http://www.informationweek.comInformationWeeken-usCopyright 2012, UBM LLC.2012-12-18T11:06:00ZAfter almost two years of iPad use, I've been living with a Google Nexus 10 tablet for the past month. Google's iPad rival does not disappoint.http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/desktop/google-nexus-10-my-first-month/240144563?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/software/enterprise-applications/10-must-have-apps-for-byod-android-devic/240142920"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/915/01_Android_tn.gif" alt="10 Essential Android Apps For Work, Home" title="10 Essential Android Apps For Work, Home" class="img175" /></a><br /><div class="storyImageTitle">10 Essential Android Apps For Work, Home</div><span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> Forget a year, oh what a difference six months makes. Last summer, Apple was riding the euphoric waves of another successful iPad launch, selling as many 3rd-generation, "new" iPads as it could make. The post-PC world was its oyster. Android tablets had come and mostly gone, starting with the ill-fated Motorola Xoom, with Samsung and Asus rekindling Android lovers' hopes with the Galaxy Tab and Transformer Prime respectively. While the collective reviews weren't all bad, the market's judgment was harsh: through last year, <a href="http://www.androidauthority.com/ipad-android-market-share-report-63303/">iPads outsold Android tablets by three or four to one</a>. <P> But Google isn't <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/technology/hewlett-packards-touchpad-was-built-on-flawed-software-some-say.html">HP; it didn't cut and run</a>. Instead it methodically improved Android's tablet features -- recall that early Android devices ran a warmed over version of the smartphone OS -- while simultaneously taking on a bigger role in hardware design and development. The first fruits of this new, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/nexus-best-of-google-now-in-three-sizes.html">best of Google strategy</a>, was the Nexus 7; a compelling mini-tablet that beat Apple's entry to the 7-inch space by four months and whose sales figures, estimated to be more than <a href="http://bgr.com/2012/11/20/nexus-7-sales-2012-estimates">5 million by the end of the year</a>, exceeded all expectations. Next up, a full-frontal assault on iPad dominance in the 10-inch market via the Nexus 10. <P> I've been living with a Nexus 10 for the past month, but after almost two years of iPad use, the last nine months with the third-generation, Retina Display edition, my tablet expectations are high. The Nexus didn't disappoint. On paper, the Nexus bests both the third- and tweaked fourth-gen iPads on almost every front: higher resolution screen, faster processor, more RAM, better cameras, it's even thinner and lighter for crying out loud. <a href="http://browser.primatelabs.com/android-benchmarks">It smokes</a> even the souped up <a href="http://browser.primatelabs.com/ios-benchmarks">fourth-gen iPad</a> by almost 40% on Geekbench 2, but we all know that there's far more to the tablet experience than specs and benchmarks. On those measures a cheap knockoff watch is as good as a Rolex. No, what really completes the Nexus package is Jelly Bean, an Android version that finally rivals iOS for speed, polish, responsiveness and features. <P> <strong>[ This question is easier than you might think to answer: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/should-you-buy-a-7-inch-or-10-inch-table/240144532?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Should You Buy A 7-Inch Or 10-Inch Tablet?</a> ]</strong> <P> Jelly Bean bears the fruits of Google's <a href="http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/07/12/getting-to-know-android-4-1-part-3-project-butter-how-it-works-and-what-it-added/">Project Butter</a>, rectifying the frustrating stutters, pauses and battery drain that plagued Android 2.x. But this Android redux isn't just iPad smooth; its new features palpably improve the tablet experience. <P> As I wrote in a recent <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/9217/Mobility-Wireless/it-pro-impact-ipad-vs-nexus-vs-surface-tablet-shootout.html"><em>InformationWeek</em> smartphone report</a>, "while 4.1 includes a raft of small changes, the big new feature is <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/now/">Google Now</a>, essentially a combination of predictive search (<a href="http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/instant/about.html">Google Instant</a>) and Siri-like voice activation (<a href="http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/voicesearch/index-chrome.html">Voice Search</a>)." <P> Google Now, which is just a home-screen search widget away, attempts to provide information you're likely to be interested in, things like weather forecasts, traffic reports, sports scores, current event listings, <em>before</em> you actually do a search. While the concept seems a bit gimmicky, the implementation shows promise; it's not bad for a first release and will undoubtedly get better at prediction (as you use it) and functionality (as Google bangs on the code) over time. In contrast, Voice Search does to Siri what Google Maps did to Apple's subpar iOS 6 effort: I found it much faster, somewhat more accurate and far more aesthetically pleasing, as Google ditches Siri's robotic voice for something akin to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F8fRqCkF5Y">AT&T's Jane the Time Lady</a>). <P> The notifications bar is another area where Android excels. On iOS it's an afterthought that I seldom use, but it's been integral to Android from day one. In 4.2, the incremental Jelly Bean version developed for Nexus, the bar's been bisected. On the right, a quick swipe provides access to system-level information like battery level, network information, airport mode and the system settings panel. On the left is an application-specific bar showing everything from new email snippets and calendar events to Facebook and news feed updates. <P> But all isn't perfect in the land of Jelly Bean. Although Android is now every bit as responsive as iOS, it's still not as reliable. Lockups are at least a once-a-week occurrence, something that <em>never</em> happens on the iPad, where the only time I ever reboot is for an OS update. Like most OS problems, the freezes are unpredictable, but most often occur in the browser; maybe Android Chrome isn't quite as stable as its PC counterpart. <P> Apps are another frustration. It's not that Android per se has an app gap; there are plenty of great titles. As I wrote in a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/how-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-won-me-over/240143771">recent column about the Samsung Galaxy Note II</a>, most of the major iOS titles are also available on Google Play -- and for those MIA, there's almost certainly an excellent substitute. <P> No, the problem is that most are still built for small-screen phones, unable to take advantage of the Nexus 10's luxuriant 2560 x 1600 (take that iPad) screen with more pixels than most laptops. Even for those that do work on the big screen, the text is too small and often not scalable. Sometimes the developer, perhaps wisely, refuses to even support tablets at all. A couple of my iPad favorites, like Flipboard and Zite, which have Android ports that work fine on phones, will not install on the Nexus, presumably since they haven't figured out how to use the added screen real estate. Still, the app situation is hardly a deal breaker. While my Nexus 10 hasn't expanded to the five screens worth of icons that litter my iPad, I haven't found a major software or content category with significant holes. <P> Nor do the app scales always tip in the iPad's favor. For those of us that base a considerable portion of our online existence on Google services, Android is a stellar choice: the OS integration is tight and the native apps like Gmail, Calendar, Search and Play are arguably better than their iOS cousins. Indeed, Google brings a fresh approach to many categories like the Play Music app, which just looks cleaner and more modern than iTunes. Likewise, the large content library widget that occupies the default home screen is an incredibly convenient portal to recently accessed books, music and videos; think of it as a self-organizing pile of CDs, books and magazines on your desk. Apple, take note. <P> With the Nexus line, both small and large screen, Google clearly charts a compelling alternative path to Apple's tablet dominance. A market that once seemed a monopoly is now a competitive joust between quite different platforms, each with its strengths and weaknesses. While iPads still hold the upper hand, the Nexus duo provide worthy, and more affordable, alternatives. Life just got more complicated for tablet buyers.2012-12-18T02:51:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/9217/Mobility-Wireless/it-pro-impact-ipad-vs-nexus-vs-surface-tablet-shootout.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-12-18T02:33:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/21/9455/Security/strategy-rebooting-dlp.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-12-14T17:37:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/10/9260/Social+Networking-Collaboration/saas-collaboration-project-management-buyer-s-guide.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-12-14T17:04:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/24/9259/Storage-Server/research-state-of-servers-full-fast-and-diverse*.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-12-13T00:37:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/9059/Mobility-Wireless/it-pro-s-guide-to-iphone-5-and-ios-6*.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-12-08T09:06:00ZI spent a few not particularly pleasant weeks with Microsoft's latest effort to achieve mobile relevance.http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/handheld/nokia-lumia-920-close-but-no-cigar/240143996?