though everything is virtually pooled and dynamically provisioned, no investor in the pool ever gets fewer cycles, less memory, smaller network pipes, or less storage than what their investment entitles them to."
VMware Converter evolves: Over in the InfoWorld Virtualization Report, David Marshall takes a look at VMware Converter 3. The company is aiming to meet the needs of data centers seeking ways to migrate their physical servers into virtual machines. VMware's "next generation conversion tool that enables fast and reliable Physical-to-Virtual and Virtual-to-Virtual conversions through a simple and centralized management product."
Posted by Ted Samson on October 4, 2006 06:00 AM
October 04, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: iNSP a storage virtualization breakthrough?
One smart switch: Storage maven Mario Apicella reveals what he deems one of the most important releases in recent storage news: iNSP (Incipient Network Storage Platform). "iNSP is the first (and for now only) storage virtualization software that resides entirely inside an intelligent switch module. That's an architectural difference from competing products that run on arrays or ancillary appliances." Benefits include quicker data migration, and "the ability to automate recurring storage provisioning tasks with templates that classify storage according to applications' demands."
Super 10-gig NIC: What happens when you combine NetXen's intelligent, 10-gig network controllers with HP's Multifunction Network Adapters for ProLiant servers? A powerful NIC, potentially ca-pable of TCP/IP offloading, RDMA, iSCSI acceleration -- maybe even I/O virtualization, according to Test Center Head Honcho Doug Dineley. And according to HP and NetXen, there's plenty more to come. Stay tuned.
Shooting from the HIPS: The promise of a technology panacea is alluring, as is the case with HIPS (host intrusion prevention systems), notes Enterprise Windows author Oliver Rist. "The technology aims to combine AV, malware, and network intrusion detection into an intelligent overall security umbrella that covers your entire desktop -- and sometimes server -- landscape." But HIPS has the potential to put a real strain on your systems, he cautions, so approach with care -- and a fire extinguisher -- until these types of solutions prove their worth.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 4, 2006 06:00 AM
September 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Microsoft, security vendor?
Should Microsoft be in the security biz? The Big Redmondian Machine gets an arguably deserved bad wrap for inadequate security in Windows. Yet Security Adviser Roger Grimes notes that some critics wonder whether it's fair for company to reap profits selling tools to fix the holes it's responsible for opening in the first place. Grimes runs through Microsoft array of security offerings, then expresses mixed feelings on the matter. Among them: "As long as Microsoft is not anti-competitive -- pushing its computer defense choices over other vendors' in an illegal way -- additional choices are a good thing."
Webinars on the cheap: The InfoWorld Test Center is continuing to build on this here Weblog, adding not only product announcements but also previews and hands-on reviews we think you'll be interested in. Take, for example, Mike Heck's look at Citrix's GoToWebinar product: It's easy to use, has an impressive feature set (save for video), and it's remarkably inexpensive. Stay tuned to the Test Center Daily for more product evaluations from our expert analysts.
Sweet, sweet CRM: Speaking of product reviews, Matt Asay over in the Open Source blog has developed a real sweet tooth for SugarCRM 4.5. "First off, it's absolutely beautiful to look at. The UI has been seriously upgraded - Ajax and such, with dashlets that let me heavily customize my home "portal." It's also much, much easier to add custom fields - it's all drag-and-drop now...." Tasty!
Posted by Ted Samson on September 29, 2006 06:00 AM
September 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Recapping the Virtualization Executive Forum
Like being there... virtually: The first-ever InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum took place in New York this week, and if you missed it, David Marshall over at the Virtualization Report blog has a nifty recap. Watch this blog and the Virtualization Forum page for the slides from the forum's presentations. And check out our virtualiaiton report and reviews for more on how you can work this buzzwordy tech into your business.
Testing, one-two-three: Brian Chee and the ANCL lab rats have been busy -- he's got a look at Splunk 2.1 up on the Geeks in Paradise blog, as well as some nifty screenshots of Network General's NetVigil
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on September 28, 2006 06:00 AM
September 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Why more than four cores?
Chip wars: The saga continues: InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager chips away at the marketing mantra behind Intel's Core Microarchitecture. "Not terribly long from now, AMD could find itself cornered into explaining to non-gearhead buyers why AMD64 stayed put at 8 cores and 3.8GHz when Intel announces sixteen core, five GHz Core Microarchitecture CPUs with 2.5GHz front-side buses," he writes. "I want to tell AMD to keep to the high road and trust that the commercial market will come around as it did with Opteron." Yager argues that Intel (and AMD), with their newest chips, both should have stuck with four cores "and focused on fat and fast busses that give those cores something to fill instead of something to wait for."
