Market Analysis: Is Outsourcing Right For You? By Bruce Boardman
Often, outsourcing day-to-day IT functions to a trusted partner can be a smart move. It can alleviate workloads and control costs. Is it right for all companies? No. Is it right for your data center? Find out.
Review: Outsourced Data Center Services By Bruce Boardman
We evaluated four RFI proposals on behalf of our fictional company, which was seeking a partner to manage its server infrastructure. Of the quartet, we gave high marks to the outsourcing provider with the best price and service guarantees and the most flexible, robust support.
Review: Wikis In The Enterprise By Ron Anderson
Wikis can help you develop an easy-to-use collaborative workspace. We tested four commercial wikis: one software-based, one appliance and two hosted solutions. One offering stood out from the rest, thanks to its pricing, security, extensibility and customizability. Find out which one got our high marks.
Affordable IT: Desktop Management Suites By Mike DeMaria
We evaluated five low-cost desktop management suites for small-to-midsized organizations. Our Editor's Choice Award went to the option with the best usability, patch management and tech support.
Workshops
Centerfold: Extreme Makeover: Virtual Building Edition By Kelly Jackson Higgins
Major commercial contractor Webcor Builders is paving the way to virtual building, the next generation of construction technology where every detail of a construction project is modeled and mapped out virtually before hitting the job site. But adding those heavy files meant major expansions to the company's WAN, SAN and e-mail archiving architectures.
Crash Course: Interior Routing Protocols By Sean Doherty
Picking the right interior routing protocol for your network is crucial for delivering your business applications end-to-end without undue costs or delays. There's certainly plenty to choose from, including RIPv1, OSPF and IS-IS, as well as Cisco's IGRP and EIGRP if you're mostly a Cisco shop. We discuss each protocol, as well as when to use which one.
Sneak Previews
Hosted CRM Face-Off By Lori MacVittie
SAP makes a strong, if limited, entry into the on-demand CRM market with a debut product focusing on sales force automation. Meanwhile, on-demand veteran Salesnet fine-tunes its offering.
NEC Solutions 2500 Storage Array By Howard Marks
The NEC S2500 can meet your needs by providing flexible storage options, including support for dynamic RAID sets and the ability to mix FC and SATA drives.
Geek Chic
Apple MacBook Pro By Glenn Fleishman
The MacBook Pro is clearly poised for the next generation of laptop use, with a faster architecture and more refined
details than previous models.
GoToMyPC Corporate 5.0 By Michael J. DeMaria
It's a useful tool for remote access, but the product could sharpen its multiuser support capabilities.
Departments
Last Mile: Blogging Boo-Boos By Andrew Conry-Murray and Tom LaSusa In this edition, we shudder at the "Top 11 things your employee should never have blogged about." Also, a Junior IT Pro Kit and 3D avatars for mobile phone conferencing.
Quick Takes: Eight-Socket Blade Server By Jennifer Zaino In this edition, we look at Fujitsu's eight-socket blade server powered by dual-core AMD Opteron processors. We also spotlight IBM's DB2 Data Warehouse Edition 9.1, NeoScale Systems' CryptoStor KeyVault and more.
Letters: Absentee Lists; Writing Praise By NWC Readers Jeremy Harrington asks, "Why should I waste time comparing a product's features with its competitors' if the company that produced it has as good as told the IT community it won't hold up?"
Columns
The Art Of IT: Ultimate Outsourcing Art Wittmann In all likelihood, computing services will eventually be delivered to business in a manner similar to financial services. Although you'll be keenly interested in the characteristics of the services, you won't care at all about how those services are delivered on the back end.
Air Time: Your TWE Pocket Field Guide Dave Molta Technical White Elephants, or TWEs, are the product of an ill-informed imagination that postulates a simple solution to a complex problem. Here's a field guide to help keep you out of trouble.
BuzzCuts
Fat Fingers From The Past By Lori MacVittie
We've all done it: fat-fingered a config and not caught it until packets started disappearing. But how many of us can say we missed a misconfiguration for nearly two years? We can!
We Know How Hard IT Is--Trust Me By Don MacVittie
It takes a certain mentality to work with technology. I have the mind-set, but about once a year there's a project that makes me strongly consider changing careers.
Red Hat's Virtual Road Map By Art Wittmann
Red Hat reveals that Enterprise Linux 5.0 will include fully integrated virtualization. But the impact of its virtualization road map will depend largely on the management facilities that Red Hat develops.
Buzz Bites: RFID Viruses Hit Airwaves By Andrew Conry-Murray
Researchers have created a proof-of-concept virus that propagates over IT. Just don't expect your local Wal-Mart's supply chain to disappear anytime soon. Also, find out what NWC readers say is the biggest hurdle to implementing VoIP.
REPORTS
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ANALYTICS Plan and design your enterprise blade server deployments
InformationWeek U.S. IT Salary Survey 2008
Salaries for business technology professionals are falling. Here's what you need to know in order to make good hiring decisions and personal career choices. Purchase Today: $299
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