July 7, 2004
How Gary Bloom pilots Veritas past utility titans
: Can this Switzerland of clustering solutions continue to prosper in an increasingly homogeneous IT environment? ...

July 7, 2004
Veritas CEO Gary Bloom Unplugged
Veritas CEO Gary Bloom has two pieces of advice for CIOs: One, make utility computing your top priority. Two, make Veritas -- a company with virtually no hardware or application software agenda -- your unbiased go-to company for computing infrastructure requirements. Bloom talked with ZDNet executive editor David Berlind just prior to announcing that his company would miss its quarterly earnings mark....

July 2, 2004
Why Microsoft's patch process needs patching
: In a bid to prevent more exploitations of the Windows vulnerability that enabled last month's Download.Ject attack, Microsoft has released a "configuration change" it wants Windows users to apply immediately. However, timing flaws and user interface issues with Microsoft's patch process reveal that the company's Trustworthy Computing Initiative needs a lot more attention to detail than it's getting. ...

July 1, 2004
Why Microsoft must fix flawed firewall
Neither Internet Explorer nor the best anti-virus defenses were well-prepared to do a thing about one of the keystroke loggers that dominated this week's tech headlines. Microsoft will be making a critical mistake if its new personal firewall included with Service Pack 2 to Windows doesn't have a facility for outbound blocking. Here's why your security could depend on it. ...

June 30, 2004
Dell to buyers: 'Beware the blade myth--at least until November'
Dell's message to corporate buyers: Based on current offerings, blades' promise of density and cost benefit-- when compared with 1U rack mountable servers--isn't all it's cracked up to be. If Dell enters the market with an offering that meets or beats its benchmark, it will send the entire blade market back to the drawing board....

June 29, 2004
RLX's Erwin: 'Why we'll stay a big blade player'
ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind recently sat down with Doug Erwin, chairman and CEO of RLX. ...

June 27, 2004
Sun execs at lovefest: 'Java's got game'
Faced with losses, layoffs, resignations, and unbelievably intense competition, Sun this year tapped its shrinking war chest, its brightest stars, even its soul to restore the luster that once graced this company. Sun's key theme at JavaOne, which starts today, is momentum. And the company's efforts do indeed appear to be paying off--from Java's progress on the handheld front to détente with superpowers IBM and Microsoft, Sun's back in the game. ...

June 24, 2004
Life in disorder? InfoSelect hits the right note
After years of battling chronic personal information disorganization disorder, David Berlind started to play with the TabletPC operating system--and even began to think that Microsoft's OneNote might be the cure I was so desperately seeking. But then he turned my organizational reins over to Micro Logic's InfoSelect. ...

June 23, 2004
Why click-and-drag IT may elude us
If David Berlind's project to mobilize and webify some data is any example, it looks to be quite a while before non-IT types can click and drag their way to the sort of IT that delivers serious competitive advantage. ...

June 16, 2004
Blade innovation slows but differentiators still exist
The blade server market has matured so quickly that the major vendors--IBM, HP, Dell, RLX--are finding little room for differentiation. In fact, so nuanced are innovations in the blade space that you have to read the fine print to understand where the innovations lie, who's ahead, and who's behind. Be on the lookout for how a little innovation can force a big change to your systems. ...

June 8, 2004
Cingular systems open door to fraudulent credit card transactions
A ZDNet reader alerts David Berlind to a rather astonishing flaw in Cingular's online account management system that allowed anyone supplied with a customer's cell phone number and zip code to look up that customer's basic account information. It gets worse. Until Cingular hurriedly tweaked its Web site, anyone could pay a customer's bill for them--with funds from that customer's own account....

June 8, 2004
Sun, Red Hat gird for traditional OS battle
With the GPL playing a much lesser role in the delivery of enterprise benefits, Red Hat Linux vs. Sun Solaris has all the makings of a fiercely fought battle of the operating systems. And now that criteria like price, performance, features and functionality have been added to the level playing field checklist, each company is claiming more timely response to customer needs....

June 6, 2004
Beehive politics flush out J2EE handicap vs. .Net
Open source contributions can just as easily disrupt the Java community as they can harmonize it, making it difficult for promising technologies to rise above the noise and FUD. With that sort of divisiveness, Microsoft doesn't have to worry about dividing and conquering. The Java community appears to be doing that to itself. ...

May 31, 2004
Spyware following spam into the enterprise
: Unwanted and surreptitiously installed software is no longer simply a consumer's headache. In addition to capturing sensitive information, spyware can reduce user productivity and slow corporate systems to a crawl. Freely downloadable anti-spyware utilities help, although paid versions offer the proactive protection most businesses ought to have. Think your business is already covered by anti-virus and firewall solutions and can afford to skip this expense? Think again. ...

May 21, 2004
One small step against spam. One giant step for Yahoo and Microsoft
: Yahoo and Microsoft each have put the interests of all Internet e-mail users ahead of their own by not only inventing techniques that could lay the necessary foundation for ending spam, but by making those techniques freely available to competitors. ...

May 17, 2004
Senforce puts 'Tupperware-like' seal on mobile data
One of the thorniest problems facing enterprises with increasingly mobile workforces is how to keep the sensitive data on their notebook computers from getting into the wrong hands. Senforce Technologies calls its Enterprise Mobile Security Manager a one-of-a-kind solution that uses centrally controlled group policies to manage notebook users' access to the various conduits through which sensitive data can be siphoned...

May 11, 2004
Firetide's wireless mesh goes where backhauls can't
In these days of Wi-Fi, the phrase "wireless" generally conjures up images of untethered client connectivity. However, wireless mesh is really nothing of the sort--this is primarily a new enabler for Ethernet deployments....

May 9, 2004
Put your apps to the test--or someone else will
Mercury Interactive's business technology optimization can test your systems and let you spot a catastrophe before it happens. This brand of BTO doesn't come cheap. But could these BTO systems be as mission critical as the systems driving your business? ...

May 5, 2004
Is Microsoft ready for the SP2 tightrope?
Nearly everyone concerned with IT security seems to agree that Microsoft's forthcoming Service Pack 2 for Windows XP may be the most significant component yet in the company's Trustworthy Computing initiative. Everyone but Microsoft, that is. ...

April 27, 2004
Why your personal firewall could be obsolete
With Microsoft poised to transform Windows XP's built-in personal firewall into a more serious security technology, now's a good time for enterprises to think more strategically before buying any more third-party personal firewall technology. But where's the outbound filtering? ...