Demofall goodies: Roving Editor at Large Paul Krill checked in to Demofall '06 and discovered nice array of tantalizing technological tidbits. Among them: "Void Communications' VaporStream is a Web-based hosted message service that eliminates all traces of a message once it has been read; readers can't even print it out or do a screen capture." Other exhibits included RingCube's MojoPac technology, which transforms an iPod or other USB storage device into a portable PC.
Pay as you print? Over in his SMB IT blog, Oliver Rist contemplates a new business model offered by some print vendors, such as Xerox. "It's like an all-in-one car lease. You get the printer(s), all the consumables and all maintenance from the manufacturer for a set monthly fee based on the manufacturer's assessment of your printing volume." That can save your company on the high costs of consumables, perhaps. Worth checking out? Let Oliver know.
Posted by Ted Samson on September 27, 2006 06:00 AM
September 25, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Apple nibbling at the datacenter
Functional or forbidden enterprise fruit? There's a time and a place for everything, or so the saying goes. Is the time and place for Mac now and in the datacenter? InfoWorld Chief Technologist and Apple aficionadoTom Yager looks at the potentially potent additions of Leopard and Intel's 64-bit x86 chips to the mix as he attempts to debunk myths about Apple's corporate competency.
Planetation: InfoWorld Blogger in Chief Jon Udell had a podcast chat with Cyril Houri, founder and CEO of Mexens Tech-nologies. In it, Houri talks about hopes of annotat-ing the planet (Earth) via the company's Navizon (a positioning system combining GPS, Wifi, and phone positioning). Specifically, users could "map the locations of both WiFi access points and cell towers. Then people using vast numbers of de-vices on WiFi or cellular networks can use location-aware applications without having to own GPS gear."
Open source doesn't get the picture: Succesful open-source software projects abound, but developers often struggle to enlist the artistic skills of graphic designer and illustrators to give their wares the aesthetic oomph the need to broaden their appeal. Are these visual artists too greedy to give freely of themselves? Nope, says Neil McCallister. Rather, they're just not familiar with open source because open source has can be, well, too ugly at times. "Have you seen the GIMP? While it's often billed as the "open source Photoshop," it lacks many of the tools that professional graphic designers need for print production. Even worse, its UI is about as handsome and user-friendly as a piranha. What self-respecting graphic artist could tolerate it?"
Posted by Ted Samson on September 25, 2006 06:00 AM
September 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Exploring 10-Gig and beyond
What does 10-gig mean to me? Senior Contributing Editor Brian Chee knows networking, which is why he's a regular volunteer at Interop (currently going on now in New York). He had a chance to chat with Douglas Smith, the CEO of Network Instruments, who talked about 10GbE and the company's new across-the-product-line support for it.
I've seen the future, and it's accessibility: Tom Yager's column is aptly named "Ahead of the Curve," because that's where InfoWorld's chief technologist spends much of his time. Fortunately, he checks in with those of us rooted in the past to share observations and insights. This week, Tom ponders the evolution of information technology. "As I understand it, IT will be able to look into the future. It will tell you when someone is embezzling or committing fraud within your company well before you have to hire private investigators. It will keep every professional and, eventually, every person in real-time contact with specific information that changes dynamically."
9 steps for building a small data closet: Whales and minnows need blood to run; enterprises and small businesses both need data. If your company lacks the size and cash to invest in a pricey data center, fear not: Senior Contributing Editor Oliver Rist has some helpful guidelines for building and maintaining your data closet.
Posted by Ted Samson on September 20, 2006 06:00 AM
September 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Take control of ASP.NET
AJAX meets Visual Studio: Developers looking to get more out of their ASP.NET 2.0 endeavors would do well to take a look at Test Center Analyst Martin Heller's review of two control collections: Infragistics NetAdvantage for ASP.NET and telerik r.a.d.controls for ASP.NET, as well as the complementary screencasts. "In my tests, I found both of these control sets to be potentially invaluable... . Both deliver excellent grid controls, rich edit controls, and a useful assortment of user input controls." Moreoever, they inject AJAX support into the mix, a must-have in this new Web 2.0 world.
