Special Report
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Can Archive Replace Backup?
Everyone should know the difference between backup and archive yet many data centers still use their backup application as their archive product.
Solid State Storage First Step: SSD As Cache
Though it's reliable and can boost performance, storage managers still struggle to properly apply solid state technology for maximum benefit without the need to rearchitect storage infrastructure.
Interop: Microsoft Exec Says 'Google Me'
A Microsoft executive speaking at Interop Thursday unwittingly highlighted the challenge his company faces in building brand recognition around its Bing search engine. The exec told audience members seeking his contact info to "Google me."
Interop: Which Cloud Is Right For You?
Look up in the sky and you might see cirrus, stratus, or cumulus clouds. Similarly, cloud computing comes in multiple flavors. The one you should choose depends on, among other things, how much vendor lock-in you're prepared to accept in exchange for banishing complexity from your IT organization.
Web 2.0 Expo: Search Goes Social
The classic Internet search model, where users type in a query and are confronted with page upon page of links ranked by someone else's idea of relevance, is giving way to a more efficient paradigm in which results are informed by who the searcher is, who his or her friends are, where they live, and other user-centric data.
HP's Networking Takeover Plan
It took them long enough, but HP is finally really gunning for Cisco as a networking vendor. That ambitious tack is on full display here at Interop, from copious keynotes to a huge exhibitor booth.
Performance Testing And Integration At Interop
If networking is cool at Interop, then testing, the red-headed stepchild of networking, is going to make itself known. Factors like data center consolidation and virtualization are changing the demands made of the network for more resilient, low latency and high speed capacity.
Interop: Vendors Still Confuse With Cloud Computing Definitions
The afternoon keynotes at Interop saw IBM, HP and SAP giving their visions of cloud computing. While the companies had a number of real deliverables to talk about, the keynotes also showed that vendors continue to confound and confuse with their various conflicting definitions.
Interop: HP Entering IP Desk Phone Market, Kind Of
This morning, HP announced that it would soon begin selling IP desk phones, a potentially lucrative way to inch up competition with Cisco in networking and communication. However, it's already uncertain just how much HP really cares about phones.
Ozzy Osbourne At Interop
So, here's something I didn't expect from Interop: I met Ozzy Osbourne. I didn't realize he was standing just a few feet away from me, near the Nokia booth, until he walked up and urged me to fill out a form that someone else had just handed me.
Network Recorders Are A Window To The Past
Announced at Interop, Endace Analytics Center 2000 provides network analysis for Endace's NinjaProbe, while Solera Networks announced an OEM program providing data-capture services to others. In both cases, the ability to play back captured network traffic eases troubleshooting and resolution.
Beating The NAC Standards Bush
Halfway through NAC Day at Interop, I moderated a panel populated by representatives from the sponsors. What became clear during and after the panel is that attendees are very concerned about standardizing NAC. Who wants to buy a proprietary product that won't play well with others?
IBM Goes Back To The Future To Save Earth
Purpose-built accounting machines? Water-cooled servers? IBM is taking a page from its past to deliver energy-saving systems for today and tomorrow.
NAC Happenings At Interop
Earlier this summer I was tapped for NAC Day 2008. It's a day-long event on the topic of Network Access/Admission Control at Interop NY held at the Javits Center. I'll agree to almost anything if I can get a trip to Manhattan out of the deal. I hope to cover nearly every aspect of NAC in 5 hours and 45 minutes.
More Blatent Self Promotion: DR Workshop At Interop NY
Once again, on Monday, Sept. 15, for one day only, I will be performing my latest one-man show, The Disaster Recovery Cookbook: Recipes for Recovery, as a workshop at Interop at the fabulous Jacob Javits (a New York liberal, Republican senator, and Lantzman. You don't see those together very often anymore) Convention Center in The Big Apple (New York). Over the day we'll explore how to make your organization's IT infrastructure disaster tolerant with an emphasis on solutions that are affordable for midsize organizations that don't have the open-ended budgets of our friends on Wall Street.
