Here is this week's Editors' Choice; look for Readers' Choice later this week.
EDITORS’ CHOICE
From the front page of Network World
Communicating even when the network’s down
Researchers are creating mobile networks that can sustain communications even in the face of broken links and long delays.
The good, bad and ugly of a VoIP implementation
Facing frequent outages in the DSL lines serving 50-plus corporate-owned Gold’s gyms, Bobby Badugu knew it was time for a significant network upgrade.
Project management software can curb IT inefficiencies
As IT projects multiply and grow in complexity, keeping them on pace and on budget gets more challenging. IT pros are finding project management tools can help, but they’re not a cure-all.
The 2006 Holiday Gift Guide
Yep, we made a list and we checked it twice. Our annual gift guide features reviews and suggestions on more than 100 products you’d want under your tree – from computers and monitors to wireless devices to games.
Power Poll: What’s the big deal about John Chambers?
For the next few weeks, we’ll be running Power Polls on powerful people in networking. We’ll start with Chambers. He usually winds up at the top of our annual Most Powerful list, even though his company is not the biggest in networking (why isn’t IBM’s Palmisano at the top of the list?) So what makes somebody like Chambers so powerful? Visibility? Domination of at least one market area? Customer satisfaction? What? Vote and discuss.
How to
Ron Nutter helps a user with a couple of knotty DHCP problems. In Insider Threat, Naomi Fine suggests ways to keep intellectual property from leaving the network.
From the blogs and forums
Keith Shaw takes a look at a new service that lets you exchange large files without attaching them to e-mail. Adam Gaffin explains why you might have to ban digital cameras from your next offsite. James Gaskin describes a data center meant for companies that want to survive a local disaster. Paul McNamara doesn’t shy away: BellSouth lickspittle toadies up to FCC chairman. Mark Gibbs tries out a tag-cloud generator.
ITVideo
Saving time and money in the data center
Can automation and management tools save a customer $2 million anually and deliver a three to six month ROI? BladeLogic CEO Dev Ittycheria backs up those claims on this week’s Network World Hot Seat.
A secret source promises Keith Shaw a PlayStation 3.
In depth
CDP: Great for corruption, not disaster recovery
Continuous data protection: great for data corruption, less effective for disaster recovery.
Mitzi Pearce was a young IT manager at Bank of America in San Francisco when the opportunity to live and work abroad first presented itself. Now, 23 years later and with more than a decade of international management experience under her belt, Pearce, 53, is back at square one.
More news
Management vendors debut open source wares
The selection of open source software available to network managers just got a little bigger, as three companies separately unveiled tools geared for change and configuration management, systems monitoring and server management.
Cisco targets low-end SAN customers
Cisco plans to roll out a low-end Fibre Channel switch this week that supports some features of its larger director-level switches, such as virtual storage-area network capability.
Nortel reinforces SMB gear with stackable switches, VoIP
Nortel is trying to appeal to small-to-medium-sized businesses by introducing an array of stackable switches and by adding big-business phone features to its small-office IP PBX.
AT&T rolling out dynamic IPSec offering
AT&T is installing encryption equipment throughout its IP-based network that lets the carrier provide more flexible IPSec-based security to business customers for their voice, video and multicasting.
Avaya buys Traverse Networks to link cell phone users to corporate VoIP
Avaya this week acquired Traverse Networks and announced simplified pricing for its various VoIP software platforms – moves the vendor hopes will be a one-two punch against Cisco and Nortel in the mobility and collaboration arena.
Ethernet, media focus force telecom shift
Three telecommunications conferences in midtown Manhattan this week reveal an industry at a turning point – as it shifts to a media-centric focus and as Ethernet changes the very economics of the industry.
Egenera tucks Xen into management platform
Egenera is partnering with XenSource to tuck the open source Xen hypervisor into the management software it uses to group its blade servers into a pool of compute resources in which application workloads are shifted according to business demands.
Fujitsu launches 10G stackable switch
Fujitsu this week introduced a new stackable 10G Ethernet switch, targeted at connecting clustered servers for supercomputer and grid computing applications.
Security group ranks human error as top security worry
The SANS Institute has some controversial advice for computer security professionals looking to lock down their networks: spear-phish your employees.
Start-up Evergrid enters virtualization fray
Evergrid, a start-up coming out of stealth mode this week, is promising mainframe-like reliability for applications running on clusters of commodity Linux servers.
IBM’s ISS division announces SiteProtector appliance
IBM’s Internet Security Systems division is making its security-management console software available in an appliance form for the first time.
With the right moves, more large enterprise wins for Alcatel could be in the cards
Alcatel’s large voice and data win at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center could be a sign of more U.S. enterprise-market momentum, depending on how the French vendor’s merger with Lucent plays out.
Cisco adds to its outdoor wireless mesh line
Cisco this week will extend its outdoor wireless mesh product line with a low-end access point.
