Security for virtual environments is a problem many shops haven't fully addressed.
But when you think about it, one hack can bring down a host of VMs -- not pretty.
McAfee has a
new
program
-- actually more of a service -- that audits the security of your
virtual infrastructure, including people and processes. Afterward, McAfee recommends
technology to protect your shop.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 03, 20080 comments
I am not a fan of Microsoft buying Yahoo. Yahoo has nothing that Microsoft hasn't
already built or bought, and is, in fact, a legacy Internet company.
Now, a New York Times wonk has what he calls a better idea: Redmond
should buy SAP.
I'm not entirely sure this guy's neural connections are working properly. Look
up "legacy" in the IT dictionary and SAP is the first definition.
SAP does have great technology and, after a long process of installation, has
helped many companies operate more efficiently, rationalize supply chains and
tie in partners. But is it the future? No.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on February 25, 20080 comments
Ask entrepreneurs and IT pros what's hot, and you won't hear much about browsers,
fat client OSes and Cat 5 cable. You
will
hear a lot about virtualization.
In fact, the vast majority of IT pros have
"a
strong interest in virtualization."
Still, only a minority in IT are
currently doing virtualization.
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Posted by Doug Barney on February 25, 20080 comments
When Microsoft is wrong, I'm not shy about telling the world. When it's right,
I'm the first to pat 'em on the back. In the case of the
new
class-action lawsuit
over Vista Ready logos for PCs, I'm patting and complaining
all at once.
Here's the rub. Dell, HP, IBM et al have been selling millions of PCs with
Vista Ready logos. Consumers complain that many of these units can't handle
higher-end revs of Vista, especially the Aero interface.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on February 25, 20080 comments
When I was a kid, I owned a wall hanging made by my grandfather that was inscribed
with an old English evening prayer -- including "If I should die before
I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my Soul to take."
I treasured it, but it also scared the bejeepers out of me. I wanted to wake
up.
Now, we have to worry about our computers either never waking up or waking
up hacked.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on February 25, 20080 comments
Last
month's Patch Tuesday
had less action than a Kate Hudson romantic comedy.
Tomorrow's, though, will be a
little
more intense
, with a dozen fixes expected for everything from Visual Basic
to IE and Office. Microsoft's most-loved client OS, XP, gets some tweaks, as
does the New Coke of software, Vista.
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Posted by Doug Barney on February 11, 20080 comments
How many Web sites or services have you signed up for, only to forget your user
name or password? Here's the problem: You try to register, but the user name
you want is taken, so you add a bunch of random numbers to the end of your name
(say, dbarney8256). And even though nothing special is happening on the site,
the security gods who run it demand a complex password (say dBarn&y8256H20).
More
Posted by Doug Barney on February 11, 20080 comments
Yahoo's board of directors this weekend
formally
rejected
Microsoft's takeover offer. The board apparently wants either more
dough or to hook up with a different partner, such as Google (which would raise
antitrust concerns) or AOL.
I'm no stock market whiz (and have the losses to prove it!), but as I understand
it, the Microsoft bid was a huge premium over Yahoo's existing share price.
And Microsoft offers the ailing Yahoo resources, market share and commitment
-- things Yahoo needs.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on February 11, 20080 comments
Do you remember the PowerPC processor? This little beauty drove everything from
late-model Amigas to Macs. After Apple ditched Power for Intel, it looked like
Power lost all its muscle.
But IBM is keeping the processor family very much alive, and uses it to drive
the world's fastest PCs to what IBM last year claimed was the world's fastest
server.
While IBM pushes its x86 Blade and traditional server lines, the company's
most interesting family just might be the Power-powered System p. Mostly aimed
at the high-end, there are two new System p's: the 520 and 550 Express. Added
to that is a new virtualization technology, PowerVM, that lets the System p
run a wider variety of software, including Linux apps built for x86 systems.
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Posted by Doug Barney on February 11, 20080 comments
If you listen to Wall Street,
paying
$44 billion for Yahoo
is the smartest idea since E=mc2. Google's stock is
down, and Yahoo is on the rise after Steve Ballmer's public pitch for the No.
2 search engine concern.
Let me toss some cold water on this little love-fest.
I don't see anything in the Yahoo portfolio that Microsoft doesn't already
have. It's kinda like Time magazine buying Newsweek, Coke buying
Pepsi or BP merging with Exxon -- just more of the same. Even worse, Yahoo
is on the decline (its market share and financials are more like Boo-Hoo
than Yahoo!).
More
Posted by Doug Barney on February 04, 20080 comments
Vista gets far more criticism for what it has than for what it doesn't. The
big complaints have to do with too many functions running up against too little
processing.
If you want Vista but not the overhead of Media Player and other features aimed
largely at consumers, then
vLite
is for you
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Posted by Doug Barney on February 04, 20080 comments
Every so often, a cartoonist sends me samples of IT humor hoping to get published.
In all cases, the work has been lamer than Barbaro's right leg.
There's a new contender for the IT cartoon Hall of Fame, this time sponsored
by Microsoft. The strip is called "HEROES
happen {here}." Not sure what that name is supposed to mean, but it
sure ain't funny.
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Posted by Doug Barney on February 04, 20080 comments