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IT Weekly Roundup, April 7

From the business wires this week: a NFS server, network and computer monitoring tools, an asset discovery solution, and more.

Hummingbird Ltd. announced the availability of Hummingbird NFS Maestro Server 2006 Enterprise Edition. The Network File System (NFS) v4 server supports an unlimited number of enterprise users in Windows Server 2003 environments. http://www.hummingbird.com

Brocade Communications Systems Inc.'s Tapestry Wide Area File Services (WAFS) is now integrated to support Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, the company announced this week. http://www.brocade.com

emBoot Inc. released Tuesday winBoot/i, software which uses Microsoft's iSCSI Software Enabled SAN boot architecture to boot Microsoft Windows Server 2003 from iSCSI SAN using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator. http://www.emboot.com

Ericom Software released the latest version of its flagship product, PowerTerm WebConnect 5.5. The Server Based Computing (SBC) solution provides secure, centrally managed local and remote access to applications residing on Windows Terminal Servers and legacy systems, from both Windows and Linux clients. http://www.ericom.com

XRatel Software released version 3.5 of its network and computer monitoring software products. XR SNMP Tools is a real-time network monitoring and performance analysis solution for WAN and LAN networks. XR PerfMon Tools provides analysis of the performance and resources of Microsoft Windows servers and workstations. Both products are based on client-server architecture, and the communication through OPC protocol (available in some versions) allows integration with ERP, PIMS or SCADA systems. http://www.xratel.com

Insightix released Enterprise Collector 2.0, the latest version of the company's IT asset discovery tool. The agentless network discovery and monitoring application now includes an automatic signature generator that allows users to add unique signatures to devices. http://www.insightix.com

One for me, one for you...
[Click on image for larger view.]
Keep track of all your organization's networked IT assets with Insightix's Enterprise Collector 2.0.

One of the biggest news in IT this week has to be Apple's stunning revelation that it will support Microsoft Windows XP on its new line of Intel-based Macs with software called Boot Camp, which is currently in beta. The announcement follows a privately sponsored contest in which two programmers hacked a Mac to run XP. The question remains just how popular this feature will be with most Mac users, who have traditionally despised Windows for its frequent crashing and lack of user-friendliness.

Following a handful of bad news about product delays, including Vista and Office, Microsoft announced an equal number of good news. For starters, it will now offer Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition for free as well as plug-ins to run Linux on it, no doubt to compete with VMware's popular free VMware Server and Player products.

Microsoft is also shipping Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, its dedicated file and print server, and will begin beta testing of Speech Server 2007 in May, with a final release by year's end.

And for admins or gamers who require mice with pinpoint accuracy, Microsoft is releasing in June a new wireless optical desktop mouse that provides a resolution of 1,000 dots per inch and a rate of 6,000 frames-per-second. The company is also releasing a new wireless ambidextrous laser mouse later this month.

About the Author

Dan Hong is the associate Web editor of MCPmag.com, CertCities.com, TCPmag.com, Redmondmag.com and RCPmag.com.

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