Last week the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Apple and five publishers for alleged price fixing of ebooks. Apple fired back, claiming that it’s the hero in this equation, not the villain–just doing its part to break the monopoly hold Amazon held over the publishing industry. As an author, and a consumer of ebooks, I take exception to Apple’s claim.
SpiderOak Secures Enterprise Cloud Storage
SpiderOak is jumping from the consumer cloud storage market into the corporate space with two cloud offerings for small-to-medium businesses and large enterprises. Security is based on what it calls “zero knowledge” privacy protection, in which the data is encrypted but the customer controls the encryption keys, not the vendor.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
Microsoft UE-V Takes Virtualization to the Next Level
Microsoft announced some new tools today for MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack) customers. Beta versions are now available of an updated App-V 5.0 (Application Virtualization), and a new tool that takes virtualization beyond the desktop, and beyond applications–User Experience Virtualization (UE-V).
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Categories: General.
AOL Patents: What’s in It for Microsoft?
AOL announced that it has closed a deal to sell more than 800 patents to Microsoft. The deal is just north of a billion dollars, and it’s easy to see why AOL might want to cash in on the intellectual property. What is less clear is why Microsoft is interested in the patent portfolio, or what Microsoft gains from the deal.
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Categories: General.
IBM Serves Up New Datacenter Architecture
IBM has introduced what it considers a new category of servers, a family of “expert integrated systems” called PureSystems. The company says PureSystems go beyond the various converged infrastructure or unified system approaches of its peers by adding a new middleware layer that aims to automate both infrastructure and applications, offering workflows from IBM itself, from its third-party partners, and offering IT the ability to define its own workflows.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
If I Were King Of The Wireless Jungle
Given the number of players involved across all of today’s wireless and networking spaces, it is pretty amazing that our mobile connectivity is as good as it is. Regardless of what 802.11 standard you connect with, or what carrier facilitates your mobile data, the wireless world of today is generally impressive. But it could be better. If Wireless World were mine to run, here’s what I’d change. (Cue the day dream sound effects and wavy fading video.)
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
WAN Optimization Helps Networks ‘Evolve’
Networks are asked to do a lot these days–from moving video and voice to connecting mobile devices to delivering applications through a browser–but the basic architecture of a WAN hasn’t changed much over time, says analyst Zeus Kerravala. Enter WAN optimization, whose goal is to improve performance to deliver apps from the cloud that look as good and perform as if they were natively installed on the endpoint device.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
ODCA Releases 5 Cloud Computing Usage Models
In an effort to address some of the most pressing cloud computing challenges and requirements its members have identified, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) has released five new usage models, which are available for download now.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
Why Switching OS Platforms Is Not a Security Fix
It has been a rallying cry against Microsoft Windows for years: to avoid malware and security issues, just stop using Windows. The mantra has traditionally been embraced by both Mac and Linux users, but as Mac OS X users deal with the fallout from the Flashback malware attack, some Linux supporters are turning the tired attack even against the Apple OS.
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Categories: General.
Hands-On: CoyotePoint Brings Next-Generation Networking to Life with Innovative Appliances
When it comes to WAN optimization and application acceleration solutions, big name vendors such as F5 Networks, Riverbed BlueCoat and Barracuda normally get all the press. After all, squeezing maximum performance out of a WAN and its associated applications has quickly become job No. 1 for most network managers. However, smaller vendors are striving to one-up the big names with new connectivity methodologies and technical advancements. Case in point is CoyotePoint.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.