BlackBerry Wins Versus Windows Mobile For Google Apps Mail
After a flawed experience with one of the first Windows Mobile-based Motorola Q's, Microsoft outfitted me with a Samsung SCH-i760 smartphone which, from an industrial design perspective, is one of the best designs for a smartphone I've ever experienced (more on that in a second). Unfortunately, integrating WinMobile 6.0's version of Outlook with Google Apps-based Gmail was so problematic that I gave up in favor of a company-furnished BlackBerry. BlackBerrys are rumored to work well with Gmail. But is that really the case and why doesn't stuff like this just work? It's an interop nightmare.
Is The Recession Good For SaaS?
I heard opposing voices at Interop about whether the bad economy will drive companies to software as a service.
Interop: IronPort's S-Series Blocks Suspicious Content At The Web Page Component Level
Here at Interop 2008 in Las Vegas, IronPort (a division of Cisco) is showing off its latest security solutions -- the S650 and the S350 Web Security Appliances. The S-Series was a finalist in this year's Best of Interop competition. In the new security appliance, the company leverages its SenderBase anti-spam reputation management technology to determine what parts of a Web page (if any) to let through to users' browsers. In the video below, IronPort product manager Samantha Madrid tells me more about the S-Series.
Oracle Feeling "Social" These Days
At Interop, Oracle execs pitched the company's efforts to bring social computing to the enterprise. They might be on to something.
Interop: Rat's Nests Of Cables No Match For Panduit's Intelligent Patch Panels
I'm sure competing solutions exist (or maybe not -- you tell me). But this year's Interop marks the first time I've ever seen an intelligent patch panel: one that drives the visibility into your network another layer deeper than the visibility that might normally end with your routers and switches. The offering -- a Best of Interop finalist -- comes from Panduit, and about the only thing I can imagine coming next might be intelligent RJ45 jacks. Actually, after I finished my video interview with Panduit's Mike Pula (below) and sarcastically mentioned that idea, he didn't laugh and said the idea actually solves a problem.
Interop: Palo Alto Networks' Firewall Identifies App Traffic On Content, Not Ports
You've programmed your firewall to block the ports that some unwanted app is using and that app turns up on your net again. Net-enabled applications don't tie themselves down to one port the way the Web (HTTP, port 80) and other apps do. After some firewall shuts their ports down, they find another port. Using traffic profiles instead of ports to identify more than 600 applications, not only did Palo Alto Networks' series win InformationWeek's Best of Interop in the security category, it took the grand prize as well. In the video below, Palo Alto's Lee Klarich walks me through some of the firewall's innovations.
Interop: Alcatel-Lucent Claims APIs And Scalability Are Comm Server's Key Differentiators
Here at Interop in Las Vegas, a handful of exhibitors who also are Best of Interop finalists are waiting to find out if InformationWeek's editors have singled them out as winners or not. One of them is Alcatel-Lucent, who is here showing off its XML API-enabled Omnitouch Advanced Communications Server (ACS). Via those APIs, director of product management Peter Anderholm (pictured below left) claims that enterprises can, for collaborative purposes, easily integrate point-and-click voice conferencing into any application. I caught Peter on the show floor for a video interview.
Barracuda Launches E-Mail Archive Product
The anti-spam appliance vendor learned about the value of archives the hard way -- by getting sued by Trend Micro.
Open Source's Hidden Trap: IP Liabilities
Sure, open source software is free -- as in beer. It can also get you sued if you're not cautious.
It Could Be 15 Years Before We Know What's Really Green
It's the eve before Interop here in Las Vegas and we've just wrapped up Energy Camp where, as can be seen from the user-decided agenda, the conversation went deep and wide on a variety of subjects related to the reduction of information technology's carbon footprint. Two key takeaways for me were (1) many so-called "green" remedies have a dark enough side to them that they may not be as green as we think they are, and (2) it may take another 15 or 20 years before we have it all sorted out. It's not as bad as it sounds, but ...
The Great CIO Debate
Is the role of the CIO to be an innovator or a custodian? Two leading CIOs share advice on how to become the innovation champion in your company.
4 Ways To End Your IT Break-Fix Rut
It's a classic IT influence problem: Can you leave the break-fix cycle behind? Consider this advice from Interop keynote speakers.
