Features

Is Wiki under your radar?

Your staff may already be using one of the most productive collaboration tools ever built

When good vendors go bad

Pushy vendors getting you down? Fight back with your wallet

Net Optics Tap makes data stream monitoring magic

Copper Tap Passive 10/100BaseT Port Aggregator handles overflow with aplomb

Open source or outsource?

Commercial software has its place, but open source and hosted solutions now dominate

Join the CTO club

Feeling lonely at the top? CTO clubs provide a great venue for mutual support

Why can’t Johnny compute?

Readers weigh in on whether users’ basic computer literacy should be IT’s responsibility

My PowerBook odyssey

Great hardware and OS design goes a long way, but I still need my ThinkPad

The whining class

Is it time to crack down on willfully clueless users who soak up support bandwidth?

Real-world laptop recovery lessons

Don't drink the water — and never, never go to Baja without your Windows XP boot CD

How we tested

A battery of rigorous hands-on tests revealed the strengths and shortcomings of our four IP PBXes

Readers weigh in on IDEs

To IDE or not to IDE? A matter of preference becomes a religious argument

Dreams of service-oriented b-to-b integration

In pursuit of an SOA to clean up business processes and reduce human interaction

The great IDE debate

Whether your shop opts for an IDE or not, it’s vital to decide one way or the other

How we tested the workstations

More details on the Opteron vs. Xeon workstation tests

Dealing with random IT trouble

A little creative thinking helps solve one of those legendary problems that stymie the best IT organizations

IT Myth 5: Most IT projects fail

Reality: It all depends on how you define failure

IT Myth 3: All big shops run multiple platforms

Reality: This 'myth' is closer to fact than fiction

IT Myth 6: IT doesn’t scale

Reality: Virtually any technology is scalable, provided you combine the right ingredients and implement them effectively

IT Myth 2: Eighty percent of corporate data resides on mainframes

Reality: Try 50 percent, or even less

IT Myth 1: Server upgrades matter

Reality: Don’t pay extra for upgradability; you’ll never need it

IT Myth 4: CIOs and CTOs have a greater need for business savvy than tech expertise

Reality: Tech chops matter more than ever

Digging into DNS

Humble little DNS gets far too little attention — ignore it at your peril

The six myths of IT

It's time to test some long-held assumptions

How we put the workstations under pressure

Loading up the HP, IBM, and MPC workstations involved lots of parallel workloads

Solaris takes on Linux

When Linux has all the trappings of a commercial OS, why not consider a commercial OS?

RSS bandwidth blues

Making RSS more manageable on the server side takes extra effort

The browser under attack

Enterprises standardize on the browser for app delivery just as exploits are on the rise

Proof is in the packets

What's the most meaningful measure of firewall performance?

RSS growing pains

As a tireless booster of RSS, I’ve learned the liabilities of too much success

The Olympics network: Faster, stronger — and redundant

More than 3,000 people worked for nearly three years to build the data backbone that promises not to fail

Monoculture wars

Readers respond to my suggestion that embracing a single platform isn’t all bad

Well-run IT is like music to my ears

IT managers can learn a lot about how to manage projects from listening to musicians, both good and bad

IBM gives WebSphere a pick-me-up

XD gives WebSphere a B-12 shot

The burden of platform diversity

Multiple platforms keep IT vibrant, but sometimes I wish I only had to manage one

Business rules for newbies

Those who work with business rules engines have their own special vocabulary. Here’s a sampling of definitions for frequently used terms

Choose your database type wisely

Effective IT calls for intelligent urgency

Don't waste energy putting out fires. The best solutions come when you wait for the right opportunities

Apple Must Convince IT of Case for Xserve G5

Interview: Symantec’s John Thompson talks about big picture security

Security efforts to focus on processes first, then technology

Optimizing business processes

To reform business processes, learn when to listen and when to lead

How we conducted this survey

The methodology behind the numbers

The joy of outsourcing

Budget pain brings gain in the form of outsourced IT support

IBM’s Corgel: Software as a service is coming

Application hosting is emerging as one of Big Blue's most strategic areas

Smart IT budgeting

Every CTO wants more to spend. But aligning with business needs may yield greater rewards

Open source’s usability champion narrows the gap between Linux and Windows

Miguel de Icaza

Lumeta chief scientist checks for network leaks with IP Sonar

Bill Cheswick

Security as an immune system

Dr. Steven Hofmeyr

Revolutionary protocol takes pain out of sharing large files

Bram Cohen

CoreStreet targets massively scalable validation

Phil Libin

Blogging behind the firewall

InfoWorld’s internal Weblog started as an experiment. Already, it’s indispensable