Op-ed

Four steps to mastering security kung fu

04/01/09

The current economic melee is forcing a corporate metamorphosis that, when combined with ever broadening security threats, presents information security groups with an opportunity to radically change their identity and value to the business.

10 ways to make your data center more efficient

02/20/08

Whether your company has already started down the path to make your data center more power-efficient, or if it doesn't even know where to begin, I'd like to share with you 10 techniques we have used to enhance our data center's infrastructure. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to find out that these techniques are simple, affordable and easy to implement.

Data visualization: the underappreciated Web 2.0 tool

02/05/08

There are many data-visualization tools, from tag clouds to real-time monitoring, which give you a range of options about how to turn data into visual information that can be important strategic-planning assets.

The Cisco/Microsoft battle for unified communications

12/12/07

Microsoft has done so many things right with its unified communications strategy that Cisco should be worried. Yet Microsoft has still missed the mark on a few core necessities.

The network is up

07/23/07

The network is up

Clean machine to the rescue

07/16/07

Thanks for the information on CCleaner. I downloaded it after reading Mark Gibbs' column and ran it on my Windows XP laptop. The free space on my C drive was 8.3GB at the start of the process. After I let CCleaner flush everything, the free space was 16GB!

Letters: The high cost of blades

07/09/07

After reading your article on blade vs. rack mount performance and cost, I felt that I really needed to make a statement.

Biggest lie in the enterprise: ‘The network is down’

07/05/07

If you are considering doubling the size of your flexible-spending medical account to buy more Ibuprofen, antacid and sleep aids, I’ve got news for you. None of these is a cure for ills caused by this message: “The network is down.” Knowing that the message is not true 99.9x% of the time is not the cure either.

Letters: Defense of U.S. patent system

06/26/07

Kevin Loughrey's letter assailing the entire patent system was way off base. Loughrey's company, A Perfect PC, provides services for Linux computers so he clearly is not approaching this from an unbiased viewpoint.

Letters: Remains of the day

06/25/07

Every time I read a story about some administrator or security person crying about insecure Microsoft operating systems, I have to smile. Remember Novell? Considering Microsoft 2007 is a very poor replica of Novell 1995, just imagine where networking would be today if everyone hadn't gone running to Microsoft and Novell could have kept research going.

Letters: Broadband for all

06/11/07

In reference to Tom Henderson's story "A call to action against Microsoft's open source threats", I have to take issue with him regarding the quality of Microsoft's products. They have always been buggy and counterintuitive to use.

Why Avaya deal is good for customers

06/06/07

For the price of $8.2 billion, private-equity firms Silver Lake and TPG Capital have offered to take Avaya private. This is the largest such transaction ever in the enterprise networking and communications arena. And it’s a positive development for Avaya’s shareholders, employees and most importantly its customers.

Letters: Open source comments

06/04/07

In response to Howard Anderson's column "A cynic rips open source": This article is very well written but a bit too vague for me.

App intelligence a new network service

05/31/07

Networks have traditionally supported applications by providing a transport service. Over the years, this transport service was optimized through QoS mechanisms in an effort to prioritize one set of applications over another.

Letters: Winrot response

05/28/07

In response to Mark Gibbs' Gearhead column "Welcome back Winrot," I find that doing periodic file cleanups often has more of an effect on performance (the computer's, not mine) than defragging.

Letters: Steganography can foil data leakage programs

05/21/07

When I read stories such as "Majority of tech execs watch employee Web use," I can't help but wonder how many employees who know they are being monitored are using techniques to hide information, such as digital steganography.

A call to action against Microsoft's open source threats

05/21/07

Once again, Microsoft has hoisted the canard that there are 235 Microsoft patents that open source products, largely Linux and OpenOffice, are in ostensible violation of patent rights.

SMBs emerge from the enterprise shadow

05/17/07

Not long ago, network products for small and midsize businesses were nothing more than enterprise products with lower port densities and perhaps a partial lobotomy. After all, if it's good for Citibank or General Motors, it has to be good for you, right? Not really - but it sounds good, if that's what you're selling.

Letters: Nortel defends PBT

05/14/07

I read with great interest Jim Duffy's recent story "Is MPLS alternative DOA?"

Letters: There's no free (open source) lunch

05/07/07

The cost of software must include installation, configuration and maintenance, and depending on the particular software and your environment, this can run from insignificant to many times the purchase cost of the software.

The color of information security

05/01/07

If information security were a color, it most definitely would be gray. Like life in general, information security is rarely black and white. As an information security consultant, most questions asked of me and my colleagues are answered in the same way: It depends.

Beyond the Internet

05/01/07

I don’t know when it started, but it became visible a couple of years ago — ironically, at about the same time that the ’Net neutrality debate started to gain ground. Now it may be the thing that makes that much-more-publicized concept moot. What is it? The notion that perhaps we need to rethink completely the thing we call the Internet.

Letters: Cisco re-sellers fight back

04/30/07

Phil Hochmuth's story "Cisco looking to counter used gear competitors" doesn't mention that IBM, long a bellwether of industry standards, has had a policy for more than 40 years that lets used equipment remain under its umbrella of maintenance qualification.

How to find your security holes

04/30/07

It is crucial today to prevent vulnerabilities across the enterprise and remove security holes in your desktops, laptops and servers. Knowing what they are, where they are on your network, and how to remove them is more important than sniffing packets and listening for burglars.

Intro to hackernomics

04/25/07

Legislation, financially driven attackers, and high profile breaches have changed the economics of security. We need to rethink the motivations of attackers and the new attacker economy given a growing stolen identity information trade and the rise of organized electronic crime. We need to study Hackernomics. This is a new term so allow me to offer a definition:

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