Data Center

Wed, October 28, 2009 - Travel booking and expense firm Concur Technologies uses virtualization and an infrastructure-as-a-service model to slash costs and deployment times for internal business groups. Bonus benefit: Improved compliance tracking.

Tue, October 27, 2009 - Seventh Annual Global Information Security Survey: Companies are clamoring for services in the cloud. But the biggest problem from a security perspective is that few understand what they're dealing with. (Second of a four-part series)

Thu, October 15, 2009 - When the data center neared its failure point, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory embarked on a project to revamp facilities without breaking the budget. Consider these practical lessons from the edge of failure.

Thu, October 15, 2009 - Did you think all those legacy apps would just float up into someone else's cloud infrastructure? Management, licensing and migration concerns highlight the list of troubles that vendors are now trying to address.

Fri, October 09, 2009 - The IT manager for the State of Vermont saved money and improved security by moving to a "lights out" data center, where doors are locked for the graveyard shift and weekends. Here's a look at the project and five key lessons he's learned to date.

Fri, September 18, 2009 - Large financial services companies like Bank of America are scouring colleges and universities in search of skills needed to run the mainframe systems that are still widely used at their firms.

Wed, September 09, 2009 - The push is on for companies to go green, and IT professionals will likely feel the pressure to deliver. Although most ITers don't have specialized eco-skills, there are ways to develop this knowledge, and to parlay what you already know.

Thu, September 03, 2009 - Business continuity planners in tornado alley have much in common with those in hurricane areas -- but also key differences. Tornadoes have smaller funnels, but can appear in groups, may feature dramatically higher winds, and can strike with far less warning than a major hurricane typically provides. Good BC/DR planning must take those differences into account in everything from employee and facility safety to network uptime.

Tue, August 25, 2009 - The software titan reviewed its security approach to cloud computing and developed new strategies. Here's what one Microsoft cloud expert says he's learned.

Tue, August 11, 2009 - As they say, everything old is new again. The emergence of virtualization as a widely accepted computing platform has moved us that much closer to the age-old concept of centralized server-based computing that originated with the first mainframes in the 1970s. Although server virtualization has gained a sizable foothold in the Intel-based server market, the desktop market has not seen such advances. There are many reasons for this, including technology limitations that are only now being worked out, but a key one is the hostility to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) by Microsoft, as expressed in its Windows software license restrictions.