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/software/windows8/windows-phone-8-star-features/240012582"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/892/1_tn.jpg" alt="Windows Phone 8: Star Features" title="Windows Phone 8: Star Features" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle"> Windows Phone 8: Star Features</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> Microsoft's approach to mobile devices reveals an apparent case of bipolar disorder. It alternates between cold dismissiveness -- treating the little gadgets as just another peripheral that's regularly tethered to the almighty PC -- and an enthusiastic embrace, in which the Lilliputian computers are legitimate inheritors of the mighty Windows franchise. The company is currently in one of the passionate phases, seemingly putting as much marketing muscle behind tablets and phones as it does laptops and all-in-ones. <P> In other words, the reality that Apple, Google and its Android partners, notably Samsung, are <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/desktop/pre-windows-8-pc-sales-worse-than-expect/240008956 ">eating Microsoft's lunch</a> has finally hit like a two-by-four between the eyes. Although Apple fomented the mobile device revolution, Google now owns the largest share of U.S. smartphone sales while <a href="http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/10/comScore_Reports_August_2012_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share">Microsoft barely registers</a>, and the situation is nearing the point of no recovery. Thus, Microsoft is making one last-ditch push for mobile device relevance with its two-pronged Windows 8 tablet/smartphone strategy. And success is riding on a new generation of Windows 8 phones, headlined by Nokia's Lumia 920. <P> This fall has seen a flurry of smartphone releases, and having recently <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/9059/Mobility-Wireless/it-pro-s-guide-to-iphone-5-and-ios-6%2A.html">reviewed the iPhone 5</a>, I was eager to see how the latest crop of high-end products like the Samsung Galaxy Note II and Lumia 920 stacked up. AT&T kindly obliged and I've been putting both devices to the test for the past few weeks for an upcoming report. <P> <strong>[ Learn <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/how-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-won-me-over/240143771?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How Samsung Galaxy Note II Won Me Over</a>. ]</strong> <P> We'll get to the hardware later, but the elephant in the room when evaluating Windows 8 -- whether on phones or PCs -- is the new Modern UI. Unlike the Android-powered Note, which comports with iOS-inspired smartphone tradition, Windows Phone 8 apes its PC namesake by utterly dispensing with the familiar multi-screen grid of fixed icons. Instead, there's a row of what Microsoft calls, in a classic bit of marketing overstatement, Live Tiles. If the ability to display information updates from an underlying app means live, I guess the term fits, but I'm having hard time seeing the functional improvement over iOS icon badges, Android's home screen widgets and both platforms' notification bars. <P> Live Tiles are arguably a clever innovation. However, as UI guru <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/windows-8.html">Jacob Nielsen noted</a> in discussing the PC incarnation, the actual implementation leaves a lot to be desired. "Unfortunately, application designers immediately went overboard and went from live tiles to hyper-energized ones ... The theory, no doubt, is to attract users by constantly previewing new photos and other interesting content within the tiles. But the result makes the Surface start screen into an incessantly blinking, unruly environment that feels like dozens of carnival barkers yelling at you simultaneously." <P> In contrast, dispensing with multiple home screens in favor of a single scrolling list of app tiles is a clear step backward. There's a reason educated civilizations replaced scrolls with the bindable codex for manuscripts: browsing for information by flipping through pages is a lot more efficient. All the more so since Windows Phone 8, unlike Android and iOS, has no way to search for locally installed apps. That means get used to a lot of scrolling. <P> Yet in many ways, Phone 8 is a decided improvement over previous versions. Perhaps the most useful enhancement is a browser made for the era of HTML 5 Web apps. Although the phone edition of IE 10 is a notable improvement, it's still a work in progress. We ran across several websites that Safari or Chrome rendered with aplomb that IE clipped or garbled. This is manifested in IE's inferior scores on the <a href="http://html5test.com">HTML 5 fidelity test</a>: 320 out of 500, versus 386 and 390 for Safari and Chrome, respectively. Other Phone 8 improvements include mobile Office apps and system-wide integration to Microsoft's cloud storage, Skydrive, similar to OS's iCloud and Android's Google Drive. <P> <strong>Workmanlike, if not Extraordinary, Hardware</strong> <P> When it comes to actually building a platform to display Microsoft's wares, Nokia has done a commendable, if not particularly elegant, job. This isn't surprising for a company that long ruled the cellphone market but never seemed to appreciate the public's fondness for Apple's sleek and sexy designs, substituting Nordic practicality for California design flair. Although the Lumia 920 is attractive and obviously well-constructed, svelte it isn't: no one will ever confuse it for an iPhone. It's almost as thick as a 10-year old iPod and weighs 65% more than the iPhone 5. <P> Its hardware specs, which comprise a dual-core <a href="http://www.qualcomm.com/chipsets/snapdragon">Snapdragon S4 Plus</a> (ARM A9 variant), 32 GB of integrated flash storage, and both LTE and dual-band Wi-Fi radios, place it solidly in superphone territory. However, in our benchmarking, which admittedly includes only browser tests since the standard system and graphics benchmarking apps haven't been ported to Windows, it lags both the iPhone 5 and Galaxy Note II by about 30% on average. Two areas where the Lumia does excel are its display, which is stunning, and its rear camera, both of which boast higher resolution than the iPhone (although I found low light shots from the iPhone more vivid). <P> But high-end hardware is of limited use if there's nothing to run on it. Like Apple and Google, Microsoft has finally created its very own app store, an addition that certainly makes it easier to find, buy and install apps -- that is, if there's anything worth installing. Here the Windows Store is still relatively barren by comparison, although in fairness, I've seen noticeable improvement over the past few weeks. Still, most of the apps are games and freebie utilities. There are a few big names like Evernote, Twitter and Facebook (which was actually developed by Microsoft), but no Flipboard, Gmail, or Instapaper. <P> The Lumia 920 represents the pinnacle of Windows Phone design, but it's unlikely to convert many existing iPhone or Android users. In fact, its primary selling point is price. At $99 on contract it's <a href="http://bgr.com/2012/12/04/windows-phone-analysis-emerging-markets">less than half what you'll spend</a> on an iPhone or Galaxy. As others have noted, this means Microsoft might be resigned to the fact that its target market will never be the smartphone cognoscenti in the U.S., Europe and Japan, but rather feature phone converts in the developing world. I know I certainly won't be suffering any separation anxiety when this tester goes back. <P> <i>Attend Interop Las Vegas May 6-10, and be the first to create an action plan to incorporate the latest transformative technologies into your IT infrastructure. Use Priority Code DIPR01 by Jan. 13 to save up to $800 with Super Early Bird Savings. Join us in Las Vegas for access to 125+ workshops and conference classes, 350+ exhibiting companies and the latest technology solutions. Register for <a href="http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/?_mc=DIPR01">Interop</a> today!</i>2012-12-04T12:20:00ZAndroid has come a long way in just a couple years. The Galaxy Note II stretches the limits of smartphone proportions, but does so quite elegantly.http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/how-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-won-me-over/240143771?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/handheld/samsung-galaxy-note-ii-visual-tour/240049876"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/897/firstImage_tn.png" alt="Samsung Galaxy Note II: Visual Tour" title="Samsung Galaxy Note II: Visual Tour" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">Samsung Galaxy Note II: Visual Tour</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> Android seemed so promising when the first serious phones, that is those designed for actual users, not software developers, burst on the scene in late 2009. While not a bleeding edge adopter -- I still had some months left on my old phone contract -- I eagerly embraced the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droid_X">Droid X</a> upon its release the following summer. <P> Yet, like so many infatuations, it ended badly. What at first seemed like a quantum improvement from my old Windows phone soon turned to disillusionment as the Droid's capacity for frustration seemed boundless. My breaking point came while covering <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/interop">Interop</a>, where you're on the go for 16 hours a day and roaming in a cavernous convention center where cell coverage and Wi-Fi signals often aren't the best, a situation that seemed to put the Droid's circuitry in overdrive. The phone was my lifeline, yet by lunch the thing's battery was bone dry, forcing me to schlep a charging wall wart and huddle like a pauper next to the first available wall socket hoping to squeeze enough juice to carry me through another couple hours. <P> Oh, and did I mention that the thing was slow? Android, circa 2010 was afflicted with the infamous bit rot every Windows user has grown to fear and loath; the more you use it, the slower it gets. In sum, I couldn't wait to ditch the thing and finally face up to the reality that Apple had smartphones nailed and resistance was futile, particularly now that Verizon, who still offers the best coverage in my area, was on board. <P> Fast forward through a year of iPhone bliss, and amidst a veritable blitz of new smartphone releases primed for the annual holiday buying frenzy, AT&T graciously offered the opportunity to review the latest and greatest Android and Windows phones for an upcoming <em>InformationWeek</em> report. On the Android side, I wanted something running Google's new 4.1 release, affectionately known as <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/android-jelly-bean-more-than-doubles-mar/240143709">Jelly Bean</a>. Although the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/handheld/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-visual-tour-android/240002355">Galaxy S III</a> is by far Android's best seller, due to quirks (or less charitably, negligence) in the way carriers choose to update devices, it wasn't first in line for the new OS; that fell to the S III's newly updated big brother, the Galaxy Note II. <P> The Note is nominally a phone in that you can make voice calls, but size-wise it occupies an uncomfortable space between the svelte, thin iPhone and mini-tablet Kindle Fire. While holding it to your ear (for those still not using Bluetooth headsets) doesn't look as absurd as say taking a picture with your iPad, with its 6-inch length it's dangerously close to ridicule territory. Samsung showed great wisdom in making <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie0mAnjz1Oc">LeBron the Note's pitchman</a>; its size definitely seems more reasonable in his hands than, say, Scarlett Johansson's. <P> But if the Note stretches the limits of smartphone proportions, it does so quite elegantly. The device's soft curves, smooth surface and thin stature (it's about the same thickness as the previous generation iPhone 4S) make for a very pleasing package. And what a package indeed. The first thing you notice is the gorgeous 5.5-inch, full 720p (1280x720; 