EDITORS' CHOICE
From the front page
Testers question stability of latest Vista beta
What began as a murmur a few months back is turning into an audible grumble as beta testers and experts question the stability of the latest Windows Vista beta and Microsoft itself hints at yet another release delay.
Elyria, Ohio, population 56,000, has a history of innovation: The padded bicycle seat, colored golf ball and rubber heel were invented here. Now this Rust Belt city 10 miles west of Cleveland is home to a software company that is among a handful of Midwestern start-ups that have attracted venture capital financing this year.
Flexible licensing plans gain momentum
Bentley Software is going against the grain with a new licensing program that lets customers turn in user licenses they don't want anymore in exchange for seats of a different product in Bentley's portfolio of architecture, engineering and construction software.
Reviews
Jabber appliance IMpresses with ease of installation, use
Jabber says its JabberNow appliance creates an IM environment that is easy to install, simple to maintain, highly secure and interoperable with other IM systems. In our tests, we found the device lived up to our expectations.
Cymphonix device watches users, traffic, but hits a few bumps
Cymphonix's Network Composer DC30X is a security appliance designed to sit quietly between users and the Internet, blocking viruses and spyware, reporting on user and application bandwidth, and shaping traffic. It's intended to let you manage bandwidth to keep downloads from interfering with voice or other critical traffic, as well as give you a sense of what your users are doing on the network.
In depth
Disk-based data reduction is the newest WAN-acceleration technology that has emerged to help solve the performance, breadth and scale limitations that have plagued earlier technologies.
Making the transition from technology to business
Three years ago, Autumn Bayles was brought in as a part of a management-turnaround team to rebuild Tasty Baking, a 90-year-old family-run public company in need of restructuring. Bayle's task as CIO was to revamp the company's technology infrastructure; with that project under her belt, she's moving on to head operations at the Philadelphia-based food chain.
ITVideo
American Water discovered and quarantined a worm using Arbor Networks' product set, saving $1 million in the process. Jack Boyle, CEO of Arbor, explains how on this week's Network World Hot Seat.
From the forums and blogs
A user seeks advice on the best way to restrict which Web sites his employees can get to. Paul McNamara takes a look at 10 IT brand names that just won't die. Mark Gibbs wonders why you're not more suspicious of SOA.
Making corporate security second nature
Enterprise security executives need to make practices such as safe USB use and discreet handling of patient or customer data as commonplace as not accepting luggage from strangers in airports or wearing a seat belt when driving.
Centeris seeks to further simplify management in mixed Windows/Linux shops
Centeris CEO Barry Crist can rattle off a litany of reasons for why you should give his company's management software a whirl. But perhaps his most illustrative selling point is this: "What if your Linux administrator goes on vacation?"
It's not surprising that 1-800-Flowers.com sees its business spike around Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Christmas. What might surprise you, however, is that the company meets its increased call volume with customer-care agents who just might be answering the phone in bathrobe and slippers.
AT&T looks to extend SBC's hold on SMBs
AT&T is trying to find the right mix of services to better serve the small-to-midsize business market and leverage some of the successes legacy SBC has seen in its 13-state region.
Sybase previews data-integration suite
Sybase this week is expected to take the wraps off a new suite of tools aimed at helping companies combine data from heterogeneous sources.
Array gear protects healthcare provider
Humana Health Care used to rely on a mix of remote-access methods but wanted a single, flexible technology that would reduce the number of network entry points for malicious activity. As a result, it is standardizing on SSL VPNs for all remote access - and saving money at the same time.
Linux event shows move to mainstream
Conference agenda indicative of a maturing Linux.
Microsoft looks for ways to combat Blue Pill, code-signing bypass
After security researcher Joanna Rutkowska Thursday demonstrated how it’s possible to circumvent security in Microsoft's Vista beta software and install a rootkit called Blue Pill, Microsoft said it intends to find ways to stop both potential threats before Vista ships.
Mainframe storage system addresses disaster recovery, compliance
Bus-Tech is rolling out a virtual tape appliance designed to replicate mainframe data to disk-based storage systems.
NAC, VoIP security draw questions at Black Hat
At the Black Hat conference this week, security researchers drew attention to shortcomings in network access control and VoIP products, voicing criticisms that rang true to some enterprise network customers.
Startup releases network access control device for Windows desktops
Startup FireEye is introducing a network access control appliance that monitors network traffic to discover and block malicious traffic aimed at Windows 2000 and Windows XP desktops.
Microsoft takes first step toward standardizing management modeling language
Microsoft Monday said it was working with a set of partners to create a standard modeling language designed to help corporations better manage their infrastructure.