Satisfy your Apple craving: Test Center Director Tom Yager peels away at the Power Mac G5 Quad, sharing some of the sweet slices that the confines of InfoWorld print simply couldn't contain.
Open source silicon: Open Enterprise scribe Neil McCallister investigates Sun's unique move to reveal the blueprints, as it were, of its 64-bit, multi-core, multithreaded UltraSparc T1 processor, also known by the codename Niagara. "These are developments the industry should watch closely. "As hardware design increasingly moves toward specialized chips for a variety of purposes, such as handhelds, routers, and videogame consoles, open source silicon could be an idea whose time has come."
Posted by Ted Samson on September 18, 2006 06:00 AM
September 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Hard drive turns 50! So?
No gifts, please: The hard drive just hit the big 5-0 and, well, Test Center Senior Analyst Mario Apicella won't be throwing a surprise party for that particular piece of hardware. "I'll keep a bottle of champagne ready for when the disk drive will finally find its match," he writes. "Considering that many of the storage problems that we face today are more or less directly related to the characteristics of the disk drives, I for one will celebrate when we will finally turn page."
Clip 'n' save security tips Test Center Contributing Editor Roger Grimes has come up with 14 handy-dandy, low-cost tips for keeping your PCs secure, like automation, education, and encrypt(a)tion.
Yahoo for Yahoo e-mail?: Yahoo unleashed a spruced-up version of its free e-mail application, we reported yesterday in this very blog. New features include drag-and-drop simplicity and niftier search tools. There's also a bit of integration with Yahoo Calendar -- though not like what Microsoft Outlook offers. The question is, is Yahoo going to take the path of Google and put together a Web-based communications package that could rival Outlook. Yahoo's not saying, but we can always speculate.
Posted by Ted Samson on September 15, 2006 06:00 AM
September 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: crossover targets SOA, Vivisimo splendissimo
Slow-starting ESB: Rick Grehan gets on board Software AG's crossvision enterprise service bus. Its destination: SOAville. The ride starts out bumpy, but in the end, "its development capabilities and tight integration become apparent. Nonprogrammers can rapidly create usable services that are easily deployed for use throughout the enterprise."
Search satisfaction: If your organization's wealth of information is as elusive as buried treasure, consider enlisting Vivísimo Velocity 5. Mike Heck has seen his fair share of search engines, and he says this iteration of Velocity, with its collection of excellent functionality and administration tools, puts it in the lead.
Should the AV club disband?: Crimeware is becoming too smart and stealthy for anti-virus scanners, opines Security Adviser Roger Grimes. "The prevalence of new, undetectable malware is quickly headed toward a tipping point. If anti-virus vendors don't take a serious look at the state of their products as compared to the current threats and build a better mousetrap, it's clear to me that they won't last another five years."
Blog roll call: Open Sources blogger Matt Asay gives a nod to Salesforce.com for taking a step toward being open with its ideas.salesforce.com project, but says that company really should open its code up entirely.
Over in Virtualization Report, David Marshall investigates Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite, an end-to-end solution for the VMware (VDI) Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
Posted by Ted Samson on September 8, 2006 06:00 AM
September 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: JackBe AJAX screencast and Vista redux
New AJAX Screencast: We've added a new screencast to our AJAX gallery: JackBe Visual GUI Builder. Check out the demo and see how this proprietary app compares to the open-source AJAX alternatives.
Fresh from the Test Center: Encrypting e-mail for a couple of users is one thing, but when you've got thousands of inboxes under your umbrella, encryption gets far trickier. Voltage Security's 2.0 version of the SecureMail appliance puts encryption at the gateway, so you can automatically encrypt messages based on a host of variables. Learn more about SecureMail 2.0's pros and cons in our new review.
Vista - On second thought: Oliver Rist is rethinking his proclamation that Vista is "revolutionary" after spending more time with the latest Release Candidate for his preview analysis. Find out more about why he's changing his spots in this week's Enterprise Windows column.
Blog Roll Call: Jon Udell is spanning the gulf between dynamic and static programming languages with a simple declaration: Use both.
The Grid Meter offers up a handy introduction for those wanting to explore the world of grid computing, but aren't quite sure where to start. (Here's a hint: Check out the Globus Alliance's Globus Toolkit for building grid apps.)
Posted by Stephanie McLoughlin on September 7, 2006 10:27 AM