25% more pixels than the iPhone 5) Super AMOLED screen framed by a vanishingly thin bezel; it's like holding an HDTV in your hands. But the Note II has plenty of brains behind its beauty. <P> The Note II is one of the first smartphones with a quad-core CPU, a Samsung-designed ARM A9 variant that clocked at 1.6 GHz versus the 1.3-GHz dual-core Apple chip powering the iPhone 5. The upshot is a device that in my testing actually bests the iPhone 5 in several benchmarks, including the comprehensive Geekbench 2 system test where it's almost 13% faster. <P> The rest of the device is rather par for the high-end smartphone course -- 8 MP camera, LTE cellular data, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4, NFC -- with a few notable exceptions. Samsung is one of the last phone manufacturers to offer a removable battery and memory expansion via a microSD slot. Kudos. Capitalizing on its tablet-like girth, the Note also has a built-in stylus, the S Pen, that although kind of gimmicky, works well with the bundled apps for handwritten notes and simple drawings. <P> But hardware is only half of the story. In classic Google fashion, i.e. methodical yet rapid release cycles that gradually grind away at bugs and performance problems while adding features and more native apps, Android has transmogrified from a serviceable OS only a developer could love to a potent iOS alternative, equaling it in many respects. Most noticeable is Android's newfound responsiveness, the tangible result of Google's Project Butter, that's on par with what iOS has always delivered. <P> Yet Android one-ups the iPhone in several areas, notably its voice search, which I find faster and more accurate than Siri, and flexible, customizable interface complete with home-screen widgets, sophisticated notification bar and a file system you can actually access via excellent third-party utilities like <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.metago.astro&hl=en">Astro</a>. Enterprise users will also like the fact that Android now has a workable VPN stack, fixing problems that particularly plagued <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-to-Point_Tunneling_Protocol">PPTP</a> users. <P> Another area where Android has made enormous progress is app selection and distribution, highlighted by a Google's nicely implemented Play Store. The latest figures indicate that the Play Store has roughly the same number of apps as Apple's older and more established App Store, but numbers don't tell the whole story. A couple years ago, much of the Android fare was amateurish hacks that that were a complete waste of drive space. But with increasing Android sales numbers (now accounting for more 70% of worldwide sales and just over half of those in the U.S.), professionals are taking over to serve a growing market hungry for quality software. Aside from a full selection of Google apps (including Maps), which, not surprisingly are better integrated into the underlying OS than their iOS counterparts, most of the iPhone's greatest hits, like Dropbox, Evernote, Flipboard, IMO, Instapaper, LastPass, Pinterest, Skype and Zite have also made the transition. For those that haven't, and never will, say iPhoto, there's invariably an equally polished alternative like PicSay. <P> Android may have established a beachhead with smartphone newbies by being the less expensive iPhone alternative, but Samsung for one (now joined by Google's smash hit Nexus 4) is proving that Apple can't just assume its domination of the high end is immutable. This is one iPhone user who's going to rue the day he has to return his Note II loaner. <P>2012-11-16T01:53:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/166/9079/Professional+Development+and+Salary+Data/research-2012-data-center-staffing-survey.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-11-16T01:47:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/19/9066/Network-Infrastructure/research-cisco-outlook-survey.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-11-15T19:00:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/21/9087/Security/strategy-security-at-today-s-network-speeds*.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-11-12T23:42:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/2/8968/Business-Continuity/strategy-e-discovery-mobility-and-the-cloud.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-11-12T23:22:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/7/9007/Enterprise-Software/windows-8-survival-guide-end-users-and-mobility.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-11-08T10:39:00ZDon't fall for vendor scare tactics about an impending iPad-fueled WLAN-a-geddon.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240062623?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authorsWi-Fi wireless LANs (WLANs) have been displacing wired Ethernet as a preferred means of client access for years. Two years ago, we asked readers about wireless plans: Our <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/4736/Mobility-Wireless/research-wireless-nation-2011.html"><em>InformationWeek</em> Wireless LAN survey</a> found about 40% of respondents predicting that they would largely replace wired access infrastructure within five years. Fast forward and it's likely that today's torrent of mobile devices rushing into the enterprise, whether resulting from formal, front-door BYOD policies or furtive, or back-door infiltration, is accelerating the timetable. <P> Worse yet for early adopters, the changing device mix means existing WLAN installations could face significant stress, if not outright gridlock, unless network managers make some architectural changes. Yet enterprises could learn a lot about WLAN design from educational institutions, which have been among the leaders in wireless deployments and have some of the highest device densities of any environment. As <a href="http://www.arubanetworks.com/news-releases/ohio-university-chooses-aruba-to-tackle-wi-fi-density-and-app-performance/">Ohio University's CIO, Brice Bible, is quoted</a> in discussing his campus' recent WLAN upgrade, "Wireless is by far the most popular access method on our campus and students are bringing more mobile devices to campus than ever before." <P> The challenges start with a dramatic increase in numbers, a situation that <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/9217/Mobility-Wireless/it-pro-impact-ipad-vs-nexus-vs-surface-tablet-shootout.html">new devices like the iPad Mini and Nexus, as profiled in our latest research report,</a> will exacerbate: The client count per employee could double or triple as users augment their company-issued laptops with smartphones and tablets. There are also inherent Wi-Fi hardware design limitations imposed by mobile devices optimized for portability and battery life, not network performance. <P> <a href="http://www.xirrus.com/cdn/pdf/Xirrus_BYOD-Higher-Education_SB.aspx">WLAN equipment vendors have been fond of scaring customers with a Gartner report</a> claiming that "enterprises deploying iPads will need 300% more Wi-Fi." (<a href="https://www.smartcitynetworks.com/PDFs/Media/Tech_Bulletin/2012/02-2012_Tech_Bulletin.pdf">See a PDF of the entire report here</a>). <P> The 3x figure is derived from a simplistic extrapolation of differences in transmit power between the Wi-Fi radio in the iPad 2 and that of a typical laptop, which the paper claims to be 6 decibels (10 dBm vs. 15-17 dBm). Aside from being out of date, which the online copy of the paper now acknowledges with this disclaimer from Gartner: "(Note: This document has been archived; some of its content may not reflect current conditions,)" it's overly simplistic. <P> First off, the newest iPads and <a href="http://blogs.aerohive.com/blog/the-network-revolution/apple-iphone-5-wi-fi-specs">iPhone 5 use new wireless chips with output power</a> comparable to a laptop. Secondly, the 300% number is derived by taking a simple power ratio, using basic math any first year electrical engineering student would know, without accounting for other physical or technical factors. <P> A 6 dBm difference translates to four-times the power, i.e. 3dB equals double the power, meaning theoretically you would need to space access points (APs) much more closely when using tablets to achieve the same average signal strength versus an all-PC environment. But this makes several assumptions that may not be true in practice, nor have they been demonstrated, at least in this paper, by actual testing: (a) that all the APs are already operating a maximum power (probably a safe assumption, but not necessarily true since doing so in some indoor environments may lead to excessive cross-channel interference); (b) that Wi-Fi performance is directly proportional to signal strength and that an iPad with half (or worse) the signal strength will have lower performance than a PC; or (c), that signal strength is the most important factor in tablet Wi-Fi performance. According to <a href="http://blogs.aerohive.com/blog/wi-fi-that-wont-die/classroom-wi-fi-design-facts-for-homogenous-ipad-environments">testing done by Aerohive in high-density, tablet-rich classroom environments</a>, this is almost certainly not the case.</p> <P> You see, the bigger limitation of tablets and smartphones isn't their radio power, but channel capacity. Perhaps the most important feature of 802.11n is MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) radios, namely the ability to support multiple spatial radio streams for a single connection. But this requires multiple antennas and more power-hungry, multi-stream Wi-Fi chips, two design requirements at odds with small, thin form factors and long battery life. <P> Thus, every current smartphone and tablet is a 1SS (single spatial stream) implementation, although things are a bit better for dual band devices like the iPad and iPhone 5 as they support a single stream on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz frequency bands. But with 1SS clients, everyone is still trying to share the same airtime on a given channel -- kind of like truckers on CB radios -- which leads to a massive RF traffic jam when a classroom of them are trying to talk at the same time. <P> Here's a typical example courtesy <a href="http://blogs.aerohive.com/blog/wi-fi-that-wont-die/devin-akin-aerohives-chief-wi-fi-architect">Aerohive Chief Wi-Fi Architect Devin Akin</a>. He starts with some basic design facts, namely that an iPad needs 2 Mbps of sustained throughput to run multimedia (e.g. video streaming) applications and that there are 30 of them in the average classroom. Furthermore, a dual-radio (2.4 and 5 GHz) AP can process around 60 Mbps, or 30 Mbps per channel while using 80% or more of the available airtime on a single channel; any more leads to airtime contention (multiple clients trying to talk over the same frequency at the same time.) Thus 30 iPads times 2 Mbps per client nicely matches the throughput of a single AP, assuming you can steer half the clients to the 5 GHz band and keep them there. <P> Fortunately, band steering is a common feature of today's enterprise APs. As long as your 30 clients get a good enough wireless signal to maintain streaming throughput, adding power doesn't help; the primary benefit of more densely packing APs is to provide more RF time slices, since to avoid interference, adjacent APs are on different Wi-Fi channels. <P> Of course, if your environment isn't as client dense as a school, you might not saturate airtime even using widely distributed Aps. And here the Gartner paper does point out another potential problem: namely that the iPad (and now, iPhone 5) will aggressively 'downshift' to the 2.4 GHz band if 5 GHz performance drops off -- behavior I have witnessed many times. This normally wouldn't be a big issue if it was equally aggressive about 'upshifting' when the 5 GHz signal improves, but this isn't the case. This means that older, slower 2.4 GHz devices could get crowded out by fast-talking iPads looking for a better signal in areas of sparse coverage. <P> In sum, the influx of Wi-Fi tablets and smartphones into the enterprise undoubtedly means enterprise WLANs will need more APs, but the scaling factor is more likely proportional to the number of new devices, not their power output. So unless you're doing new mass iPad deployments (say in schools or hospitals), the amount of new WiFi you'll need is probably much less than 300%. <P> <i>From SDN to network overlays, emerging technologies promise to reshape the data center for the age of virtualization. Also in the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/nwcdigital/nov12?