Are you content with the way IT is viewed in your organization? If not, you need to study the work of Dr. George Westerman, a Research Scientist in MIT Sloan's Center for Digital Business (CDB), who suggests you rethink the metrics you measure and how you communicate IT's value.
Brocade swallowed Foundry Networks a few years ago and has been hard at work ever since marrying the best of Brocade's storage network assets with Foundry's high-end Ethernet network tech. The result, says CEO Michael Klayko, is an emerging product line that positions the company perfectly for the demands of the virtualized, cloud-ready data center, and perfectly to steal share from Cisco. IDG Enterprise Chief Content Officer John Gallant and Network World Editor in Chief John Dix caught up with Klayko at the swank new Brocade campus in San Jose to get the low down.
Roger Sessions, CTO of ObjectWatch and an expert in software architecture, argues that the increasing complexity of our IT systems will be our undoing. In fact, he just recently got a patent for a methodology that helps deal with complex IT systems. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up with Sessions to get his take on the extent of the problem and possible solutions.
It’s the season for looking forward to the year ahead and back to the previous one, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Spectrum magazine is in the middle of the fray with its annual issue of tech winners and losers. What makes Spectrum’s efforts worth noting is the nature of the organisation it serves: the IEEE is the world’s largest professional technology association.
Although there isn't much of an enterprise angle for WiMAX yet, the broadband wireless technology has gained a tremendous amount of momentum and will be busting out all over in the next few years.
Many speakers at the VoN (Voice on the Net) conference in Boston last month talked about what some call VoIP 2.0. If VoIP 1.0 was all about inexpensive calls, 2.0 is about integration and new applications, says Brad Garlinghouse, vice president of communications products at Yahoo.
1. As a percentage of overall capital spending, IT averages around 50%.
FRAMINGHAM (10/30/2003) - When you're shopping for wireless LAN (WLAN) switches, look for systems that offer integrated radio frequency management, centralized configuration and the ability to pinpoint rogue access points.
FRAMINGHAM (10/17/2003) - A fair criticism of the trade press is that we are fascinated with new technology and lose sight of the fact that you folks are mired in legacy molasses.
FRAMINGHAM (10/03/2003) - Sun Microsystems Inc.'s announcement last week that it will post a larger-than-expected loss in its fiscal first quarter is the latest evidence that Sun is trying to exorcise demons.
FRAMINGHAM (09/25/2003) - MCI's focus as it emerges from bankruptcy can be summed up in two letters: I and P. With one of the world's largest IP core networks, the technology figures prominently in everything MCI is doing, say Joseph Cook, senior vice president of network planning and engineering, and Jack Wimmer, vice president of network architecture and advanced technology.
The US Federal Communication Commission's recently issued order on local telecom competition is a reasonable step forward but might be undermined by the litigation it invariably will inspire.
Those of us in high tech tend to forget that the web is a different experience for the average Joe sitting behind a 56Kbit/s modem. The only time we suffer that indignation is when we're on the road, but even that is becoming less frequent now that hotels are adding Ethernet ports.
On paper, Hewlett-Packard's proposed acquisition of Compaq makes sense. Combining the companies would create a powerhouse with a nicely rationalised portfolio of products, from high-end, fault-tolerant systems and data center Unix boxes, down through PC-based servers and desktops. On Day One the company would be the top supplier of PCs and servers.