At Interop, Ixia announced that its IxNetwork and IxANVL test applications now support OpenFlow protocol emulation that’s fully integrated with other network protocols and provides a suite of OpenFlow compliance tests.
With its 2U, 72-port, 40-Gbps Ethernet switch, the GS0072, the U.K. upstart has built a giant slayer.
Citrix Defends CloudStack's Value Vs. OpenStack
CloudStack will be another choice for building private clouds, says Citrix exec Peder Ulander. Can these two similar open source projects survive?
Dell/Compellent Wins Our Storage Evaluation
IT pros want reliability, performance, and low cost--and they say they’re getting it best from Dell’s recent storage acquisition, Compellent.
How Many Storage Vendors Should You Have?
It's usually easier to solve cross-vendor management issues than to find one company that meets all your data protection needs.
Zynga Takes On Amazon In IaaS Game
Zynga will sell cloud infrastructure-as-a-service to other game makers who want a hosting platform. With this innovative play, Zynga just became Amazon's competitor.
Clouds, Consumerization, And The IT Toolbox
Why should you look at cloud services and embrace the consumerization of IT? It's all about innovation, or the lack of it, from entrenched enterprise providers.
New Xirrus XR Wireless Array Debuts At Interop New York
Wireless technology vendor Xirrus, whose previous generation of wireless arrays helped to provide Wi Fi access to Interop attendees, released their new wireless Array at the NYC edition of the show.
Benioff's Private Cloud Bluster: Can It Last?
Salesforce CEO Benioff won't be stopped by Oracle CEO Ellison, as demonstrated by the Oracle OpenWorld keynote spat. Will Benioff's customers insist he stop the private cloud denial?
Mobile Security Gets The Spotlight At Interop
Organizations must decide how securing mobile devices and the data therein will be handled both strategically and tactically.
Wired Networks Face Limited Future
Xirrus CEO Dirk Gates sees major growth in WLANs as enterprises deploy bigger and faster wireless networks to meet demand from pervasive mobility and consumerization of IT.
Mobile Security Needs Executive Involvement
IT managers need a plan for managing a highly variable fleet of devices through mobile device management, according to panelists at InformationWeek Analytics Live sessions at Interop 2011.
Cutting Through Buzzword Bull At Interop
After a couple of days in Las Vegas hearing all about 'cloud' this and 'fabric' that, a translation is in order.
Consumerization And Cloud: IT Isn't Keeping Up
Citrix CEO in his Interop keynote envisions a policy of letting employees bring their own devices to work, and a world where IT's role is supporting, not controlling.
40-Gbps Ethernet Makes Its Debut At Interop
The new high-speed ports can be seen on systems from Hewlett-Packard, Enterasys, Extreme, and others, even if the products won’t be available until later this year.
HP's Donatelli Comes Out Swinging At Cisco
Executive VP's Interop keynote emphasizes new products and open standards.
IT Managers Can't Be Drill Sergeants
Learn how to make the consumerization of IT work for you at Interop, where we'll discuss how to balance the needs of the business against maintaining a happy workforce.
Virtualized Desktops The Next IT Challenge
As consumerization of IT takes hold and more employees want to bring their own computers to work, Interop 2011 explores the strategies for developing a standard virtualized desktop.
Can Consumer Tech And Security Co-Exist?
It's an incredibly exciting time to be in IT. And that's part of the problem.
Time To Get Off The IPv6 Fence
We've known for almost 20 years that IPv4 addresses were a dwindling resource. Yet here we are.
Cloud Expertise Featured At Interop
The conference will offer a wide variety of panel discussions, keynotes, and workshops from the likes of CloudScaling, Microsoft, Rackspace, and other leading vendors and analysts.
The Future Of Networking On Display At Interop
Networking isn't just about bigger, faster, and denser any more. Virtually every aspect of networking is developing new core protocols and technologies to meet growing demand.
How To Sort Through Enterprise Mobility Challenges
Mobility is demanding the attention of IT. Whether it's building a scalable wireless infrastructure, or supporting the newest smartphone or tablet, the choices are daunting. Interop's wireless and mobility conference track can help sort out these challenges.
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