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">The Virtual Network</a> issue of Network Computing: Open Compute rethinks server design. (Free registration required.)</i> <P>2012-11-01T13:00:00ZFaster networks are coming, putting security monitoring systems to the test.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240012669?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- InformationWeek Digital Issue--> <div id="inlineGreenPromoTop"> <div class="greenBand"></div> <div class="inlineGreenPromoContent"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/103112s/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/supplement/044/smallcov.jpg" alt="InformationWeek Green - November 1, 2012" title="InformationWeek Green - November 1, 2012" align="left" class="greenIssueImage" /></a><br /> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/103112s/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/graphics_library/misc/Green_leaf_88x88.jpg" alt="InformationWeek Green" title="InformationWeek Green" align="right" class="greenLeaf" /></a> <div class="greenPromoText"> <strong><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/103112s/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download the <em>InformationWeek</em></strong> November special issue on data security</a>, distributed in an all-digital format as part of our Green Initiative<br /> (Registration required.)<br /> </div> </div> <div class="greenBand"></div> </div> <!-- / InformationWeek Digital Issue--> <br /><!-- leave as a br to not interfere w/ the insights boxes --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/supplement/044/044SUP_CSCover_110.jpg" width="110" height="110" alt="Threats Vs. Readiness" title="Threats Vs. Readiness" width="110" height="110" class="artInlineTopImage" /> <P> For those charged with the design and implementation of enterprise IT networks, a vexing problem is that technology advances at uneven rates across the hardware ecosystem. When we hit a new tier of speed, first out of the gate usually come (very expensive) modules for high-end core switches and routers. Faster interfaces gradually trickle down to edge switches and server interface cards, and only later do affordable options come to network monitoring and security appliances.</p> <P> We're at the midpoint of this process with 10-Gbps Ethernet; switch ports are available for less than $200, and server adapters are in the same range for older systems that don't already have multiple 10-Gbps ports embedded on the motherboard. But start pricing equipment to monitor and secure 10-Gbps Ethernet networks, and you'll be in for sticker shock. And forget about your 40- or 100-Gbps gear. </p> <P> Yet as 10-Gbps Ethernet proliferates, the demand for higher-speed 40- and soon 100-Gbps aggregation layers to handle the added traffic will increase correspondingly. What's a poor network security administrator supposed to do?</p> <P> Foremost, study our recent history. As IT organizations on the leading edge of technology adoption rolled out 10-Gbps Ethernet networks, they developed strategies for eking out a few extra years from older, slower, yet still serviceable monitoring and security systems. The same scenario will be replayed with the migration to 40- and 100-Gbps Ethernet since tools lag the networking hardware pace, says Daniel Aharon, senior director of product management at Net Optics, a provider of network monitoring gear.</p> <P> <strong>10-Gbps Ethernet Goes Mainstream</strong></p> <P> In case you're in denial, multiple <i>InformationWeek</i> surveys over the past year have demonstrated that 10-Gbps Ethernet has gone mainstream. It's no longer the province of high-performance computing clusters and government spy agencies. To wit: 32% of technology pros in our <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/6/8845/Data-Center/research-2012-state-of-the-data-center.html" target="_blank">State of the Data Center Survey</a> say that network technologies of 10 Gbps and faster will have a major impact on their data center operations. That's second only to budget constraints as a top-of-mind concern. In other words, higher-speed networking is the most significant technology affecting data centers.</p> <P> Similarly, 22% of respondents to our 2012 State of Server Technology Survey (full report to be published later in November) require integrated 10-Gbps Ethernet on new servers. With an additional 50% expecting to migrate in the future, it means 10 Gbps will soon be standard on virtually every new system rolling in the door.</p> <P> And the action doesn't stop with servers. Our <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/24/8697/Storage-Server/research-state-of-storage-2012.html" target="_blank">2012 State of Storage Survey</a> showed that just under a quarter of respondents use 10-Gbps interfaces on storage arrays, either iSCSI or Fibre Channel over Ethernet for SANs or stock Ethernet for file-sharing NAS.</p> <P> Admittedly, 40- and 100-Gbps gear remains a pipe dream for most companies. While 40-Gbps Ethernet finally has emerged as a viable aggregation layer, with switch ports approaching the magic $1,000 mark, 100 Gbps is still the stuff of network cores at Internet service providers and big telcos, and these folks typically aren't doing security scans and packet capture unless the National Security Agency is involved.</p> <P> 40-Gbps Ethernet as still on the bleeding edge, says Jay Botelho, product manager at WildPackets, a provider of network monitoring, analysis and troubleshooting products. In the last 18 to 24 months, he has seen customers aggressively adopting 10-Gbps gear, but he says 40-Gbps Ethernet is largely limited to niches like universities, big service and cloud providers, and video production houses like DreamWorks and Lucasfilm.</p> <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <center><strong>To read the rest of the article,<br /><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/103112s/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download the <em>InformationWeek</em> November special issue on data security</a></strong></center><br clear="all" /></p> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <center> <div id="inlineReportPromo"> <div class="inlineReportPromo_headline"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/21/9087/security/strategy-security-at-todays-network-speeds-.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_2011mmdd" target="_blank" style="color:#ffffff;">Strategy: Security at Today's Network Speeds </a></div> <div class="inlineReportPromo_inner"> <img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/supplement/044/044_SUP_CS_reportbox.jpg" width="175" height="118" style="float:right;"> Our full report on <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/21/9087/security/strategy-security-at-todays-network-speeds-.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_2011mmdd" target="_blank">security at network speeds</a> is available free with registration.<br /><br /> This 16 page report includes additional survey data on security trends.<br /> <center><strong><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/21/9087/security/strategy-security-at-todays-network-speeds-.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_2011mmdd" target="_blank">Get This</a> And <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/">All Our Reports</a></strong></center><br /> </div> </div> </center></p><br clear="all"> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P>2012-10-26T09:06:00ZWindows 8 may end up marking the moment when people stopped caring about PC operating systems.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240009702?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/windows/reviews/8-key-differences-between-windows-8-and/240006106"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/855/01_Intro_WindowsRT_tn.jpg" alt="8 Key Differences Between Windows 8 And Windows RT" title="8 Key Differences Between Windows 8 And Windows RT" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">8 Key Differences Between Windows 8 And Windows RT</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> The wait is over. Windows 8 arrives for real this week and we'll soon see whether the product <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/09/17/steve-ballmer-windows-8/">Steve Ballmer admits is a bigger deal to Microsoft</a> than the epically successful Windows 95 will live up to the company's hype and expectations. Although this isn't a "bet the company" moment--Microsoft is no longer a one-trick pony and is much less dependent on PC sales than it was in the mid-90s, as <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/Investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY13/Q1/default.aspx">Windows now constitutes a smaller share of its revenue</a> than applications (i.e. Office) or server software--it will chart the company's course for years to come. <P> Will Microsoft finally become a legitimate rival to Apple and the Google ecosystem in mobile devices or will it be forced further into the background, in the mold of IBM and Oracle, as an IT infrastructure supplier? Will Windows 8 be the catalyst that injects life into a moribund PC market that's clearly suffering from a severe case of iPad hangover, with <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/10/23Apple-Introduces-iPad-mini.html">Apple providing another dose of pain</a> by unveiling the low-priced Mini earler in the week, or end up another Vista; the OS everyone can do without? We'll get our first hints shortly as the holiday shopping season kicks into gear. After reviewing Windows 8 for our <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/7/9007/Enterprise-Software/windows-8-survival-guide-end-users-and-mobility.html"><em>InformationWeek