Editorials

By John Dix

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Don't flush privacy in the name of security: 05/07/12; On the face of it, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that the U.S. House of Representatives just passed seems to address the long-held notion that encouraging private and public sector concerns to share security information will improve our general security.
A flurry of OpenFlow activity signals the arrival of this software-defined network tech: 04/23/12; Belief in OpenFlow-based software-defined networking is coalescing rapidly, the latest evidence being the overflow crowds at last week's Open Networking Summit in Santa Clara, Calif., and new details about a Cisco startup that has been formed to address the opportunity.
The UC tide: 04/09/12; Many companies haven't bothered to flesh out their unified communications strategies because 1) it can be hard to calculate ROI, and 2) the deployment effort is often daunting given so much custom work is required to piece together the various components that make up an integrated UC system.
Push your cloud supplier to participate in CSA STAR: 03/26/12; Security is a top concern for potential cloud users so the formation of the Cloud Security Alliance was welcome news when the organization emerged in 2009. And while many vendors have since joined CSA, precious few service providers have stepped up to take part in its Security, Trust and Assurance Registry.
SaaS seeds ready to bloom: 03/12/12; One expected benefit from the shift to the cloud is the emergence of a refreshing new crop of innovative software suppliers.
Cisco bounces back: 02/27/12; Cisco has been crowing about its rebound, and with good reason. What a difference a year makes.
Apple passes HP as largest tech company: 02/10/12; Ten years ago Apple posted revenue of $5.3 billion, a mere gnat compared to the IBM elephant which topped all tech companies with sales of $85.8 billion.
Out with SOPA, in with cloud: 01/23/12; Count us among the critics of SOPA and PIPA, the two ill-conceived bills that were intended to protect American firms against copyright infringement by foreign websites.
Bang for your IT buck: 01/09/12; By all accounts the economy is stronger now than it was 12 months ago, but it is also clear that companies are still moving cautiously, and for the bulk of IT that means continuing to do more with what you have, which is at least better than doing more with less.
Tower, tower, come in tower: 12/19/11; It is hard to put your finger on any one thing that sums up developments in the world of IT this year, but a speaker at one of Network World's recent IT Roadmap conferences had an interesting analogy that seems apt.
The water pump alarm: 12/01/11; If nothing else, the now disputed "hacking" of an Illinois water utility has brought the spotlight back to shine on the vulnerability of our national infrastructure.
Corralling complexity: 11/21/11; It has been referred to as Moore's Flaw: The IT complexity that results from the inexorable innovation driven by Moore's Law.
Assessing the APT threat: 11/07/11; Do security vendors secretly create the attacks their tools are designed to ward off? Of course not, but that old chestnut hints at a broader suspicion about whether the current state of security is really as bad as the security firms make it out to be, especially when it comes to the latest poster child: advanced persistent threats.
Nudging IT forward: 10/24/11; There is basic agreement on the nirvana vision for the next-generation data center, but the tricky part is getting there from here.
The OpenStack juggernaut: 10/10/11; The OpenStack collaborative industry effort to build an open source cloud platform is to be applauded for the remarkable gains it has achieved in a short amount of time. Founded by Rackspace Hosting and NASA in July last year, the organization is now backed by 120 companies, including the likes of HP, Dell, Intel and Cisco, and has already issued four major code releases, the last of which, Diablo, just came out last month and has already been downloaded 50,000 times.
Efforts to block AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile USA are at odds with our mobile demands: 09/12/11; Sprint last week filed suit against AT&T in an attempt to block that company's $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, a cause that looks good on paper but is at odds with consumer demand for improved mobile experiences.
Partnering with vendors: 08/22/11; Does the majority of your communications with suppliers revolve around problem resolution and sales presentations? If so, how do you get them to step up and improve service levels? How do you get them to work with you on innovation? How do you build a relationship that focuses their energies on your needs and benefits them in the process?
Data center surprises: 08/08/11; It isn't surprising that virtualization topped the list of technologies expected to have the biggest impact on data center investments over the next two years, according to a new Network World study, but the survey turned up some surprises as well.
Vacation, all we ever wanted: 07/18/11; Our esteemed editor-in-chief, John Dix, was on vacation this week, and that's a good thing. Not just because I get to take his place on this page, but because taking a vacation -- whether you're a regular employee or president of the company -- is a good idea.
Build a cloud service review board: 06/20/11; Like it or not, the arrival of cloud means IT isn't the only game in town anymore. It is increasingly easy for corporate denizens to simply bypass IT to get what they want. The deceit? They simply don't tell you about the services acquired.
Big questions about cyberwar: 06/06/11; The Pentagon is expected to announce a cyberstrategy this month that concludes a cyberattack on the U.S. can be an act of war, and while the damage from such an assault may warrant that position, hopefully this just amounts to loud barking given the perils involved.
No end to innovation: 05/23/11; The recent Interop show in Las Vegas was awash with big ideas and the latest and greatest technologies, a healthy sign that IT is alive and well and the industry is brimming with innovation.
Survey shows mixed emotions about outsourcing: 04/18/11; Cloud computing might ultimately usher in an era where more IT assets and functions live off premise, but one of the things that jumped out of a recent survey about outsourcing is there is still a lot of customer churn when it comes to relying on IT service suppliers.
The network is built in: 04/04/11; Cisco last week added more detail to its data center fabric story by rolling out a bevy of new products that provide extra touch points to use when comparing Cisco's strategy to the fabric plans of Juniper and Brocade.
The change imperative: 03/21/11; Some 400 of your peers gathered at Network World's IT Roadmap show in Chicago last week to discuss everything from cloud plans to iPad support, flat network options and Windows 7 migration.