Here is this week's Editors' Choice; look for Readers' Choice later this week.
EDITORS’ CHOICE
From the front page
Banks under gun to bolster online security
Federal mandate spurs banks to try out new security technologies.
As telecom goes, so go its fancy buildings
One block off the main drag of this all-American town is an architectural gem that is among the landmark buildings built in the bygone glory days of the telecom industry. Known as the SBC Switching Station, this award-winning example of modern architecture looks to the general observer like something a child would build out of Legos. It’s a series of connected rectangular structures, some two stories high and others one story high, encased in dark, reflecting glass.
Grids moving into enterprise data centers
Mention the word “grid” and most IT executives probably think of thousands of CPUs crunching numbers for data-intensive applications such as seismic modeling and drug discovery. Increasingly, however, grids are being considered as platforms for creating more flexible, efficient data center architectures.
From the blogs and forums
Discuss: Can Google really beat Microsoft on the desktop? User Zort wonders if anybody has gotten Riverbed Steelshaper and Packetshaper working on the same network. The Alpha Doggs take a look at a possible breakthrough in quantum cryptography. Mark Gibbs discusses a largescale data-processing language from Google that is doing some interesting things. Keith Shaw ponders companies that keep releasing iPod competitors.
In depth
9/11 disconnect: 5 years later, many first responders stuck with second-rate wireless gear
Cities and states are trying hard to upgrade their public-safety networks in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, but first responders in many jurisdictions don’t have such state-of-the-art capabilities as in-building coverage, support for Internet standards, and broadband speeds for text messaging, images and streaming video.
SML improves management automation
On July 31, 10 IT vendors published the Service Modeling Language specification to improve the automation of management systems. SML provides a consistent way to describe system information about networks, applications, servers and other IT resources. The authors plan to submit SML to a yet-to-be-chosen standards body by the end of 2006.
Teams embrace all-inclusive SOA
Application developers, data architects, security specialists and IT directors all have a stake in the design of application services and the enterprise framework across which they run. Network executives are no exception.
SOA testing tools facilitate collaboration
Expertise isn’t the only thing that distinguishes the players involved in creating a service-oriented architecture. Location, too, is a factor, as Wachovia has learned.
Review
A closer look at OpenSUSE 10.1
OpenSUSE 10.1, Novell’s attempt to keep a general-purpose version of its Linux freely available to the open source community, is both aided by and suffers from the lack of attention from Novell.
How to
Ron Nutter points out some basic tools any new LAN manager should have.
ITVideo
Protecting online transactions
How does your mental fingerprint give you away online? And how can it help you protect online transactions? Find out from Verid CEO Kevin Watson in this week’s Network World Hot Seat.
Keyboard madness, part 2
Keith goes hunting for a vanquished foe and challenges him to another keyboard race with the latest new peripherals, including a “new standard” non-QWERTY keyboard.
More news
Google tools aim at corporate desktop
Google last week released in beta a bundle of online communications tools that corporate users can customize for their domains. They include e-mail, instant messaging and calendars.
Analysts have their doubts about new carrier architecture
IP Multimedia Systems is not a slam-dunk according to a group of industry analysts that gathered at the FierceMarkets IMS executive Summit conference in Washington D.C. to discuss the future of IMS.
Juniper crams security tools into appliances
Juniper Networks is delivering on a promise to pack lots of security features into its firewalls and appliances for medium-sized businesses and branch offices.
Coming to DVD: data from your company
PowerFile this week plans to roll out a DVD-based storage appliance designed to make archiving data faster and retrieving it easier.
Privacyware going corporate
Privacyware next month is scheduled to unveil a management platform for its personal firewall that will make the desktop- and laptop-based software suitable for deployment in corporate networks.
Q&A: Citrix positions its acquisitions around an ‘access management vision’
Citrix made its name with a specialized software product, Citrix MetaFrame, now called Presentation Server. It was used by a blue chip list of Fortune 500 companies to run Windows applications on servers, accessed by PCs via Citrix’s communications protocol ICA. For several years, Citrix has been positioning its product line around a theme that company executives recite like a refrain: application access management.
Microsoft expands support program
Companies looking to hold onto support for aging Microsoft software as they plan migrations will now have access to a safety net – but it comes at a price.
Trapeze bolsters WLAN software security
Trapeze Networks has released a new version of its wireless LAN software that it says improves customer security by linking with a third-party wireless intrusion detection/prevention system applications.
CipherTrust blocks bad mail at the network edge with upgraded appliance
CipherTrust Wednesday plans to announce an upgraded version of its IronMail Edge appliance that includes new features for blocking annoying and malicious e-mail messages before they enter the corporate network.
Oracle: Most of Fusion development still to come
When Oracle executives in January publicly described the vendor’s Fusion project to create a new suite of enterprise applications as halfway done, they were referring to the completion of the smaller middleware piece of the massive multibillion dollar project, according to the man in charge of that undertaking. Much work remains to be done on the larger applications piece of Fusion.
Quest tool aims to tame SharePoint
Quest Software this week will release management tools to help corporate users bring order to their Microsoft SharePoint rollouts.
Sprint Nextel offering wireless software packages
Sprint Nextel is rolling out a series of wireless software packages for business customers to better support employees in the field and keep track of assets.
BMC users tout business service management technologies
SAN FRANCISCO — Corporate IT executives that in the past few years adopted a service-centric approach to infrastructure management report the change delivered cost savings, streamlined operations and in some cases greater revenue for their companies.
