Opinion

Introducing SQL Farm Combine

Some of you may remember at the end of last year I said I would be keeping my eye on a company called SQL Farms. Today I have my first update on their progress. They've got an editor that has tons of very rich functionality, but one of my favori

Tracking Application Performance Getting Trickier …

The goal of optimization – profit, or something else?

Dear Bob …You said (in your recent series on optimization in Keep the Joint Running) that there was not a single value to be specifically optimized. I have to disagree. Under this I would assume that the optimization would be for company profits. O

Web-based alternatives to PowerPoint

Online tools can deliver presentations that are just as rich, but a little less evil

Apple closes down OS X

Client kernel has gone proprietary, but it’s not too late to set things right

The evolution of office document standards

OpenDocument may be the Homo sapien to Microsoft Office's native-format Neanderthals

IT heroes — and villains — of 9/11

Getting financial services back online after the planes hit involved some unexpected hazards

Which MBA school to choose … and why

Dear Bob …Thank you so kindly for your response ("More MBA Advice," Advice Line, May 10, 2006). I was wondering if you had any advice as to whether the reputation of school really matters. I am comparing two programs. One is significantly

Zenprise spots Microsoft Exchange failures

Once Zenprise gets to know an enterprise's e-mail patterns, its knowledge base and adaptive analysis simplify mail server management

No love lost between Microsoft and OpenDocument

Third-party plug-in proves Microsoft's bad intentions toward the free document format

Splunk combs log files for hidden problems

Plumbing the depths of log files and other metadata, Splunk helps IT find the telltale patterns that reveal what's really going on

Jitterbit shakes up application integration

Do you really need a mile-high stack of middleware to integrate? Jitterbit thinks it can be a lot simpler than that

Determina pre-hacks applications against intruders

By drilling into applications, predicting what an attack would look like, and monitoring behavior, Determina's Memory Firewall provides a new line of defense

Upstart startups

Today’s agile enterprises are ready to bet on products from young companies

XenSource rolls out cross-platform virtualization

Xen, the open source alternative to VMware and Microsoft Virtualization Server, goes commercial

Fabric7 promises high-end servers at low cost

An array of inexpensive Opteron processors plus commodity virtualization underlie the new, muscular server architecture developed by Fabric7's innovative engineering team

Charting startup investment trends

Our examination of the venture fabric turns up some common threads — and some interesting possibilities for the near future

TrueDemand keeps retailers from running out of stock

Too much or too little inventory can kill a business. TrueDemand's heavy-duty analytics software keeps the supply of goods on track

Sxip simplifies identity management across domains

How do you reconcile user identities across organizational boundaries? Sxip wants you to use its appliance

Gigamon offers one view of many monitoring systems

Today's network uses a range of monitoring systems; Gigamon's switch manages traffic into and out of them

Fortify scours code for security vulnerabilities

Fortify offers a code-level line of defense against those who would attack enterprise Web applications to wreak havoc or reap ill-gotten gains

ActiveGrid speeds Web application development

An open source application development and deployment company delivers SOA-like capabilities in lightweight, agile form

JotSpot delivers enterprise wikis and mashups

Take the wiki concept a fathom deeper, and you'll find JotSpot's platform for enterprisewide collaboration

ConSentry locks down the network

With ConSentry's LANShield appliance, enterprises gain new control over network access without new switches or sluggish software solutions

Tech startups to watch

InfoWorld selects 15 startups whose technologies meet tough IT challenges and introduce intriguing new capabilities

Akimbi virtualizes the application test bench

With Akimbi's virtual environments, IT can test and deploy multiple configurations with far less overhead

Zimbra’s Web-based platform takes aim at conventional e-mail

Using AJAX, Zimbra delivers a surprisingly rich Web-based e-mail client, but its mail server and extensive integration capabilities are equally impressive

IT trouble often starts with inconsistency in process

Why Apprenticeships are Important

If you ever wonder why I get so discouraged at the state of knowledge transfer in the database field, this is why. There's a wonderful blog today that examplifies exactly what's wrong with how we learn things. If I were IBM, I'd track

Blasting away security myths

Rethinking conventional wisdom can be a smart way to bolster security

Coping in a world of IP-based telecom

Plus, will Microsoft’s ploy against Google for online ad revenue pay off?

Microsoft swoons, tech banker croons

Will the Feds ever learn how to use Google?

Thoughts on the SOA Article

I thought that Eric Knorr did a great job in herding the cats towards the "The SOA lifecycle" article in this week’s InfoWorld. I was a contributor to this special report, and really loved the end result. Best SOA article that's

Clustering the Microsoft way

If you have the need and the dough, Microsoft Compute Cluster 2003 is worth checking out

Storage vendors rewrite the rules of the game

Market competition ramps up as EMC and Dell, IBM and LSI Logic, and NetApp unveil new products

Homegrown Ultra40?

Due to the responses that I got from the Sun Ultra40 entry, I've undertaken a side project to replicate the same system with commodity parts and see what happens. So far, AMD has kicked in two Opteron 285 CPUs, Tyan has supplied a Thunder K8WE m

Systems and Network Dashboards Need to Get with the ‘Blink’ Principle

SOA Expert Podcast Show 37…AJAX and SOA Carcast

SOA Expert Podcast Show 37…AJAX and SOA Carcast Listen to the latest SOA Expert Podcast…

More MBA advice

Dear Bob …I would like to revert the topic of discussion to MBA specializations. I am planning on pursuing an MBA this fall and have no clue as to which area I would like to specialize in. Like a few of the people on this blog, I have a degree in e

A casting call for my screencasting experiment

Getting involved with screencasting could have benefits for InfoWorld's readers

Tech junkies don’t want to hear that choice is bad

No one in the tech industry benefits from maintaining the pretense of a level playing field

The Benefits of AJAX

The benefits of AJAX to the enterprise/SOA are clear, including: The ability to leverage the same interface technology no matter if you're dealing with local or remote sites or applications. What's key about AJAX is that many enterprises ca

Doing IT the Army way

Want to sell software to the military? Keep your head down and watch out for incoming fire

Gartner weighs in on the state of IT

My conversation with a Gartner fortune-teller reveals troubling times ahead

Database Apprenticeship

One thing that saddens me is that this country has lost the concept of apprenticeships. It used to be that whenever you wanted to learn a trade you would pick a professional who could teach you and you would become his apprentice. What does it really

AJAX and SOA…Where is the Link?

So, what does AJAX and SOA have in common? The answer: Everything. Is AJAX and enterprise technology? Absolutely. As we move to next generation enterprise architectures using newer notions such as service-oriented architecture (SOA), the need for a d

SOA domain analysis: All about data and services

SOA is all about using what you have — but discovering all the data and service resources already in place is a huge undertaking

SOA service design: Developing for the future

You can't separate service creation from the big picture, but start small and stick to standards if you want to scale

Planning an SOA: Gathering around the drawing board

Involve stakeholders from all over the enterprise, and with the right tools you can model a robust SOA foundation

New models, challenges for open source businesses

Companies like Greenplum aim to buck the status quo of enterprise software