From The Editor
By Jeff Caruso, Site Editor
- Interop's still got some kick
- This week's Interop in Las Vegas is proving why the trade show is still around after 25 years, with some early fireworks and new products that demonstrate just how vital the networking industry...
- Cisco rails against 'tactical, multi-vendor approach' to networks
- With Gartner in recent months arguing against single-vendor networks in general and Cisco's message in particular, Cisco today fired back.
In a live webcast, Cisco executives decried the "good...
- Crazy is as crazy does
- It was all too easy to laugh at the headline "Cell phones are 'Stalin's dream." But now who's laughing?
Free software advocate Richard Stallman raised eyebrows with that comment to Network World...
Read more posts
Motorola sues Apple; Facebook offers subgroups Listen now!
- Sony resuming PlayStation Network, Qriocity services
- Sony will begin a phased resumption of its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services on Sunday, more than three weeks after a cyber attack that resulted in the loss of personal information on more than 100 million customers.
... - iPhone 5 rumor roundup for week ending May 13
- Here are the top iPhone 5 rumors for the week ending Friday, May 13: iPhone 5 "Lite," reading the meaning of iPhone 5 parts, speaking of voice recognition, and Thunderbolt I/O on the iPhone as a sign of the Apocalypse. You heard it all here second.
- Is Sony getting a bad rap on its data breach?
- Sony didn't show up for last week's Capitol Hill hearing on its massive data breach, thought to have affected more than 100 million video gamers. But that didn't stop Representative Mary Bono Mack from laying into the company, along with Epsilon, a marketing company that experienced a similar breach just weeks before.
- Microsoft to talk cloud at Tech Ed
- Cloud computing will once again be a major theme for this year's Microsoft Tech Ed conference, according to the company. And attendees seem to be interested in finding out how the cloud can be used in conjunction with their own operations.
- Microsoft pairs Azure cloud with mobile devices
- Windows Azure Toolkits offered for Apple iOS and Windows Phone 7; Android up next
- Computer glitch forces U.S. to cancel visa lottery results
- A computer glitch at the U.S. Department of State means there's some bad news for thousands of people who thought they'd been selected in this year's green card visa lottery, which gives a select few a bump to the front of the immigration line.
- Appeals court throws out Rambus patent ruling
- An appeals court throws out a $397 million patent ruling in favor of Rambus.
- Zeus leaks give tools to researchers, attackers
- The source code and a manual for the Zeus crimeware framework have been leaked, allowing defenders a peak inside the infamous crime kit's infrastructure but perhaps giving attackers better ideas.
- LimeWire settlement unlikely to blunt music piracy
- LimeWire's agreement to pay $105 million to settle piracy claims is seen as a victory for the recording industry, but experts say it will do little to stop music piracy.
- After delays, Droid Charge to go on sale Saturday
- The Droid Charge smartphone from Verizon Wireless will go on sale Saturday morning, 16 days after it was first planned to hit store shelves.
- Cisco VoIP phones part of security weakness demo
- Cisco reaching out to AusCERT 2011 conference and speakers, Microsoft included in VoIP security weakness demo
- Netflix addition, "Ice Cream Sandwich" highlight busy week for Android
- Android news for the week ending May 14, 2011
... - Samsung now producing DDR 2.0 NAND flash, touts 3X performance gain
- Samsung has begun production of its 20-nanometer DDR 2.0 NAND flash chip technology, which offers twice the capacity over its current chip and vastly better performance.
- Trade judge rules against Apple's Kodak complaint
- One administrative law judge of the U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled that Kodak did not infringe Apple patents in its cameras, possibly setting the stage for dismissal of a complaint by Apple.
- Microsoft, Facebook could use Skype against Google
- Facebook may not have bought Skype, but the social networking company may still reap the benefits.
... - Microsoft explains recent hosted e-mail outages
- Microsoft offered some details about outages that have plagued its hosted e-mail customers in the Americas over the past week.
- Facebook Combats Spam, Clickjacking With Four New Features
- One day after Symantec uncovered an alleged privacy breach, Facebook released four new features to its security suite, unrelated to the discovery.
- Google Chromebook's auto-update scheme will be hard sell
- Consumers may love that Google's Chromebooks will automatically deliver security updates, but company administrators will resist it tooth and nail, experts said today.
- Wall Street Beat: Microsoft deal, Intel dividend buoy tech
- Though Cisco had disappointing earnings news this week, the Microsoft deal to buy Skype, an Intel dividend and solid financials from Symantec helped keep confidence in IT high.
- UPDATE: IBM courts Oracle database users with migration deal
- IBM is attempting to lure Oracle database and middleware customers to "move up" to its own software with a new series of enticements, the company announced Friday.
- Open source advocates angry at German gov't decision
- Open Source activists have hit out at the German government for its decision to abandon free software in favor of Microsoft.