Windows 8 Survival Guide</em></a>, one thing seems certain: It wasn't designed with enterprises in mind. <P> As even the most casual technology watcher knows by now, the biggest changes in Windows 8 also happen to be the most visible: a new touchscreen and tablet-friendly UI still known as Metro (<a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2198399/microsoft-renames-metro-to-modern-ui">despite Microsoft's desire to banish the term to the Internet's memory hole</a>). Although our Windows 8 poll found more people like the interface than not, as I write in the report, "A big turn off for most users is that Windows 8 sticks you with Metro as the default home screen whether you like it or not; there's no option to automatically drop back to the Windows desktop you know and its familiar Start Menu and Task Bar, although these (save the Start Menu) are still easily accessible under the covers. Fully 62% of our respondents say that inability to disable the new interface will slow or preclude their deployment." <P> <center><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1349/R5260912_10.jpg" width="580" height="305" alt="Opinion of Windows 8 Metro Interface" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" style="margin-bottom:7px;" /><br /></center></p> <P> But it's not just the tile-based interface that will wreak havoc with IT departments fielding questions from befuddled users, it's the fact that Windows 8 really wants to be touched. Although the new Windows works fine on old, non-touch, hardware, indeed that's how I tested the product, at best it's a suboptimal situation and at worst can be downright exasperating. While Windows 7 did support touch, it was largely ignored both by users and vendors; but with Windows 8, Microsoft went all in. As I note in the report, the touch experience starts from the moment you want to log on, "The Metro start screen uses a swipe gesture to expose the new Charms bar (a normally hidden icon bar allowing quick access to search, sharing, system settings and application switching) to such a degree that without a touch screen device the user experience is somewhat frustrating, forcing you to hover the mouse in 'magic' screen regions." It's primarily for this reason that I advise IT decision makers, but the same holds for consumers, to limit Windows 8 to new hardware. Don't bother upgrading existing systems; the few modest benefits, better memory management, easier Wi-Fi configuration, a faster browser, aren't worth the UI hassles. <P> Windows 8's schizophrenia isn't just limited to the UI though. In trying to counter the iPad juggernaut, Microsoft has developed a non-x86 version, Windows RT, designed for lower-cost tablets and "laplets" (laptop-tablet hybrids). RT is a strange stepchild to the mainstream product as: (a) it won't run existing applications (since it doesn't use Intel hardware), (b) <em>only</em> uses the Metro UI (there's no traditional desktop to fall back on since you'll need new, Metro apps anyway), (c) is only available bundled with a device, not as a standalone product (again, what's the point since you'll need new hardware anyway) and (d) includes a version of Office (so at least you'll have <em>something</em> to run). While RT may be a hit with consumers (although <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/windows/microsoft-news/microsoft-surface-matches-new-ipad-price/240009105">by not undercutting iPad on price</a>, why bother with the imitation when you can have the real thing?), it's a complete nonstarter for enterprises. Sure, you can read and edit Office docs, but in this age of webmail and other cloud applications like SaaS collaboration software, and countless Office-compatible apps, with the possible exception of Excel, who really cares anymore? RT won't run any of your custom Windows software, costs as much as the iPad or other high-end Android alternatives like the Asus Transformer Infinity and Galaxy Note, is a first generation product (unlike iPad and Android hardware that's had over two years of refinement) and still requires a keyboard to effectively use the headline app, Office. Business users looking for the all-in-one, PC-tablet experience might as well spring an extra $500 for a new touch-sensitive notebook like <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ideapad/yoga/yoga-13/">Lenovo's sexy Yoga 13</a>. <P> Windows 8 appears to be one of those <a href="http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75qbassamatic.phtml">Veg-O-Matic-type products</a> with Microsoft trying to do too much at once: please both mobile device and PC users, those migrating from the PC world and those looking for a new tablet experience, buyers looking for a low-cost PC companion and those running high-end ultrabooks. And like most hybrid compromises, it ends up doing an adequate, but far from stellar, job at any given task. Instead of being Microsoft's answer to the iPad, Windows 8 may end up marking the moment when people stopped caring about PC operating systems. <P>2012-10-17T23:22:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/8995/Mobility-Wireless/research-app-dev-in-the-age-of-mobility.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-10-17T02:36:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/24/8934/Storage-Server/strategy-storage-innovation.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-10-03T08:00:00ZTablets do work better than laptops for some people and tasks. Tailor the device to the workload.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240007997?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authorsIn two short years, tablets have gone from a consumer luxury to a burgeoning business platform: a slim, light, mobile appliance with a long battery life that can replace, and even outperform, PCs in many situations.</p> <P> But enterprise tablet use is still immature, haphazard, and user-driven. Sure, an iPad makes a handy alternative to a bulky laptop for keeping up with email on the go, but its capabilities enable so much more.</p> <P> That said, it's a mistake to think tablets can do everything, says Dan Kerzner, senior VP for mobile at MicroStrategy. While there are cases where they can replace PCs, it's usually just for select tasks, not an employee's entire environment. He likens tablets entering the enterprise to microwave ovens in the kitchen: "People found that the microwave was great for macaroni and cheese, but not for chicken." </p> <P> To make tablets work for the business, IT organizations must define a policy: Who, if anyone, gets a company-issued tablet? Which personally owned devices are allowed on the network, and is a mobile device management client required? Which tasks and applications will IT support? Who pays for 3G/4G? Base your plan on these five strengths of each platform.</p> <P> <strong>Tablet Strengths</strong></p> <P> <strong>1. Size and power:</strong> Any road warrior who moves to a tablet after schlepping around a laptop, power brick, various accessories, and appropriately sized ballistic nylon laptop case instantly realizes the beauty of tablets: portability. The newest iPad is less than 0.4 inch thick and weighs just under a pound and a half. Even the sveltest laptop, the 11-inch MacBook Air, weighs a pound more and is 0.3 inch thicker at the hinge. </p> <P> The sorry state of laptop battery life is such that you're lucky to get five hours of Wi-Fi Web browsing off grid, and even a 13-inch MacBook Air--the state of the art for power-efficient portables--maxes out at around seven hours. The iPad runs for a good 10 hours on Wi-Fi and nine on cellular.</p> <P> <strong>2. Network support:</strong> Although Wi-Fi is prevalent, it's neither ubiquitous nor completely reliable. And while there are options for connecting your typical business laptop to 3G--USB adapters, smartphone tethering, 3G Wi-Fi hotspots--they add complexity. Of course, not all tablets come so equipped, but most do offer wireless networking, typically superfast LTE.</p> <P> <strong>3. Instant on, instant off:</strong> Unlike even an SSD-equipped PC, which can still take 20 or 30 seconds just to reach the login screen (and much more to load the entire desktop), an iPad fires up in about 10 seconds--that's on the rare occasion you actually do restart the device; most of the time it resumes as soon as you flip up the smart cover. This longevity (battery life) and immediacy (instant on) are fueling new categories of enterprise apps for roaming workers, particularly salespeople, field service techs, and physicians, that weren't feasible on a PC, says Kevin Spain, general partner at Emergence Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm.</p> <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div id="analytics_briefsPromoContainer"> <div id="analytics_briefsPromo"> <div class="analytics_briefsInner"> <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/8905/Mobility-Wireless/strategy-tablet-vs-pc-form-factor-smackdown.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_20121008" target="_blank"> Get the full-length Tablet vs. PC Form-Factor Smackdown report</a> </div> <div class="analytics_briefsBottom"><strong>&gt;&gt; <a href="http://reports.informationweeks.com" class="analytics_link">See all of our reports</a> &lt;&lt;</strong></div> </div> </div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> <strong>4. Simple interface:</strong> The uncluttered, swipeable tablet UI, where each app has its own icon and there are no menu bars or system tray, is easy to navigate even when you're distracted. In contrast to PC applications, which, sagging under years of feature creep, are littered with options the average person seldom uses, good tablet apps are focused on a single task. </p> <P> Many tasks are more efficiently accomplished with a touch screen versus keyboard and mouse. Contrast the ease of digesting postings and articles on Flipboard and Zite or navigating Maps on the iPad, with browser-based PC alternatives such as TweetDeck, Facebook, Google Reader, and Google Maps. Even something as simple as reading and annotating PDFs is more convenient on a touch screen, gesture-based tablet than in Preview or Acrobat on a PC.</p> <P> <strong>5. Location and position awareness:</strong> Tablets have various sensors that provide location and position awareness--features unheard of on a PC. Tablets include location services, using either hotspot databases or, for models with a 3G/LTE chipset, GPS along with a gyroscope and accelerometers providing orientation data. This data enables innovative apps not possible on a PC, with features like localized search results, automatic location check-in on social networks such as Facebook and Yelp, and gesture-based navigation through 3-D environments.</p> <P> <center><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1345/345F2_chart1.jpg" width="585" height="478" alt="chart: Who gets tablets in your company?" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" style="margin-bottom:7px;" /><br /></center></p><strong>PC Strengths</strong> </p> <P> <strong>1. Versatility:</strong> PCs remain vastly superior to tablets in terms of adaptability. Not only is the desktop/mouse/ menu bar UI intimately familiar to every office worker, but the hardware is also versatile and powerful, and the OS is multimodal, multitasking, scriptable, and customizable.