* Welcome to the afternoon edition of Network World Daily News.
Best Products Guide
Best Products 2007 is our compilation of the enterprise products that our testers gave the highest marks to over the past year. See who earned high marks – and let us know if you agree or not.
From the blogs and forums
You’ll notice some changes in our Community area this week – we’re trying to organize discussions better to make it easier for you to find just the topics you’re interested in. Let us know what you think.
Also, say hello to Brad Reese, who is now blogging away on all manner of Cisco issues, from the interesting things CCIE folks are doing (seems CCIE Voice Experts are in high demand) to looking at how John Chambers’ philanthropical efforts stack up to those of Bill Gates. Reese joins Cisco Subnet, Network World’s new community of interest on all things Cisco.
Adam Gaffin ponders an Alaskan town where using free Wi-Fi can get you in jail. Cisconet discusses Cisco’s decision not to open-source NAC. Paul McNamara asks: Are we stuck with CYA homeland security? One user doesn’t get why people are all upset about outbound security in the Vista firewall. Another user tells us OSSEC does a lot more than just trigger alerts. James Gaskin discusses Google Apps.
In depth
Spring cleaning: ITIL gets an update
A growing roster of IT shops are using the best practices spelled out in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library to ensure they are employing technology in an efficient, cost-effective manner.
Job rotation pays dividends
Scott Manuel had a lot to learn when he arrived at Thomson Corp. two years ago. After all, the newly minted MBA graduate began his professional career in 2000 with two years at Enron, just as the company was crescendoing financially, then infamously collapsed.
More news
Dashboard uses Google Maps to provide status updates on IT systems
The satellite imaging power of Google Maps is being used to give IT managers a birds-eye view of their facilities and Internet connections in a security information management product developed by start-up FireScope.
ConSentry teams with Alcatel-Lucent on NAC
ConSentry said today its NAC gear will be sold as part of the Alcatel-Lucent line of network equipment for at least a three-year period, making it possible for customers to get network-access equipment packaged with Alcatel-Lucent switches and routers.
10 free utilities
Here are 10 storage utilities you can download and start using to manage your storage-area network, deploy network-attached storage or monitor and assess the privacy of your network.
Q&A: Why Union Bank scrapped AIX for Red Hat
As Linux establishes itself as a mainstream operating system, and open source tools and applications prove their enterprise readiness, a growing number of organizations are talking publicly about their open source deployments and direction. Recently, Mok Choe, CTO at Union Bank in Monterrey Park, Calif., spoke with Network World Senior Editor Jennifer Mears about the financial institution’s decision to scrap proprietary Unix systems for commodity servers running Red Hat Linux.
