Here is this week's Editors' Choice; look for Readers' Choice later this week.
EDITORS’ CHOICE
From the front page
Microsoft tries to sell two-tiered grand vision
Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, who last week hosted his 10th annual CEO Summit, used his keynote address to show how search features being developed in Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows Vista will integrate with a new desktop version of Windows Live Search and the MSN Internet service of the same name.
Gartner analyst: Resist Gig Ethernet
An analyst last week told enterprise IT and network professionals they will toss away more than $10 billion on Gigabit Ethernet LAN gear over the next two years that would be better spent on technologies designed to support increasingly distributed workforces.
$100 laptops? … Not yet
On a desk in a messy office on the eighth floor of a building opposite the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sits a circuit board that might just transform education for millions of kids around the world.
In depth
In response to IT demands for increased efficiency in managing diskless and blade servers, storage-area network vendors have begun crafting next-generation tools that perform advanced server provisioning.
Sport phishing morphs into cybercrime wave
Traditional e-mail phishing exploits are still growing in numbers, but they seem almost tame compared with newer, more virulent malware used by cybercrime rings that trade in financial account information.
Because of the large-scale growth in data, many of today’s storage-area networks have evolved considerably from their early, well-contained deployments. Corporate IT executives are pushing SANs to their limits – in size, complexity and functionality – as they embrace New Data Center mandates about tiered storage, storage on demand and delivering storage as a service to key internal customers.
Continuous data protection gets gussied up
Continuous data protection tools have become all the rage. They’re popular with IT executives developing New Data Center storage plans, because they deliver a time-sensitive approach to backing up and recovering data. But CDP vendors aren’t resting on their laurels.
The maxim that timing is everything in business has special application to today’s enterprise storage service providers. SSPs have evolved to the point where most experts and users say their time has come.
Synchronous mesh offers scalability
Wireless mesh networks have become increasingly popular based on their many advantages, but the topology can have an Achilles’ heel that is becoming painfully apparent: The network may fail to scale as promised.
Betting on software-as-a-service
Vedior North America isn’t just dabbling with software delivered as a service. It’s betting the farm on the model. The $1 billion Wakefield, Mass., company is in the process of implementing Bullhorn’s hosted staffing and recruiting software across its myriad business units.
From the blogs
Mark Gibbs wonders if free Skype is a Vonage IPO spoiler. Paul McNamara tries to figure out why “Yahoo” beats out “porn” in a new Google tool designed to show the relative popularity of different search terms. Keith Shaw looks at a new Sony Ericsson Walkman phone and snazzy new Bluetooth headsets designed to end the Borg look. James Gaskin examines the latest entrants in the “let’s beat Microsoft” race.
How to
Ron Nutter helps a user get the most out of this anti-spam tool.
Review
Anthology’s appliance does NAS well and lots more
With capacities now reaching 1TB or higher, network-attached storage appliances may soon steal thunder in the entry-level file server market from leader Microsoft. With continued development in their operating systems, some of these NAS boxes may become the first wave of user-friendly servers for the entry level.
More news
Open source automates college net security
Network managers at Middlebury College in Vermont have created an open source application that watches entries in log files, analyzes them and triggers actions such as alerting administrators, quarantining a user, or shutting down a switch port.
Start-up Jitterbit to debut application integration engine
Open source software maker Jitterbit this week is expected to unveil its first products, which are aimed at helping small and midsize businesses tackle application integration projects without the cost and complexity associated with top-of-the-line integration engines.
Nortel adding IPS feature to Alteon application switch
Nortel today is set to announce the addition of intrusion-prevention capability to the Nortel Alteon application switch.
Nortel: Enterprise key to rebound
Once again, Nortel is counting on its enterprise operations to help lift the company out of its financial doldrums.
Reflexion bolsters anti-spam features
Reflexion Network Solutions this week is scheduled to release an upgrade to its anti-spam hosted service based on the company’s belief that multiple e-mail addresses are better than one.
Foundry adds Snort to LAN switch
In July, Foundry Networks is expected to make available an upgrade to its LAN switch/WAN router network management software that adds the widely used open source Snort intrusion-detection and -prevention system to the product.
Lotus fires back at Microsoft’s Notes rhetoric
Lotus has no intent to back off its stated commitment to provide backward compatibility for all Notes applications regardless of reports to the contrary this week from longtime rival Microsoft.
Even more!
Our This Week page will also link you to: Wireless fosters ‘real time’ mind-set; Webify looks to manage apps services; Bird flu bargains begin to appear; Software targets internal leaks; Open source role at Sun remains murky; Lotus adds ODF support to Notes; BMC expands reach of CMDB ; Skype chief promises more for business users; Qwest acquires metro Ethernet provider OnFiber; Start-ups zero in on Microsoft backup, storage.
