REVIEW: IRISCard Anywhere 4
REVIEW: Adobe Captivate 5
REVIEW: Buffalo TeraStation WSS
REVIEW: Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
REVIEW: Microsoft Office Web Apps
REVIEW: Intuit QuickBooks 2010 Premier
REVIEW: FileMaker Pro 11
REVIEW: Apple Mac Mini Server
REVIEW: Symantec Backup Exec 2010
REVIEW: Microsoft SharePoint 2010
Aug 27th, 2010
Today Is Power IT Down Day
To raise awareness of the impact of IT energy consumption, Friday August 27 is “Power IT Down Day“. The idea is this — turn off your laptops, desktops, monitors, printers, and anything you’re not using for the weekend. To do my own part, I have installed a TED monitoring device at my home in San [...]
Aug 4th, 2010
How Green Is My IT?
Going ‘green’ has become the new black, particularly in the IT industry. The spiraling cost of energy has meant that reducing the power consumption of your IT is more compelling than ever before. Up until a few years ago, electricity usage was not a major IT concern. In fact, the electricity costs for [...]
Aug 3rd, 2010
Internet Monitoring: How, What, Why?
Monitoring is a vast subject and it is often difficult to think about everything you can monitor; even worse is deciding what is worth the cost of being monitored and what can safely be ignored. To top it all off there are so many media that a company can monitor that it’s a huge [...]
Jul 23rd, 2010
Cloud Computing: How To Minimise Lock-In Risks
Virtualising servers, purchasing space in data centres and utilising applications hosted and managed by third parties can have some undeniable advantages: they can increase efficiency, decrease IT-related costs, allow greater mobility and also represent a greener alternative for organisations. But as the popularity of cloud computing grows, so do concerns regarding the unclear implications of [...]
Jun 11th, 2010
Police Web Site Attacked
It was with more than a little concern that I read about Monday’s attack on the Strathclyde Police website. Sadly, attacks on websites have become all too common, but what really grabbed my attention was the statement released by the Police which highlighted a level of naivety I did not expect from the police. As reported [...]
Jun 11th, 2010
What Should You Look For In A Hosting Provider?
Internet, IT and hosting can be a minefield of jargon. There are lots of new suppliers and services to think about, so over the next few paragraphs I will attempt to explain what the important considerations are. If you are thinking of setting up an office in the UK then listen carefully, some of the [...]
Mar 25th, 2010
Airset Organises Your Life With Cloud Computer Network
New service, www.airset.com, makes it easy for anyone to manage all the important groups in their life by setting up a network of servers in the cloud. Each user gets their own Personal Cloud Computer and can add Group Cloud Computers to their Cloud Network. Each cloud computer has an expandable hard disk, a rich suite [...]
Mar 23rd, 2010
Virtualising Network Security
The drive toward data centre virtualisation is raising important questions about network security. Which will be the operationally safer architecture – virtualised security with virtualised applications, or a hybrid model in which security is virtualised within its own cloud and physically separated from the applications? In order to maintain strong “trust boundaries,” Crossbeam recommends that network [...]
Mar 22nd, 2010
Virtualisation: Doing More With Much Less
The current economic environment is challenging for any company – managing cash flow, profitability and customer requirements in a sea of change can test even the most experienced corporate manager. The same conditions are amplified for small and medium businesses that are expected to compete with large enterprises for the same pool of customers using a [...]
Mar 9th, 2010
Survey Reveals Increased Downtime Risk, Suggesting Ultra-High Availability’s Time Has Come
Whilst this week’s RSA conference claims security is the thorn in cloud computing’s side, a recent Stratus Technologies and ITIC survey of 650 IT professionals in 18 countries underscores how the cloud is increasing the need for highly available server platforms. Whilst, according to Microsoft’s Scott Charney “There’s no such thing as [...]
Feb 26th, 2010
Super Computers: Too Big To Fail?
“Just beware the shiny new servers with outrageous resources. You may ultimately create a monster that is literally too big to fail,” concludes Mark Vaughn in his recent column High-performance computers: Too much of a good thing? in SearchServerVitualization . This article was music to my ears. Mark Vaughn has got it spot on when [...]
Feb 18th, 2010
BLADE Network Technologies Unveils Its Unified FabricArchitecture To Address Rapidly Growing Data Centre Requirements
BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. (BLADE), the trusted leader in data centre networking, today introduced its Unified FabricArchitecture (UFA) the industry’s fastest, smartest, most integrable and most proven fabric that will eliminate cost and complexity of deploying physical and virtual data centre infrastructure. BLADE posted record results in 2009 and expects even stronger performance in 2010 [...]
Jan 22nd, 2010
Publishers – How To Avoid The Top Online Advertising Mistakes (Plus Cool Alternatives To Google AdWords)
Everyone knows that Google AdSense is the current leader in content-sensitive Web-based marketing. Online publishers simply can place Google AdSense JavaScript code on their Web pages and their ready to go – Google’s servers then show context-sensitive advertisements (Google AdWords). However, Google’s terms and conditions are a pain in the derriere – excluding many Web publishers [...]
Jan 21st, 2010
‘Spongeface’ Koobface Variant Uses Spongebob As A Tease
A new variant of the Koobface social networking worm is sending social networkers links that lead to fake videos supposedly posted by the beloved cartoon antihero Spongebob Squarepants. The fake videos only display a popup message labeled “Adobe Flash Player Update” that says “This content requires Adobe Flash Player 10.37. Would you like to install it [...]
Jan 19th, 2010
10 Tips For Recovering After A Disaster
Despite all the precautions you have taken, a disaster has occurred, affecting the business significantly. Whether it is a catastrophic event like a fire, a JCB has taken out your main communications line, or the server hosting your company’s business critical application has given up the ghost, what do you do? Here is a ten [...]