- Interop: Cyberwar test runs yield information about defenses
- Cyber warfare strategy is getting so sophisticated that network attacks suitable for major assaults are being used instead as trial runs meant solely to probe enemies with the aim of figuring out what their defenses are, an audience at an Interop security talk was told.
- Offshoring: Preparing for India's Proposed Privacy Rules
- India's proposed data privacy regulations could create serious logistical problems for offshoring customers if passed. Offshore outsourcing attorneys and analysts explain how the data protection rules will impact customers.
- Humanaquarium blends art and tech, attracts crowds
- The creative lighting, strange sounds and odd look of the project attracted large crowds at the Computer Human Interaction conference. Called the Humanaquarium, the large plexiglass box housed two musicians whose performance could be controlled by audience interaction.
- Microsoft's Frenemies: The Necessity of Partnering Up
- Microsoft's partnerships with RIM, Nokia and Yahoo (and acquisition of Skype) underscore the need to form alliances against Google or Apple in certain markets.
- Enterprise note to Microsoft: Please make Skype easier to manage!
- Skype voice and video has tended to trigger IT security angst, and now that Microsoft has bought Skype, some observers are voicing hope that the service will be improved to help it be better managed in an enterprise setting.
... - Startup rolls out 40G data center switches at Interop
- Tucked way in the back corner of the exhibition floor in a tiny cubicle, Gnodal Limited, a startup data center switch vendor from Bristol, U.K., unveiled its initial Ethernet offerings at Interop 2011 this week.
- EU, US call for ICANN Internet governance reforms
- The United States and the European Union have agreed to work together to ensure that domain naming on the Internet remains in the hands of independent private-sector stakeholders, but have demanded reforms.
- Is OpenFlow a go?
- Interop 2011 could have been called The OpenFlow Show. Vendors were hawking OpenFlow switches and controllers, and a lab demonstration on the show floor displayed the traffic management technique and applicability among multivendor switches.
- LimeWire agrees to pay $105 million to record labels
- LimeWire settles a copyright infringement case brought by record labels.
- HP EliteBook 8460p vs. Lenovo ThinkPad L420
- Next to the latest ultrathin notebook, tablet or smartphone, mainstream corporate laptops may not seem particularly alluring or sexy, but they can be just as innovative and necessary -- especially for everyday business. Two of the newest and most interesting mainstream notebooks are HP's EliteBook 8460p and Lenovo's ThinkPad L420.
- Facebook, Twitter need corporate security policies
- Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter open threats to sensitive corporate data that businesses need to deal with aggressively, Interop attendees were told.
... - Microsoft, Nokia aim to nullify Apple trademark on App Store
- New partners Microsoft and Nokia have joined forces, hoping to invalidate Apple's trademark registration for the terms APP STORE and APPSTORE in Europe, according to a statement issued by Microsoft.
- MasterCard to help track emissions with new service
- MasterCard WorldWide on Thursday announced a program to help companies go green by capturing and analyzing travel related carbon emissions based on card transactions.
- Top 5 things to do before buying more security technology
- Las Vegas --Throwing more technology at security threats as they crop up is not the best way to go if the goal is to protect the most valuable data at the best price, attendees at Interop were told this week.
- Little new in Obama cybersecurity proposal
- A set of cybersecurity proposals, submitted to Congress on Thursday by the Obama Administration, contained little that was new or unexpected.
- Facebook-Google 'cold war' suddenly gets hot
- Facebook's surreptitious public relations campaign against Google shows how intense the competition has become between the two companies -- and what lengths Facebook will go to in the fight.
... - Alibaba transferred Alipay ownership without Yahoo approval
- Yahoo said that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group transferred ownership of its online payment service Alipay without its knowledge or approval, a sign of continuing tension between the two companies.
- New Intel tablets could slow iPad enterprise appeal
- Tablets based on Intel's first dedicated tablet processor may not be a monster hit among consumers like Apple's iPad, but they could find adoption in enterprises, analysts said this week.
- Rambus buying Cryptography Research for $342.5 million
- Rambus on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire security technology company Cryptography Research (CRI) for US$342.5 million in a cash and stock deal. The move could help the company address interest among chip makers to add security features on hardware.
- Adobe Flash update puts users in charge of privacy
- Adobe has released an important update to its Flash Player software that fixes critical security flaws and gives users a better way of controlling whether they are being tracked on the Web.
... - Joining the Unified Storage Crowd
- * Company: EMC
-
IT Value Is Dead. Long Live Business Value.
- Business outcomes from technology investments are all that really matter. The CIO's challenge is finding new ways to prove IT's worth.
- Is Your Domain Safe from Seizure for Copyright Infringement?