</p> <P> As Steve Jobs observed, versatility is the PC's hallmark, the pickup truck to the tablet's sports car. PCs can handle virtually any application and are good, if not great, at most of them if you adapt to and live within their boundaries. Not only are PCs available in a virtually unlimited array of form factors and configurations, but they also set the standard for computational power in small packages. There's no comparison between a quad-core laptop with 8 GB of RAM and a 1-TB disk and a tablet with a power-optimized CPU and 32 GB of flash. </p> <P> <strong>2. Enterprise application support:</strong> PCs--and here we mean Windows systems, not Macs--are the target client for every enterprise application. Sure, browser interfaces have dramatically improved the prospects for device heterogeneity, but for many legacy applications, it's still a Windows world. Add in the fact that Microsoft Office not only defines the standard enterprise file formats but also the application platform. Sure, it's easy to read and even edit Office documents on an iPad, but good luck using a collaborative document or form.</p> <P> Software-as-a-service apps, such as CloudOn, that bridge the Office-tablet gap by adding a software layer make Office more usable on tablets, says Spain, and he expects more activity in this area. Of course, running native Windows apps on a tablet, even Microsoft's ARM-based Surface RT, is impossible. The workaround entails using some form of remote display software, either a full VDI client, such as Citrix Receiver and VMware View, or a remote desktop client supporting RDS or VNC.</p> <P> <!-- Image Aligning Right --> <div style="margin:0; padding: 0 0 10px 10px; width:258px; float:right; text-align:center;"> <img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1345/345F2_chart2.jpg" width="248" height="642" alt="chart: What types of devices do support or plan to support?" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /> </div> <!-- / Image Aligning Right --> <P> Many commercial ISVs have ported their applications to the iPad, including Salesforce.com, various SAP products, and Oracle's EnterpriseOne, but the PC is still the main target for business software. Custom enterprise tablet app development hasn't taken off. </p> <P> <strong>3. Familiarity:</strong> Using an iPad is child's play, but there's still a learning curve. Ironically, the curve is probably steeper for the most experienced PC users. Those used to navigating directories and mounting network shares will be in for a shock.</p> <P> The concept of a local, user-accessible file system is foreign to the iPad, where there's an inextricable link between an app and its data container. Even on Android, application files are well hidden; you'll need a third-party file manager to find them. While such app-data amalgamation is convenient--you never need to worry about saving a file on your iPad--it's frustrating when trying to share information across multiple devices and with other users. </p> <P> Although some third-party file handlers support standard NAS protocols such as CIFS, NFS, and WebDAV, getting at actual data "files" on an iPad is difficult to impossible. It's usually easier to share data to a cloud service such as Dropbox, iCloud, or SkyDrive. In fact, this is a big reason for Dropbox's success, as it acts as the de facto iPad file system, accessible across platforms.</p> <P> <strong>4. Data entry and manipulation:</strong> Although tablets can't match PCs when it comes to number-crunching tasks such as video editing and spreadsheet modeling, the popular meme that tablets are useless for writing anything longer than an email or Facebook post is bunk. Sure, touch screens are poor keyboards, but connect a wireless keyboard and you can type just as fast on a tablet as on a PC. </p> <P> That said, the PC is still better for most forms of data entry and manipulation. First, because they're touch screen devices, tablets (at least until Windows 8 comes along) have no system-wide cursor, meaning there's no mouse or touchpad to allow any form of relative position change. So every UI interaction entails a trip to the screen, which becomes especially frustrating when coupled with the next tablet reality: the lack of multiple windows.</p> <P> Tablet apps are inherently single window. Yes, tablets can run multiple apps at a time, but it's like running every one in full-screen mode. You can quickly switch between apps without relaunching, but you can't simultaneously view them. This is a chief source of the tablet's simplicity. However, when you're accustomed to a mouse cursor and button clicks, not a touch screen and finger swipes, text editing is a frustrating experience. Simple things like cutting and pasting information from one app to another take multiple finger taps, hold-and-drags, and swipes.</p> <P> <strong>5. Peripheral support and I/O:</strong> A final domain of PC superiority is I/O interfaces and peripheral support, as anyone who has ever tried to print from a tablet can attest. Don't have a new AirPrint-compatible printer? Good luck getting hard copy from an iPad. Need to copy files from a USB stick? Sorry, Apple's Camera Connection Kit only lets you pull images into iPhoto. Again, the situation is better on Android, but you'll still need an assortment of dongles and adapters to support the various USB and memory card formats, and neither platform comes close to the PC's "connect and access anything" convenience.</p> <strong>The Who Factor</strong></p> <P> Based on these strengths and weaknesses, the key to a successful tablet policy is defining tasks and situations where the device can replace a PC, even if it can't entirely displace it. Look for areas where portability, convenience, and network mobility are more important than performance and capability.</p> <P> Start a tablet program with employees who share a few traits: They're constantly on the go, and much of their work is conversational, working with customers and fellow employees, as opposed to analytical, building spreadsheets or writing legal briefs. Tablets are great for making presentations, looking up and demonstrating products from online databases, and conducting routine business correspondence. Because tablet documents can be interactive, they enable a richer conversation between salespeople and their contacts.</p> <P> Although some executives may see the latest tablet as a necessary status symbol, MicroStrategy's Kerzner says tablets actually empower C-level managers to retrieve information directly, without an intermediary. Where they once might have had an assistant print out slides and memos before a meeting, now they can instantly access relevant information as they need it.</p> <P> Tablets also are a good fit for nomadic workers. As electronic forms and records have replaced paper and the clipboard, many workers end up shuttling back and forth between their real jobs and a PC kiosk. Whether it's for nurses in a hospital, foremen on a factory floor, or sales clerks in a showroom, tablets let people be where they're needed and still maintain connections to enterprise apps and data. </p> <P> For example, one of MicroStrategy's customers, Sonic Automotive, has replaced the 500-page binders regional managers used to tote around with iPads, a scenario several major airlines are emulating with pilots' flight manuals.</p> <P> Look beyond information distribution; tablets can also advance business processes, Kerzner says. A CFO reviewing a purchase order on a tablet should be able to approve it and send it to the next stage of the ordering process. Plugging tablets into existing processes is usually done via apps that access existing back-end applications. Expect to see much more software development in this area as tablets make a bigger imprint in businesses.</P> <P> <center> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 10px; width:560px; text-align:left;"> <div style="border:1px solid #000000; padding:0;"> <div style="margin:0; padding:4px; font-size:1.4em; text-align:center; color:#ffffff; background-color:#000000;"> <strong></strong> </div> <div style="margin:0; padding:4px; font-size:1.2em; text-align:center; color:#ffffff; background-color:#CC0000;"> <strong>Where Tablets Make Sense</strong> </div> <div style="margin:0; padding:8px;"> <span style="color:#33ccff; font-weight:bold;">Resist political pressure.</span> Don't let status and power drive deployment; focus on where these devices make people more productive. <div style="margin:10px 0 10px 0; padding 0; border-bottom:solid 1px #666666;"></div> <span style="color:#33ccff; font-weight:bold;">Do a focused pilot.</span> Identify a specific scenario and job type where tablets can replace PCs--say, for roaming workers who can exploit a tablet's mobility, longevity, and convenience. <div style="margin:10px 0 10px 0; padding 0; border-bottom:solid 1px #666666;"></div> <span style="color:#33ccff; font-weight:bold;">Develop an amplification strategy.</span> Look for content-rich tasks and processes where mobile devices are the better platform, and find ways in which tablet-optimized apps can improve productivity, efficiency, and usability. <div style="margin:10px 0 10px 0; padding 0; border-bottom:solid 1px #666666;"></div> <span style="color:#33ccff; font-weight:bold;">Don't forget support and admin.</span> Develop mobile device management program to enforce policies on configuration, security, and data backup. &#9;&#9;&#9;<div style="margin:10px 0 10px 0; padding 0; border-bottom:solid 1px #666666;"></div> &#9;&#9;&#9; <span style="color:#33ccff; font-weight:bold;">Don't force fit tablets.</span> Tasks such as extensive data entry, number crunching, application development, and complex graphics and video production are best left to PCs. </div> </div> </div> </center> <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/19/9060/Network-Infrastructure/informationweek-october-8-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1345/smallcov2.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: Oct. 8, 2012 Issue" title="InformationWeek: Oct. 8, 2012 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><strong><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/19/9060/Network-Infrastructure/informationweek-october-8-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download a free PDF of <nobr><em>InformationWeek</em> magazine</nobr></a><br /> (registration required)</strong></div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P>2012-10-01T19:07:00ZWatch out, VMware. Redmond wants a piece of the cloud market, but hypervisor improvements in Server 2012 can also boost reliability and DR in smaller shops. http://www.informationweek.com/news/240008257?