Tests: Wireless gear, storage software, operating systems.
More about ExtremeLabs
Recent tests and articles
Tom Henderson is principal researcher for ExtremeLabs, Inc., of Indianapolis. ExtremeLabs performs systems analysis and performance testing in medium- to high-end networking and microprocessor-based systems platforms. While much of the research is published in major trade publications, ExtremeLabs also performs private testing and simulation on network traffic performance-- especially in the field of isochronous applications (multimedia). ExtremeLabs also performs technical investigations for venture capital organizations.
Prior to ExtremeLabs, Tom was the senior vice president of Unitel, and its successor company, publically traded Telecomm Industries Corporation (TCMM). TCMM was one of the largest interconnects in North America, and Tom's responsibilities were architectural/framework design, engineering overview and oversight, as well as serving as principal engineering liaison to business partners.
Unitel acquired Tom's company, Corporate Networks, Inc., in 1993. Corporate Networks was a communications/network integration concern with twenty-one employees. For the eight years prior to the acquisition, Tom and his crew designed and deployed over 500 local networks in the central region, and was a vendor/consultant to universities, Fortune 500 firms, non-profit organizations, and others-- specializing in local networks and network-to-mainframe connectivity.
Tom was a co-founder of the Local Area Network Dealers Association in 1985, whose US organization later merged with the Business Technology Association; the Canadian organization survives independently. Tom was also the founder of the Computer Telephony Resellers Association, which merged with the MultiMedia Telecommunications Association. Tom served for several years as a member of the MMTA board of governors, and voted for the merger between the MMTA and the TIA.
Tom currently serves on the technical program committee of the International Communications Association (ICA), the Conference Advisory Board for COMDEX Spring, Fall, Canada West, and Toronto. Tom is also a director of PBS affiliate WFYI-20 in Indianapolis. The father of two, Tom's non-computer passions are music, travel, and restoring old Jags. He's working on his PhD in computer science research.
His e-mail address is thenderson@extremelabs.com.
Recent tests and articles by Tom Henderson:
How we tested Apple Snow Leopard Server
Nov. 02, 2009
We tested Apple Snow Leopard on two Apple-supplied servers, an older one that's been in the lab as a test unit, and a newer XServe with 8GB of DRAM, SSD 128GB boot drive, three SAS secondary drives in RAID 5 ...
Apple Snow Leopard Server: A faster, smoother breed of cat
Nov. 02, 2009
On the surface, Apple's Snow Leopard Server feels like a $499 maintenance release, but underneath, there's much more – improved performance, more polish and new apps focused on collaboration and content sharing.
Apple Snow Leopard Server: 5 things we love, 5 things we hate
Nov. 02, 2009
10 things you need to know about Windows 7
Oct. 19, 2009
Windows 7 officially ships on Thursday, which means end users and administrators running Windows XP (and to a lesser extent, Windows Vista) have some interesting decisions to make.
10 people you won't see at Microsoft's Windows 7 launch party
Oct. 21, 2009
VMware Workstation for Windows
Jul. 13, 2009
We found VMWare Workstation for Windows to be quite a bit more advanced than its competition. The product has the USB 2.0 support missing from Parallels, and has a unity mode that's similar to the one VMware implements ...
Best hypervisors for the desktop
Jul. 13, 2009
Desktop hypervisors offer companies a way to run multiple operating systems, and the applications tied to them, on a single client machine.
Best desktop virtualization software
Jul. 13, 2009
VMware upgrade reaches for the clouds
Jun. 15, 2009
VMware's vSphere 4.0 is a massive update to VMware's flagship hypervisor and management toolset which will put significant pressure on Microsoft and the Xen development community.
Ubuntu Server: Lean, mean, cloud-making machine
Jun. 01, 2009
Ubuntu Server is a fast, free, no-frills Linux distribution that fills a niche between utilitarian Debian and the GUI-driven and, some would argue, over-featured Novell SUSE and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Ubuntu Desktop: Plenty of sizzle, not much steak
Jun. 01, 2009
Ubuntu 9.0.4 Desktop, nicknamed Jaunty Jackalope, is likely to continue the Mac-like cult following for Canonical's Debian-based Linux distribution. But there's not a lot new here.
How we tested Ubuntu Server
Jun. 01, 2009
We tested Ubuntu 9.0.4 in a gigabit network consisting of various client machines (HP, Dell, and Mac desktops and notebooks), principally on an HP DL580 G5 server (four socket, 16-core) server containing a SAS RAID ...
Microsoft's two new operating systems: A win-win
Jun. 01, 2009
Microsoft released the Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2 release candidates at the same time last month, with final versions of both products expected to ship by yearend. Undoubtedly, part of the message is that the ...
Novell's SLES 11 is packed to the gills and keeps moving at a decent clip
Apr. 27, 2009
In our Clear Choice test of Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11, we found it to be packed with useful management tools, to have virtualization threaded though many of its processes, and to perform at rates ...
Novell SLED 11 feels a lot like Window 7, MacOS
Apr. 27, 2009
Novell released SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (SLED 11) at the same time it rolled out SLES 11.
How we tested SLES, SLED 11
Apr. 27, 2009
We tested SLES and SLED 11 on a switched GBE network (Dlink managed switches).
DynamicOps homes in on VM provisioning
Apr. 13, 2009
DynamicOps' Virtual Resource Management (VRM) tool is more of a provisioning tool for deploying and controlling access to virtual machines, and is less effective when it comes to the subsequent management of the ...
Microsoft's SC-VMM provides limited view of VMware-based VMs
Apr. 13, 2009
The final version of SC VMM – which began shipping in November – is much improved over the beta code we tested last fall, but it has still got some rough patches in terms of integration with Microsoft's Operations ...
CA offers the strongest current option for cross-platform virtual management - Network ..
Apr. 13, 2009
Of the products we compared, CA's NSM/ASM pairing served up the best combination of VM management components. But it wasn't problem free.
How we tested virtual machine environments
Apr. 13, 2009
For a product to be included in this round of test, it have to be able to manage two or more server virtualization platforms from a list consisting of VMWare's ESX 3.5, Microsoft's Hyper-V, and Citrix's newly 'free' ...
Virtualization management: Cross-platform tools fall short
Apr. 13, 2009
With the abundance of formidable virtualization platforms on the market today, there ought to be a better way to manage heterogeneous VM farms.
Microsoft details contents of enterprise bundle for Windows 7
Mar. 02, 2009
In a series of briefings held on both coasts last week for product reviewers, Microsoft detailed the features that will be included in its Windows 7 Enterprise edition when it is released later this year.
Virtual Iron Xen offers topnotch security, policy controls
Jan. 12, 2009
Philosophically, Virtual Iron is different from the other hypervisors tested because it uses a hypervisor server farm managed through a direct-control application.
Novell SLES 10.2 Xen offers great promise
Jan. 12, 2009
Novell's SLES 10.2 with Xen 3.2 is part of its Linux product line and typically is managed by the company's ZenWorks products and services.
Citrix XenServer is tops among Xen-based hypervisors
Jan. 12, 2009
XenServer's hardware support was second only to that in Novell's Xen implementation, which has a slight advantage because it runs on any hardware supported by the Novell SLES 10 Linux distribution.
