Stories by: Robert L. Mitchell

Faced with the continued commoditization of servers, IT vendors this year will try to differentiate their offerings by moving toward more highly integrated, unified compute platforms.

OK, you've virtualized as much as you can. Now what? Consolidating physical servers through virtualization doesn't address underlying complexities because it doesn't reduce the total number of servers you're managing. Here are three tips for taking it to the next level.

The recession may have forced Media General Inc. to scale back its grand plans for server virtualization in 2009, but like many other businesses, the communications company is planning a major push to make up lost ground this year.

Here's the scenario: Attackers compromise a major brand's Web site. But instead of stealing customer records, the attacker installs malware that infects the computers of thousands of visitors to the site. The issue goes unnoticed until it's exposed publicly.

It's hard to understand who in their right mind would want to incur the wrath of "Triple H," the intimidating superstar of professional wrestling. But when a poser created a fraudulent MySpace account in Triple H's name, it wasn't the wrestler that the perpetrator had to contend with.

Twitter's popularity may have exploded over the past year, but its feature set continues to evolve at a seemingly glacial pace. New users quickly realize that they need to shop around in the Twitter developer ecosystem for add-on software and Web-based services that fill in missing features and address the annoyances that the microblogging service's deficiencies present.

As Hurricane Ike bore down on Houston one Friday last September, the Continental Airlines' flight operations center, located on the 14th floor of a glass-sided downtown high rise, suddenly went dark. For the airline's pilots and flight crews, however, business proceeded as usual.

With the founding of ESRI 40 years ago, Jack Dangermond pioneered the business of geographic information systems (GIS). He shares his perspective on how the Web has democratized access to geographic information, and how mashups between GIS and traditional information systems are transforming the way companies view and analyze business data.

"Google knows more about you than your mother."

Some aren't defined enough, and some may never be