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authorsIn enterprise data centers, VMware vSphere is to hypervisors what Microsoft Windows Server is to operating systems: the undisputed kingpin. The numbers don't lie: Our latest <em>InformationWeek Reports</em> <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/25/8350/Virtualization/research-virtualization-management.html">Virtualization Management Survey</a> found fully 90% of respondents using some version of vSphere as a primary hypervisor platform, with Microsoft's Hyper-V a distant second. In our <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/24/9015/Storage-Server/windows-8-survival-guide-server-2012.html">Windows 8 Survey</a> fielded in June, just 14% called Hyper-V their main production hypervisor versus 23% saying they will continue to scale out vSphere/Xen/VirtualBox because they don't trust Hyper-V. <P> Microsoft plans to change that perception. <P> At last week's <a href="http://na2012.hostingtransformation.com">Hosting and Cloud Transformation Summit</a>, Scott Ottaway, Microsoft's worldwide industry director for service providers, made clear that the company is no longer content to play second fiddle in the realm of virtualized infrastructure, and it's going to battle with a significantly revamped Hyper-V. While Ottaway was speaking to a crowd of managed service providers, colocation providers, and data center technology merchants, it's clear that the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/server-virtualization.aspx">hypervisor technology in Windows Server 2012</a> is equally beneficial to public and private clouds alike, so expect a similar Microsoft marketing push to enterprise IT. <P> Ottaway's take on Server 2012's top new features illustrates how Microsoft has been busy plugging holes in a previously serviceable product, but one that invariably lagged VMware's technology: improved virtual machine scalability and performance; network virtualization with quality of service; NIC teaming; disaster recovery with Hyper-V Replica; shared-nothing live migration, such as between nonclustered systems with only local storage; VM failover prioritization; and live storage migration. <P> It's a heady list. One look at <a href="http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/8/E/E8ECBD78-F07A-4A6F-9401-AA1760ED6985/Competitive-Advantages-of-Windows-Server-Hyper-V-over-VMware-vSphere.pdf">Hyper-V's new capacity specs [PDF]</a> shows that when Ottaway says Microsoft has the goods to allow hosting providers to deliver cloud infrastructure at lower cost (presumably compared with VMware, although he kept the ad hominem comparisons to a minimum), he's not just blowing smoke. Over a range of parameters, from the maximum number of virtual CPUs per VM to memory limits per VM to the maximum size of virtual disks, Hyper-V matches, or in most cases, exceeds its main competitor. <P> Now, that's all well and good for infrastructure-as-a-service providers looking for a less-expensive alternative to vCloud, but how many enterprises are putting 4 TB in a server in hopes of running 320 VMs? For your typical IT department, particularly small shops, the real enticement with Hyper-V 2012 isn't massive scale. It's improved reliability and redundancy. <P> Server 2012 now fully decouples VM management from the physical infrastructure and allows nondisruptive migration, simultaneous or queued, of multiple VMs from one host to one or more alternates. For example, you could free up resources on an overloaded server hosting six applications by targeting one application to another smaller machine and two others to a third midsize system. And such sophisticated live migration features don't require a SAN--VMs can live on local file shares. Furthermore, Server 2012 can move virtual hard disks attached to an active VM without disturbing the running applications. Together, these features give IT more flexibility in placing and relocating VMs with no downtime. Whereas the new and improved migration features can improve reliability and resource utilization within a primary data center, <a href="http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/6/9/F6932D74-4ADD-4366-B2BE-22CE4D94E54F/Poster%20Companion%20Reference%20-%20Hyper-V%20Replica.pdf">Hyper-V Replica [PDF]</a> provides an easy, automated way to replicate VMs to a secondary site. <P> Let's state up front that HVR isn't designed for large organizations that already have an expensive SAN-based replication system. It's squarely aimed at small and midsize companies looking to get some semblance of a DR system by, for example, having a secondary computer room at a branch office host synchronized copies of critical virtualized applications. All you need is HVR running at each location and a WAN connection--that's it. In fact, you don't even need a full-blown copy of Windows Server 2012; Microsoft has a standalone bare-metal hypervisor, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/hyper-v-server/">Hyper-V Server 2012</a>, as a freely available download. <P> In another boon to smaller shops, the servers needn't be identical and can use any type of supported storage; HVR takes care of the rest. As <a href=" http://aidanfinn.com/?p=12147">Aidan Finn describes on his Hyper-V blog</a>, HVR works by maintaining and asynchronously replicating log files from one host to another. These logs are then replayed on the target system every five minutes. Since replication is asynchronous, you don't need a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection between the two sites (although busy servers and slow networks may mean you'll fall behind the five-minute log replay window). Fortunately, since you're just replicating change logs, it's unlikely the data rate will overwhelm even broadband branch office circuits. Another nice touch is that HVR can be configured to store multiple recovery points, any of which can be selected when failing over to the secondary host. <P> One big caveat: Failover and recovery is a manual process. When the primary site goes down, IT must kick into action. Although failover can be managed with Hyper-V Manager, a better option is to automate the process using PowerShell. In fact, to bootstrap creation of automation scripts, Microsoft has developed a <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh848559.aspx">library of Hyper-V cmdlets</a> for controlling virtually every aspect of the hypervisor, including most replication features. <P> Circling back to Ottaway's target audience, MSPs, gives a clue of a Hyper-V deployment option that could be even more interesting to IT: a hybrid private/public environment. Suppose you don't have a branch office or one with suitable space for spare server capacity. Lease a Windows Server at an MSP and fire up HVR, then rest assured that not only are your critical apps automatically protected, but they are being replicated to an environment that's probably more reliable and better monitored than your primary site. <P> Given the massive overhaul to Microsoft's virtualization platform--we haven't even touched on features of greater interest to large enterprises, such as NIC teaming, network QoS, VM failover priority, and concurrent live migration--don't be surprised if our next virtualization survey shows some sizable erosion in VMware's share. Who knows, if Microsoft's pitch is successful, Hyper-V just might be the IaaS foundation for your next cloud deployment.2012-09-24T16:12:00ZVegas data center confab shows technology, economics, and a cutthroat business environment shaping infrastructure hosting and services.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240007853?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authorsLast week's <a href="http://na2012.hostingtransformation.com">Hosting and Cloud Transformation Summit</a> (HCTS) brought together the gamut of data center services players and set them loose to mingle with equipment suppliers, customers, and, perhaps most interestingly, financiers. After two days of attending panels and talking with data center operators and industry analysts, it's clear that the hosting business is thriving while maturing and, yes, transforming. <P> One key trend: The big are getting bigger as the industry consolidates--witness last year's <a href="http://gigaom.com/cloud/why-buying-savvis-makes-perfect-sense-for-centurylink/">$3.2 billion CenturyLink-Savvis acquisition</a> and <a href="http://gigaom.com/cloud/why-verizon-bought-terremark-for-1-4b/">$1.4 billion Verizon-Terremark deal</a>. Everyone's rushing to stay ahead of cloud technology advances and scale infrastructure to meet IT demand. And we're not just talking megadeals. It's clear from both public presentations and my private meetings that the trend of small, regional players getting gobbled up by larger national companies will continue, and perhaps accelerate. One twist: Increasingly, the buyers are private equity firms looking to aggregate regional hosting providers, often those focusing on a particular geographic or vertical market niche, into larger, more diverse firms with a richer set of service offerings. <P> The bankers' ultimate goal is to spin these combined companies off as IPOs or dangle them as acquisition bait for even bigger fish. However, there are interesting implications for corporate IT. <P> As we stated when discussing massive new colocation centers like Las Vegas' own <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/everythings-bigger-at-vmworld/231600660">SuperNAP</a> and in our recent <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/data-centers/state-of-data-centers-hot-crowded-virtua/240001235?ct=1022">State of the Data Center report</a>, there's just no reason for many enterprises, particularly SMBs and government agencies, to own and operate data centers. HCTS showed that the barriers to outsourcing low-level IT operations are decreasing by the day. In fact, Kelly Morgan, senior equity analyst at 451 Research, says she's heard that Silicon Valley venture capitalists often <em>require</em> investment targets to live in the cloud, with no owned and operated infrastructure, or <em>even applications</em>, as one criteria for funding. VCs want their investment dollars going to product development, not infrastructure. That's a sentiment increasingly shared by CEOs and line-of-business managers, which is a good reason CIOs had better take note. <P> Today, the trick is figuring out just what type of service is the best fit. Taking a broad view, the hosting and cloud infrastructure market is stratified into four layers. <P> At the most basic level are <a href="http://www.datacenterandcolocation.com/wholesale-data-centers/">wholesale providers</a> like CoreSite, Digital Realty, and DuPont Fabros. The best analogy is a shopping mall operator that leases unfinished retail space in a large, multitenant facility that comes with professional design, management, and security. Morgan says this segment typically targets companies that need 10,000 square feet or more, with a few hundred racks. Wholesale providers give you floor space, power, cooling, and network taps, but little more; you're responsible for installing your own racks and cabling and managing your equipment. <P> Next up the value chain are retail data center providers, better known as colocation facilities. Morgan says these typically appeal to smaller customers (sub-10,000 square feet) that can fit their equipment into a few racks or a small server room cage. The value here is that all of the physical construction