Special report: Reduce datacenter redundancy. You might not be able to say it three times fast, but a smart consolidation plan — one more concerned with agility than cost savings, that is — has helped several companies manage to pull it off. Expect your CEO to ask whether to outsource, consolidate or both. Either way, it’s handy to know that some consolidation power tools are at your disposal. And, in fact, it might already be in place. Columnists’ corner: Even though Mono gave developers something they’d not before had in an open source app dev platform with modern features, Sun’s open sourcing of the JDK could kill Mono, explains Neil McAllister in Goodbye Mono, hello Java? “If that happens, I fear Microsoft will have won yet another victory.” That’s not to say Java is unwelcome, though. The news beat: Novell CEO Ron Havsepian, meanwhile, addresses patent concerns in an open letter stating that Novell “disagrees with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents.” Speaking of … Alcatel sues Microsoft, claiming infringment on seven U.S. patents. Samsung touts what it calls the thinnest phone LCD ever produced. And Dell says it will report Q3 earnings despite accounting troubles. Technology Industry