RSSReviews & Workshops
5 Basic Switch Settings You Must Know
January 30, 2012
There are five configurations a network administrator should apply to a newly provisioned switch or router. Although application of these configurations may seem like common sense, 90% of devices I see are missing at least one of these settings, and about 75% are missing two or more. Use this checklist as an action item to verify your existing devices have these settings, at minimum, and integrate these in to any templates or provisioning documents you use. You'll appreciate the results of the consistency this adds to your network management and monitoring.
Freeware Increases RJ Lee's Management Efficiency
January 20, 2012
Faced with rapid growth and increases in the amount and complexity of data and its IT operations, RJ Lee Group went looking for a way to simplify its computing infrastructure. The company selected Spiceworks as an alternative to adding staff or spending a lot of money on network and system management software.
Rapid Backup And Retrieval With Riverbed's Whitewater
November 28, 2011
Cloud storage brings cost effective offsite backup and retrieval capabilities to small and midsize businesses, but using cloud storage as an external disk is not as effective as it seems, particularly as the data set grows. It takes time to send and retrieve files to a cloud storage provider and often means using another set of tools to do so. Riverbed's Whitewater appliance makes the cloud storage appear as a backup target and balances the competing needs of speedy read/writes and long-term bulk storage. Using a combination of local file caching and deduplication with cloud storage replication, IT gets the best of both worlds.
BMC Treads Carefully Among The Giants
November 16, 2011
Since its founding in 1980, BMC Software has been successfully delivering management solutions to large enterprises. During that time, the vendor has been able to deftly maneuver around possible potholes to earn a top position in this highly competitive market sector. But more work remains. Like other high tech segments, the management segment is experiencing slowing growth.
The Challenge Of Making Business Intelligence And Analytics Work
October 27, 2011
Introducing "smart" systems and business analytics into an organization is an IT challenge. Historically, IT has supported online transaction processing for internal operations and customer-facing systems, and then used batch processing to wrap up all of the activities at the end of a processing period. But increasingly, businesses are beginning to incorporate smart systems that go beyond isolated enclaves of automation built into computers and networks and tap directly into the critical thinking behind mission-critical business processes.
IBM's Tivoli Tries To Change With The Times
October 17, 2011
In 1996, IBM purchased Tivoli Systems to bolster its systems and network management capabilities. Since then, the vendor has used acquisitions and internal development to create a comprehensive product line, garnered a significant following among large enterprises and emerged as a top-tier supplier. "IBM is IBM. It is a significant force in the network and systems management market," says Jean-Pierre Garbani, VP at Forrester Research.
Microsoft Systems Center: Poised for Takeoff?
September 14, 2011
When one talks network and systems management tools, four companies come to mind: BMC, CA, HP and IBM. Should a fifth, Microsoft, be included? "Microsoft certainly has gained a lot of ground in the management space and now has a large, well-entrenched customer base," notes Mary Johnston Turner, research VP, enterprise system management software, at IDC.
More Reviews & Workshops
- 21st Century Automation And What It Means
- In Search of Infrastructure Visibility
- OpenFlow And Network Value
- Data Center Diversity Drives IT Agendas
- Data Centers: Who's On First?
- Lots of Changes, But Top Storage Vendor Lineup To Remain Intact
- Cisco Faces Uphill Battle Selling Data Center Servers
- New Version Of Precise APM Helps Shipping Company Manage SAP Performance And Prepare For Virtualization
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Practical Introduction to Applied OpenFlow
Get a primer on the Openflow protocol and what it can do for networking.
On Resilience of Spit-Architecture Networks
This research papers investigates the practical issues in split-architecture networks and the placement of the controllers, such as Openflow controllers, in the network.
