Opinion

Test Center Tracker: Data Management 101

Getting a grip on data: It's not an easy task, making a silk purse out of the sow's ear that is enterprise data: there's too much of it in too many places, it's constantly changing, and it's got to be always available to hand

Improve the quality of enterprise data

Ensuring data quality is always harder than it seems, but new tools are making the toughest task in IT a bit easier

Are you an open source user or joiner?

How a company engages the community matters more than its business model

Timely coverage

The Feds weren’t thinking about IT when they moved daylight-saving time

Secure your enterprise data

Regulations and a fear of banner headlines put the focus on data, not network, security

Adobe Steps Back From ALM Precipice

In one of the most significant victories for software customers in many years, Adobe announced late last week that it will disable its Adobe License Manager (ALM) technology for volume license copies of Acrobat 8. For once, enough customers pushed ba

A Free SoftGrid Migration Tool Made Available

After Microsoft acquired and dropped the pricing for Softricity's SoftGrid, interest for the product has accelerated. And because converting MSI-based application packaging into SoftGrid sequences can be an extremely laborious task, Dennis Damen

Veeam Software Releases Reporter 1.0 for VI3

The Russian based software provider, Veeam Software, is at it again. Having recently announced the release of their latest version of Veeam FastSCP 2.0, the company quickly followed it up with the release of their latest tool, Veeam Reporter for VMwa

A DST ditty

With the Daylight Savings Time switch about to happen, you might find this piece by Mary Jo Foley on ZDNet, titled, "Microsoft to charge for Daylight Saving hotfixes for older products," amusing.Microsoft, if you don't know, moves prod

XenSource, What About Trademarks and Benchmarks?

XenSource has been getting a lot of attention lately. In a recent article, it was claimed that XenSource was laying the smack down on people over the Xen Trademark. It was even claimed that people would have to pay XenSource to have their application

New Daylight Saving may just be “a one-year deal”

It's a scenario that would be perfect for InfoWorld's "Off the Record" column (or a "Dilbert" comic): An executive committee dictates a seemingly minor change to the company – but it requires the IT staff to invest hour

Test Center Tracker: Database deployments made standard

Fresh from the Test Center: More applications mean more databases mean more problems – sometimes. Standardizing deployments reduces the chance of errors, but can be an admin pain. The answer? Try a product like GridApp's Clarity 3.5. According t

Vista User Account Control and the Linux Superuser

I have found most of the "Get a Mac" ads on television irritating and misleading, but two of the most recent ones were spot on: the one where the PC, played by the author and comedian John Hodgman, appears in a surgical go

AJAX and SOA…Together Forever?

The week after next I'm speaking at AJAX World, and thus have been thinking a lot about AJAX and SOA. Also, just coauthored a book on AJAX, and yes I did the SOA Chapter. AJAX is becoming the standard dynamic interface for the Web. AJAX adds val

AJAX and SOA…Together Forever?

The week after next I'm speaking at AJAX World, and thus have been thinking a lot about AJAX and SOA. Also, just coauthored a book on AJAX, and yes I did the SOA Chapter. AJAX is becoming the standard dynamic interface for the Web. AJAX adds va

Betting on top storage speed

Intransa steers their boat toward performance intensive SAN applications

Have you read your regulations?

Don't assume everything you're told is true when it comes to compliance specifics — do your homework and find out what's legit and what's bull

Microsoft Fails to Spring Forward

As we prepare for the early arrival of Daylight Savings Time (DST) this weekend, there are many opinions as to whether it will cause Y2K-level trouble for computer systems or not. But a number of readers say it's already been a major pain for th

Off shore hiring frenzy darkens domestic high tech employment picture

While high tech enterprise vendors continue to partner up when needed, IBM and Cisco, Cisco and Microsoft, Microsoft and Sun, on the home front, all smiling for the camera so to speak, behind the scenes there appears to be a vicious battle taking pla

Vista Search: Slick but Buggy

I love Vista's search mechanism. It's fast, tightly integrated and virtually seamless to operate. I'm particularly fond of the "Stack By" feature. It makes finding and sorting the myriad data files on my production system a b

Bosses from hell? No thanks.

I read an article over at CNNMoney.com this week, "<a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/03/01/8401039/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote">In defense of bosses from hell</a>." It's an

Hands-on: Ghost 2.0 so useful for Vista upgrades, it’s spooky

Ask just about any IT person what tool has saved their bacon more than any other, and they will probably say a disk imaging utility. One of the most widely used disk imaging tools out there is Symantec's Ghost, recently updated and released as G

Preview: Though cool, diminutive FlipStart micro PC falls short

It's got well-known investors; it has loads of buzzwords, including ultra-mobility, WWAN, InfoPane, and Vista. It's the FlipStart "micro PC" from Vulcan. So let's check it out. First, it's small. Damn small. Shots of the

“My SOA is Bigger than Your SOA”