is done, racks and cabinets included, but you still run your own systems. <P> Pushing further up the stack are managed hosting providers. Rackspace, the poster child for this group, was first to migrate from selling floor space to server operations. MSPs not only provide Tier 1 data center space, they handle low-level server and storage system administration, freeing IT to focus on application and end user support. Rackspace garnered particular attention at the show since it's both the largest managed provider and, reportedly, the most profitable, though exact numbers are hard to quantify since many MSPs aren't publicly traded. In my meeting with Sean Wedige, the Rackspace CTO of global enterprise solutions uttered the phrase <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/managed_hosting/support/promise/">"fanatical support"</a> early and often and cited customer service as key to Rackspace's success and future growth. <P> At the top of the infrastructure stack are pure infrastructure-as-a-service providers, led by 800-pound gorilla Amazon Web Services. AWS&#8217;s dominance is continually challenged by a steady stream of new cloud specialists, like SoftLayer, as well as by established services behemoths like EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Verizon/Terremark. <P> While IaaS tends to get the most media attention--mainly because it fits the cloud zeitgeist--so far these providers typically are limited to filling niche enterprise application needs. They're less apt to be wholesale replacements for substantial pieces of the core infrastructure. Yet this is precisely the role IaaS plays in startups and small businesses, which often <em>completely</em> rely on cloud infrastructure and/or SaaS for their IT needs. They're all-in on the cloud and proudly so. <P> It's clear that a quest for higher profit margins is fueling the hosting industry's migration to higher-value services. From IT's standpoint, in return comes relief from facilities design and financing and the care and feeding of data center and server infrastructure. Convenience does come at a cost, however; operating your business on IaaS or SaaS may well be more expensive long term, as illustrated in a column from my colleague Art Wittmann regarding <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/infrastructure/why-infrastructure-as-a-service-is-a-bad/232601889">Amazon's failure to track steep reductions in storage system costs</a>. <P> The numbers clearly depend heavily on sunk investments. However, as current facilities age, the decision point is, will you trade limited dollars for short-term opex rather than long-term capex? And will the competition I saw at the show result in an answer to Wittmann's challenge, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/utility-ondemand/iaas-a-bad-deal-not-so-fast/232901031">like the one put forth here</a>, or will consolidation limit the pricing battles that benefit IT? <P> The stance of the providers at HCTS was laid out in a <a href="http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/valuation-and-ma-update-from-peter-hopper-of-dh-captial">logically impenetrable and data-rich keynote</a> by Peter Hopper, CEO and co-founder of DH Capital, a private investment firm that specializes in Internet infrastructure, telecommunications, and SaaS. Hopper made a case that moving up the stack offers greater profit and healthier margins. <P> Enterprise IT teams need to keep a close eye on infrastructure providers. This is a vibrant, highly competitive market full of vendors and investors all angling for your business. Yes, there are technical, governance, security, and compliance challenges, but after spending a few days rubbing elbows with hosting providers, I have no doubt they well understand customer concerns and are working to address them. Your would-be competitors are shedding the overhead of data center maintenance--VCs are making sure of that. Look ahead a few years and make sure you're positioning your business to compete on an even field.2012-09-24T08:00:00ZThe OS will tempt those looking to go mobile while staying within the Microsoft world.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240007719?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- InformationWeek Digital Issue--> <div id="inlineGreenPromoTop"> <div class="greenBand"></div> <div class="inlineGreenPromoContent"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/092412/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1344/smallcov.jpg" alt="InformationWeek Green - September 24, 2012" title="InformationWeek Green - September 24, 2012" align="left" class="greenIssueImage" /></a><br /> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/092412/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/graphics_library/misc/Green_leaf_88x88.jpg" alt="InformationWeek Green" title="InformationWeek Green" align="right" class="greenLeaf" /></a> <div class="greenPromoText"> <strong><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/092412/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download the entire Sept. 24, 2012, issue of <em>InformationWeek</em></a></strong>, distributed in an all-digital format as part of our Green Initiative<br /> (Registration required.)<br /> <center><div class="innerGreenPromoText" align="center">We will plant a tree for each of the first 5,000 downloads.</div></center> </div> </div> <div class="greenBand"></div> </div> <!-- / InformationWeek Digital Issue--> <br /><!-- leave as a br to not interfere w/ the insights boxes --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1344/344CSslot_110.jpg" width="110" height="110" alt="Here Comes Windows 8" title="Here Comes Windows 8" width="110" height="110" class="artInlineTopImage" /> <P> Almost exactly three years after Windows 7 hit the streets, here comes Windows 8. But the world has changed radically in three years, with the iPad putting a serious dent in PC sales and smartphones meeting more collaboration needs. </p> <P> Windows 8 is Microsoft's attempt to merge the best of PCs and tablets into one platform, so many of the biggest changes from Windows 7 are on the outside: a dramatically new user interface, touch screen support, a faster browser, and cloud storage links. Most of these features are designed for consumers, but in a hyperconnected, mobile world, they fit many business needs as well.</p> <P> On the inside, Windows 8's most fundamental change is Windows RT, which supports ARM processors and thus gives Microsoft a viable low-cost tablet platform. Tablets also can run on x86 versions of Windows, as Microsoft's upcoming Surface Pro tablet will. </p> <P> Windows 8 won't tempt many companies that just wrapped up Windows 7 upgrades.Just 53% of companies plan to upgrade at some point, according to our InformationWeek Windows 8 Survey of 859 business technology pros at organizations with 500 or more employees. </p> <P> Win 8 will appeal most to those looking for a better mobile experience while staying in the Windows world. Windows holds just a 16% share of respondents' tablet and smartphone fleets. Respondents expect the share of Windows mobile devices to hit 24% by 2014. Whether they get on board depends largely on what they think of Win 8's new interface and mobile features, and how they assess those. </p> <P> <strong>The Controversial Tile Interface</strong></p> <P> Windows 8 optimizes the Windows 7 kernel, graphics, and driver stack, with little new under the covers. The most striking change in Windows 8 is the new Metro interface.</p> <P> The change hits you right in the face with a tiled home screen replacing the familiar Windows desktop and task bar. But unlike Mac OS X's Launchpad, the Metro tiles are home base, not an optional means of browsing for applications. Much like on Windows Phone and on the iPad and Android tablets, applications are run via selecting tiles, not hitting the Start Menu.</p> <P> If the Metro UI were a political candidate, its favorability rating would net out 24 points on the plus side: 37% like it or love it vs. 13% who dislike or hate it. But there's a big swing vote in play: 21% are indifferent and 29% don't know enough yet to express an opinion. </p> <P> The naysayers feel strongly. "The major change in the user interface is one of the primary reasons we do not want to use Windows 8," says one survey respondent. "The retraining costs for users and support would exceed any benefit." One turnoff is that Windows 8 makes Metro the default home screen, with no option to automatically drop back to the Aero desktop and its familiar Start Menu and Task Bar. Sixty-two percent say the inability to disable the interface will slow or preclude deployment. </p> <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <center><strong>To read the rest of the article,<br /><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/092412/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download the Sept. 24, 2012, issue of <em>InformationWeek</em></a></strong></center><br clear="all" /></p> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <center> <div id="inlineReportPromo"> <div class="inlineReportPromo_headline"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/7/9007/Enterprise-Software/windows-8-survival-guide-end-users-and-mobility.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_20120924" target="_blank" style="color:#ffffff;">Windows 8 Survival Guide: End Users and Mobility</a></div> <div class="inlineReportPromo_inner"> <center><strong>Noise and Light</strong></center><br /> <img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1344/344reportcover.jpg" width="175" height="114" style="float:right;"> Our full report on <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/7/9007/Enterprise-Software/windows-8-survival-guide-end-users-and-mobility.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_20120924" target="_blank">Windows 8 and mobility</a> includes our survey data, plus more analysis on:<br /><br /> <ul class="normalUL"><li>Windows 8 mobile features</li> <li>How certain apps change under Windows 8, including the Explorer browser</li> <li>What to expect from SkyDrive and other cloud integrations</li></ul> <center><strong><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/7/9007/Enterprise-Software/windows-8-survival-guide-end-users-and-mobility.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_20120924" target="_blank">Get This</a> And <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/">All Our Reports</a></strong></center> </div> </div> </center></p><br clear="all"> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE -->2012-09-21T02:42:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/21/8906/Security/it-pro-impact-why-a-ddos-mitigation-service-could-save-your-assets.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-09-21T02:19:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/18/8905/Mobility-Wireless/strategy-tablet-vs-pc-form-factor-smackdown.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors2012-09-18T02:39:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/25/8852/Virtualization/fundamentals-next-generation-vm-security.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_authors