2005 will be remembered for the emergence of multicore CPUs, the rise of enterprise x86, and even the quiet realization in datacenters throughout the land that CPU virtualization works wonders. But these weren’t the only technologies making waves. The year also brought important -- if perhaps more subtle -- progress to nearly the entire IT landscape. InfoWorld followed the action, analyzing the advances and lifting the hood on the latest innovations. What will be the most meaningful developments in 2006? What were the best products of 2005?
2006 will bring more cores, lower power requirements, hardware virtualization, and a few surprises
Operating systems vendors prep for next-gen hardware
Windows, Linux, Solaris get ready for a new generation of hardware, leaving the polish to Apple
Widespread adoption of virtualization awaits help from hardware
Hardware-assisted CPU virtualization will bring big-iron adaptability to x86 enterprises
Traffic optimization takes center stage in networking show
Despite lack of progress in many areas, 2005 saw networking gains
Storage vendors move beyond blocks and LUNs
Innovations, acquisitions, and partnerships pave the way to smarter storage
Application development tools focus on team process and code quality
Software development tool vendors focus on process and code quality, prepare for multicore CPUs
Middleware finds its mojo again
Maturing Web services standards and solutions shift the focus from development to deployment
Data protection and change control drive database developments
Auditing and encryption products address top concerns, while Microsoft shoots the moon
Wanted: Methods for moving mountains of content
Document management fosters compliance while enterprise search cracks silos
Year of the enterprise Wiki
Lightweight Web collaboration gets down to business
End-to-end identity management suites still coming together
CA, HP, and Oracle round out portfolios as identity management suites mature
Threat landscape and lapses justify security paranoia
Gadgets abounded in 2005; common sense remained AWOL for some
2006 Technology of the Year Awards: The winners' list
Find all of our Technology of the Year Award winners here, organized by category