- A group questions the government's process for shutdowns, but corporate sites are likely protected under safe-harbor provisions
- Companies Explore Private Virtual Worlds
- Alternatives to Second Life provide security while boosting productivity
- The Motley Fool Uses Enterprise Search to Integrate Content
- The Motley Fool uses enterprise search for faster, simpler access to its content. But finding the right tool wasn't easy.
- 3 Ways to Get a Bigger Bang for Your IT Buck
- Getting the most value from IT investments is an art. Try these three techniques to cajole and nurture end users into exploiting new technologies fully, or change course when the business needs change.
- Facebook tightens log-in verification
- To help its hundreds of millions of users prevent unauthorized access to their accounts, Facebook has added an optional verification step to its log-in process.
- Report: DOJ investigates Google over drug ads
- The U.S. Department of Justice has been investigating Google for accepting ads for illegal online prescription-drug sales, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
- Vidyo's mobile videoconferencing app showcased on iPad 2
- You're staring at your iPad 2 screen, at what looks like four pictures of four coworkers quartering the display. And then one of them waves at you. And you wave back. And the videoconference starts.
- What We're Reading from the May 15 Issue of CIO Magazine
- The Power of Convergence
- Anonymous struggles with rift, PSN blame
- The fractured nature of the hactivism group reared its head this past weekend, as one operator seized control of the group's IRC network and a clue hinted at the possibility that another faction breached the Sony Playstation Network.
- Anonymous struggles with rift, PSN blame
- The fractured nature of the hactivism group reared its head this past weekend, as one operator seized control of the group's IRC network and a clue hinted at the possibility that another faction breached the Sony Playstation Network.
... - Numbers You Need to Know: Employees Take Tech to Work
- A Forrester survey shows a growing number of employees are using their own apps and devices to do their work more efficiently
- Unchecked usage can kill cost benefits of cloud services
- The touted cost savings associated with cloud services didn't pan out for Ernie Neuman, not because the savings weren't real, but because the use of the service got out of hand.
- Brocade's Klayko sees long path to cloud
- Brocade Communications remains a networking specialist in an industry where networks are becoming just part of a broader architecture for many vendors. A longtime market leader in Fibre Channel SANs (storage area networks), Brocade acquired Ethernet switch maker Foundry Networks in 2008 and now offers to tie together all elements of a data center or broader cloud infrastructure. CEO Michael Klayko has led Brocade since 2005. Last Tuesday, during an all-day press and analyst event at the company's headquarters in San Jose, California, he talked with IDG News Service about his company's own infrastructure and how it plans to keep up with bigger rivals.
- U.S. files lawsuit to stop Verifone's buy of Hypercom point-of-sale biz
- The U.S. Department of Justice today said it filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the proposed acquisition by VeriFone of Hypercom, saying the deal would substantially lessen competition in the point-of-sale (POS) market and bring higher prices and reduced innovation, quality, product variety and service.
- Outage hits hosted Exchange customers
- Delays hitting Microsoft's hosted e-mail service have been mitigated, the company said, following more than 100 posts on a forum about mail slowdowns and outages since Tuesday.
- Twitter updates Mac desktop client
- Twitter today updated its Mac desktop software, the first time the micro-blogging service has refreshed the program since it launched last January.
- Can Video Analytics Rev Up Marketing?
- Harley-Davidson Canada road tests a video analytics system to better target its marketing to customers in its stores
- Few Options for Managing Multiple Mobile Platforms
- Logistics company adopts containerization model, but is still searching for all-in-one solution
- How to Make Time for Your Professional Development
- Larry Bonfante, CIO of the United States Tennis Association, has 3 tips you should know
- White House delivers cybersecurity legislation
- The White House today sent its cybersecurity legislation to Capitol Hill, asking for changes in the law that will give the Dept. of Homeland Security more authority and duties in overseeing both private-sector and government networks. The White House is also asking for a national data-breach law that would supercede the patchwork of state data-breach laws now in place around the country.
- MS Office Alternatives: Many are Trying, Few are Buying
- When it comes to deploying Microsoft Office alternatives such as Google Apps, Zoho or Lotus Symphony, enterprise IT managers are in a state of intense curiosity but are still not ready for widespread adoption, according to a new Forrester research report entitled "Market Update: Office Productivity Alternatives."
- Caught! Facebook admits running anti-Google campaign
- Facebook has been caught hiring a well-known PR firm to plant anti-Google stories in the media.
- Google jumps gun, adds new Flash Player to Chrome
- Google today jumped the gun by updating its Chrome browser with a new version of Flash Player that Adobe won't release until later today.
- Google calls on graduates to promote Apps in their workplace
- Google is trying to recruit college students who used the company's Apps for Education suite in school to become evangelists for the business version of the product as they move on to the workplace.
... - New copyright bill targets ISPs, search engines
- A new bill would allow copyright owners to seek court orders requiring ISPs and search engines to block access to websites accused of infringing copyright.
