Stories by: Trevor Clarke

Australian IT industry representatives have applauded the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) plans to introduce its first Energy Star rating for servers by the end of the year.

The introduction of carbon reporting obligations under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act 2007 from July 1 are expected to have little impact on the broad Australian business community, service providers claim. However, many are reporting a substantial increase of awareness of climate change issues among corporates.

Saying Australians love their sport is more than just a cliche. We all know that whatever the sport - league, union, AFL, football, cricket, netball, surfing - we'll play it or watch it and have done so for generations. And we will continue to do so for many to come; it's built into our genes.

If you're not doing virtualisation you're either thinking about it, planning to do it, piloting it or at least reading about it. If you're not, well you're not really into IT. For the last few years the technology has been searing its way into the minds of decision makers and spreading its virtual tentacles into assorted elements of the IT architecture.

If the Australian economy used to be carried on the sheep's back, it's now sailing a swelling commodities wave. Demand from vastly populous Asian countries like Japan, China and India for the things we grow on our farms, dig up from under the red-brown earth and extract from the depths of the sea has jammed traffic outside national ports as ships queue up to carry our commodities north. Coking coal, iron ore, thermal coal, nickel, copper, uranium, wheat, lead, you name it and we're probably shipping it in large numbers.

Australians have never really been an emotional bunch. But if some of our researchers get their way, we might just be showing our feelings at work with a little help from some innovative IT.

Head south along the coast from Sydney and, if all goes to plan, you'll arrive at Kiama about 90 minutes later. This coastal town is home to more than 20,000 residents and, although traditionally a rural district with a strong background in dairy farming and quarrying, it also has a burgeoning tourism industry and vibrant local economy.

Finance and Deregulation Minister, Lindsay Tanner, claimed that ICT spending was "completely uncoordinated, leading to serious inefficiencies and cost blowouts" under the Howard Government. Can you provide examples of areas identified as fitting this description?

A decline in global outsourcing megadeals reflects the move towards multi-sourcing IT services experienced in Australia, according to a new report from Gartner.

The grass is always greener on the other side. And in the datacentre neighbourhood - whichever fence you peek over - there are bound to be tracts of lush playing turf that appear more attractive than your own. That's why global IT vendors often ply the fence sitting art in intractable debates like managed versus internal datacentres.

Where do you see DataCore's position in the Australian virtualisation market?