Stories by: Logan G. Harbaugh

Laptops used to be the only devices on the company's wireless network. But Wi-Fi has become a ubiquitous standard used by a host of devices -- including desktop PCs, laptops, netbooks, tablets, smartphones, printers, storage devices, and projectors.

There are so many different ways to communicate with partners, customers and co-workers--by phone, email, instant messaging, fax, video conferencing, and social media. Managing each system separately is not only inefficient, but can cause conflicts since they all use the same underlying technology--the Internet.

Telecommuting, which allows people to work together from different locations, offers a wealth of opportunities for small businesses, including cost savings and the ability to quickly add specialized temporary workers. Telepresence tools, such as video conferencing, make telecommuting possible.

A lot of coverage of IPv6 over the past few years gives the impression that you need to switch to IPv6 soon. That's not necessarily the case, though, especially for a consumer or a small business.

The thicket of federal, state, and industry-specific regulations is enormously complex. Most organizations fail to comply with some rules, often due to policy conflicts. The best way for companies to navigate the maze and avoid penalties is to show a "best effort" -- a serious, honest attempt to ensure that records are properly and securely archived in accordance with the best possible understanding of regulations.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 offer substantial performance and functionality enhancements over the previous editions, but support for non-Windows guests remains extremely limited.

Companies are finding themselves embroiled in a power crisis as they struggle to find ways to rein in soaring energy costs -- as well as do their part to address global climate change. However, how can you be certain that the power-saving strategies your company has adopted are, in fact, the best ones? After all, there are plenty of myths out there about saving energy that are patently false. In this report, we examine 10 such myths and bring the truth to light.

The Secure Computing IronMail E-Mail Gateway E2000 (v6.5.2) came in second in filtering performance, with 98 per cent of spam stopped, but placed eighth in false positives. The E2000 offers excellent capabilities in all other areas, with a wide range of secure content management features including scanning within attachments, policy-based rules for enforcing compliance, and pre-built rules for social security numbers, credit card numbers, and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, GLBA (Gramm-Leach Bliley), and HIPAA.

The BorderWare Security Platform (v7.1), running on the SP-800 appliance, had the worst false positive performance of any product tested, and by a large margin: nine critical false positives and 171 bulk false positives. Its filtering rate was 96 per cent of spam caught, an acceptable number but below the median. To reduce the false positives, you'll need to count on a training period of several weeks during which users inspect the quarantine carefully and whitelist the senders from whom they want to receive e-mail.

The Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway P840 (v5.0) had excellent overall anti-spam performance, third in filtering and fifth in false positives, with a fair number of bulk false positives, but more than 97 per cent of spam caught. And the feature set is extensive, including application-layer firewall features for the back-end mail server, policy-based encryption, and capable outbound content protection.