- Microsoft shaking up CRM release cycle
- Microsoft is planning to increase the pace of releases for its Dynamics CRM (customer relationship management) software, according to a new "statement of direction" document from the vendor. The move may signal pressure Microsoft is feeling from rivals such as Salesforce.com, which updates its software several times a year.
... - As 'big data' grows, IT job roles, technology must change
- As companies look to keep every bit of data generated in-house and by customers for analytics as well as legal and regulatory compliance, the roles of those who manage it are changing as are the tools they use.
- Windows 7's malware infection rate climbs, XP's falls
- Data released today by Microsoft showed that Windows 7's malware infection rate climbed by more than 30% during the second half of 2010, even as the infection rate of the 10-year-old Windows XP fell by more than 20%.
-
How to End an IT Turf War
- Sports Authority's CIO put a stop to finger-pointing and backbiting
- BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat Behind the Firewall
- If you're attempting to employ RIM's brand new BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat application while connected to a corporate network, but keep experiencing connectivity issues, your problems could be related to blocked ports or port forwarding in your enterprise firewall.
- TeliaSonera CEO compares data roaming prices to stealing
- On Thursday, operator TeliaSonera's CEO raged against the current cost of surfing using smartphones and laptops via mobile networks when abroad, while reducing what the company charges for data roaming in the Nordic and Baltic countries by about 90 percent.
- FAQ: IPv6 for enterprise networks
- With the availability of IPv4 addresses drying up, enterprise IT managers know they need to move to IPv6, but the migration raises all sorts of questions. In this excerpt from the book 'IPv6 for Enterprise Networks,' the authors answer many of those questions.
- Typesafe aims to bring Scala development to enterprises
- Startup company's JVM-compatible Scala-based software stack is geared toward parallel and distributed computing environments
- Google Android, Apple iOS devices corralled by new device manager
- Android and iOS mobile devices now can be corralled by a Smith Micro device management application unveiled this week at the Interop show in Las Vegas. Client-side code makes even personally-owned devices visible to enterprise IT managers.
... - Market value of pirated software rises, BSA report says
- Booming PC use in developing countries has driven the market value of pirated software to record levels, an annual IDC study for the Business Software Alliance (BSA) industry lobby group has claimed.
- Mu Dynamics extends app testing to groups of apps
- Mu Dynamics has extended its application testing software to recreate the current mix of applications in production and then test these as a group to see how they affect the network and each other.
... - Citrix will stream Windows apps to Chrome OS laptops
- Can desktop virtualization make Chrome OS a full replacement for Windows?
... - Tata to beef up Singapore data centers
- Data center operator Tata Communications will invest S$440 million (US$357 million) in Singapore over the next four years to meet a fast-growing regional demand for data center capacity.
- Intel, partners push for cloud standards
- Intel and its partners in the Open Data Center Alliance are working to extend cloud computing so the technology can overcome criticism from Internet guru Vinton Cerf and others.
- 35 percent use mobile apps before getting out of bed
- Thirty-five percent of Android and iPhone owners in the U.S. use apps such as Facebook on their smartphone before even getting out of bed, according to a survey conducted by telecommunications equipment vendor Ericsson.
... - Cloud-based security as a service: It's catching on and here's why
- When technology manager Lincoln Cannon wants to give his company's employees and business partners controlled access to various internal resources or cloud-based services the company uses, he goes to one cloud-based single sign-on security service to assign access privileges.
- Huawei wins injunction against ZTE in Germany
- China's largest telecommunication equipment supplier, Huawei Technologies, has won a preliminary injunction prohibiting its hometown rival ZTE from using a Huawei trademark on USB broadband modems sold in Germany. The injunction is part of a larger legal battle over trademark and patent infringements the two companies are fighting in several countries.
- Visa's mobile payment plan 'most comprehensive to date'
- Visa's plan to launch a digital wallet system in the U.S. and Canada this fall is by far the most ambitious of any such initiative announced so far.
- Google 'Chromebook' focuses on enterprise push
- Google took another step toward the enterprise this week when executives unveiled the 'Chromebook,' a notebook PC that could boost both its new operating system and cloud-based apps.
- Via announces quad-core laptop processor
- Via Technologies announced a new quad-core x86 processor on Thursday, saying it is "the lowest power quad core processor on the market today."
- ARM not ready for Apple's MacBooks, analysts said
- Apple's possible move from Intel x86 chips to ARM processors for its MacBooks is feasible, but not practical over the next few years because of technical and performance issues, analysts said this week.
- China’s Sina benefits from surge in microblogging
- One of China’s largest microblogs reported Thursday that it added 40 million registered users in just two months, reflecting a surge in interest in Twitter-like microblog services in the country.
The Connected Enterprise