Lately I've noticed a lot of SOA envy as organizations begin to roll out their new, and typically first, SOA projects. I hear things like: "How many services you got in your SOA?" or "We employ 10 WS-* standards, you?" Not su

Test Center Tracker: Order from database chaos

A DBA's dream come true: The prospect of managing multiple databases not only spread out across the country (or globe), but also written using varying technologies, is a bit daunting. seeMore Virtual Database Server Version 2.8.0, fortunately, p

Microsoft can’t do the time, Apple store aids in crime

It's the end of the world as we know it — one more time

Crisis management 101

Preparing for disaster means preparing yourself to act decisively when little is known

Sentillion vThere Receives RSA Certification

Sentillion vBusiness announced that its packaged desktop virtualization solution, vThere, has been awarded RSA Secured certification with RSA SecurID, signaling its interoperability with industry leading two-factor authentication technology from RSA.

VMware Announces ACE 2 Enterprise Public Beta

VMware has announced the public beta of VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition. The product is being described by the company as a breakthrough product that enables IT desktop managers to create a standard PC environment including operating system, data and

Virtual Iron Releases Version 3.5 with Added iSCSI Support

This week, Virtual Iron Software announced the general availability of version 3.5 of the company's enterprise-class virtualization platform. One of the key features in this release was the added support for iSCSI-based storage arrays, which wil

To Gates on H-1B: How about unlimited visas to those who design better OSes than Windows?

The headline reads, "Gates: Tech needs more immigrant visas– Microsoft CEO tells Congress the county's economic future depends on raising the cap on skilled-worker visas" I wonder how Bill Gates would feel if each new H-1B applicant c

InfoWorld LIVE! #7: VoIP and…more VoIP

And, yup, we're extending our InfoWorld LIVE! series beyond six weeks. So sue me. This week it's all about Voice over IP. Is it right for you? Is it right for me? Does it have a future? Do I have a future? To answer these questions and more

My Confession

OK, I'll admit right up front that this blog isn't really about DBs at all. I just wanted to tell a quick story. About 12yrs ago or so now, I was working in a call center. There were hundreds of us in the building spanning several floors, a

Test Center Tracker: Office Live — the promise and the pain

Thumbs down for Office Live: Oliver's been using Microsoft's Office Live for a while now, and it's long enough for him to declare that the whole thing needs a do-over. Sounds like the distant drumbeats from Google are coming closer, an

Advice Line linguistics

Dear Bob …I always read your Advice Line and continually learn a lot. I enjoy your analogies as they make your writing clearer – but in this case ("A Pioneer collides with Metropolis," 2/28/2007) I have no idea what the article is about!I

Unscrambling the March Orcas CTP Downloads

Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, has released what was supposed to be the February Visual Studio&nbsp;"Orcas" CTP as the March Orcas CTP. They released it late&nbsp;on February 28th, which is typical for something they promised i

The Green Grid gets going

Energy-efficient IT is finally getting a boost from many major vendors

Office Live needs a makeover

Microsoft could learn a thing for two from rivals' Web 2.0 apps

Preview: Cape Clear beta promises more scalable SOA

Cape Clear is revving up to roll out Cape Clear Studio 7, the latest incarnation of the company's development platform for building Web services atop its ESB. I've been playing with the beta, and it strikes me that all of the enhancements a

Managing input and knowing your users

I was in the Help Desk under a contracting company for the FDIC (and you can use their name) when they transitioned from Windows 95 to new Dell desktops running Windows XP. MANY of their users were utilizing desktop shortcuts to get to various applic

Spousal support on Outlook Web Access and IE7

&nbsp;I just had a problem after I updated my Spouse's machine to Vista Microsoft Knowledgebase article #911829 Just a heads up that as other work from home spouses start bugging you to upgrade their home computer in&nbsp;that there is a

Open Source Myths Hold Water

ACE, VDI and Other Dumb Ideas

Yesterday's announcement by VMware that version 2.0 of their ACE virtual machine management platform had entered beta accomplished several goals. First, it helped VMware to upgrade the buzz factor surrounding its VDI initiative. It also helped t

Test Center Tracker: Virtual desktop skepticism

No ACE up VMWare's sleeve Try as VMware might to push its VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) initiative through announcements such as its ACE virtual machine management platform, the company isn't impressing Enterprise Desktop blogger Ran

Burton Report Considers Limitations of BPEL

According to this article, those considering SOA may have some tough choices when it comes to driving code at the process layer. Indeed, a report by the Burton Group describes both the limitations of BPEL, and the advantages of WS-CDL. "Business

Leave it at the office

Management and parenting

If you Understand SOA, You’re Golden

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Carnival of Leadership

Tech 101 for startups

How a new breed of entrepreneur is tapping technology to succeed in nontech sectors "It's not the old guard in manufacturing anymore. Now there is a new guard" that understands technology and can digest the information and knowledge th