Tick, tick, tick, tick. That sound you hear is the clock winding down on the life of the Windows XP operating system. As of today, you have less than two years left until Microsoft will no longer support the OS. Two years may sound like a long time, but if you haven’t even begun to consider migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7, the pressure is on.
Confusion Reigns On Cloud Storage, Backup
Enterprises once relied on a variety of physical storage devices, both on-site and off, to manage backups, everything from tapes, disks and DVDs to USB drives. Now the cloud is replacing these storage options, and providing additional functionality that not only enables users to back up data, but to share and collaborate. But while there are of plenty of cloud storage options available to business, there is lots to consider before selecting a provider.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
Brocade Broadens 16Gbps FC Portfolio
Brocade is broadening its line of 16 gigabits per second (Gbps) Fibre Channel switches with the introduction of the entry-level 24-port 6505 Switch, and identified IBM as its first OEM partner to deliver a 16Gbps Brocade switch as a component of the IBM Flex System x240. Finally, the network infrastructure vendor’s stand-up 16Gbps host bus adapters (HBAs) are now available for integration with IBM System x in rack and tower form factors.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
Windows Phone 8 ‘Apollo’ Should Be Windows RT
Microsoft has a lot going on in 2012 with a variety of major products and platform rollouts. Windows 8 and the accompanying Windows RT are expected to launch this fall, and many suspect that Microsoft will also introduce Windows Phone 8 around the same time. Instead of making Windows Phone 8 available, though, Microsoft should move its smartphones to Windows RT.
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Categories: General.
Windows 8 Enterprise: 6 Key Features For IT
Microsoft this week released new details about the upcoming versions of Windows 8. Unlike Windows 7, which had six variants, Windows 8 has only four: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 RT (for ARM tablets), and Windows 8 Enterprise. On Wednesday, the company published more information about the latter.
Windows 8 Enterprise, according to Microsoft, will contain a number of exclusive features for use in corporate IT environments. “Windows 8 Enterprise features all the capabilities that customers get with Windows 8 Pro … plus premium features designed to provide the mobile productivity, security, manageability, and virtualization needs of today’s businesses,” said Erwin Visser, senior director of Microsoft’s Windows group, in a blog post.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
Cisco Offers More SDN Strategy Hints
Despite months of rumors and speculation, the networking industry’s most powerful and influential vendor, Cisco Systems, is continuing to keep its plans for software-defined networking (SDN) largely to itself. In an exclusive interview with Network Computing during this week’s Open Networking Summit (ONS), Shashi Kiran, senior director of market management at Cisco, also an ONS member, says that OpenFlow and SDN are both so nascent that it should not be looked at as an either/or situation — OpenFlow or not OpenFlow — but as OpenFlow “and” other approaches.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
Why Windows 8 Enterprise Is the Right Version for Business
Microsoft has unveiled some of the unique features and capabilities of Windows 8 Enterprise. Windows 8 Enterprise was only mentioned as a sort of footnote when Microsoft shared what versions of Windows 8 will be available, but for business customers Windows 8 Enterprise is far superior to Windows 8 Pro.
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Categories: General.
Intel Small Business Advantage Manages PC Security and Performance
Intel is taking a more proactive approach to PC security and management with a new framework called Small Business Advantage (SBA). SBA is incorporated at the system level and provides IT admins and users with a one-stop portal for managing security and general system configuration.
SBA is integrated into certain newer systems built around Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors using Intel 2012 business chipsets, and may set those Intel systems apart from the competition for small businesses shopping for PCs. SBA provides a single portal to manage and monitor PC performance.
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SDN Implementations Proving Its Value
“SDN is ready to go,” says Kaoru Yano, chairman of the Japanese tech giant NEC to his audience at the Open Networking Summit in Silicon Valley this week. At a prior conference last fall on software-defined networking (SDN), many presenters spoke of the promise of SDN to bring the same type of virtualization to the network that has made server and storage IT resources more efficient. This time, some presenters such as Yano described actual implementation of SDN in production data centers. Although SDN has a long way to go before it’s anything approaching mainstream technology — and many cautions about it remain — it is making demonstrable progress.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.